How to use Affiliate Marketing on Twitter for Traffic
Even though I’m celebrating Thanksgiving here in the US, I have already prepared today’s Traffic Tactic Thursday article post ahead of time. Today I cover Affiliate Marketing on Twitter for Traffic.
Why Twitter?
Twitter is a popular and really great place for affiliates to do some social networking. Why? Because Twitter doesn’t require a ton of time for you to learn or master – or put into use on a day-to-day basis.
With a challenge to convey a message with just 140 characters (not words) per tweet (post or message), there’s not much room for you to do it.
Twitter is still powerful and used by people of all ages, all around the world. While Pinterest is primarily popular with women, Twitter is used by both men and women. Also because Twitter has been around for awhile, it’s not a fly-by-night social network site.
How should I setup my Twitter account?
To use Twitter more effectively, decide on the identity of where the tweets will be coming from. Do you want your account to be from a person (like your name), or from a brand you created for your affiliate marketing business, like “The Smart Affiliate?” (@begin_affiliate)
In my case, I have utilized both (since you are allowed more than one account on Twitter). However when deciding upon the Twitter name, you want to base it on how you plan to promote on Twitter.
Creating a Twitter account
When you create an account with Twitter, you can customize your profile by changing the background, header, and profile photo or avatar. Too many affiliates register for a Twitter account and then make the mistake of leaving the pathetic egg image as their avatar.
Not only is that being non-professional, it’s just outright crazy when it so simple to do. In fact, I personally will not follow someone back if they just have the egg avatar (that includes all 10 of my Twitter accounts). FYI, neither will many of the Twitter users whom I know. Without followers, no one sees your tweets!
Your avatar image and header
You can either buy an avatar image to use, like the ones available at depositphotos.com, or use an original image you own and change your profile picture that represents you or your niche.
Even though the header and background aren’t as important as the avatar, you can do some serious branding using that space. If you are not good at doing it yourself, then you can often find a graphic designer on Fiverr to help you achieve that goal of getting your URL exposed on this space.
It is important to include a URL link to your site (or primary affiliate offer) under your profile. Also under the avatar, you are given a certain amount of space to write a little motto or bio about yourself in the Bio area (maximum 160 characters).
You will want to do this and make the bio relevant to your niche. And you can include your website URL there, as well! So other people can follow to your offers.
How often should I be on Twitter?
Become a daily, but not spammy Twitter user. You want to use your Twitter account to supplement your social marketing efforts, but you don’t want to choke-up anyone’s Twitter stream with endless promotions.
You might be tempted to buy tools that automate the process. And that’s okay if you’re sharing your latest blog posts. But it’s better to keep control over your account manually checking it several times a day for a few minutes at a time. This assures that you will make better connections with your followers.
Retweets
Return the kindnesses other Twitter users show you. Others may “retweet” your Twitter messages for you when they feel there’s something they would like to share. This can help your tweet links to go viral and will increase your chance of making a commission.
When this happens, be sure you return the kindness for those people, especially if they’re also marketers so that you’re not appearing to be selfish online. But at the same time, don’t “retweet” anything you find to be shady either.
Following Others
Find people to follow who are interested in your niche. You want to follow those people who have talked about the niche you’re involved with on Twitter. You can start by doing a search on Twitter using the main keywords and hashtag (#affiliate) to find out who’s chatting about it.
When you follow others, they will often follow you back, engage with you and “retweet” your messages to their followers!
Final Thoughts
Many marketers miss opportunities for more targeted traffic by ignoring Twitter, often because they are doing it wrong. When you just post nothing but your affiliate links will cause others who are followers to ignore your tweets. You have to engage your Twitter followers to be successful.
If you found this article to be useful, please share it with your favorite social network. And as always, I encourage you to leave a comment, observation, story, or question about today’s topic below! 🙂
