Having great social media management in place is absolute must for any company with an online presence in this day and age. Have a really comprehensive and proactive strategy for leveraging social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook is vital to keeping up with your competitors. There are many good reason to have excellent social media managers in place including:
- Posting frequent, valuable content to your followers and fans
- Increased interaction with customers and visitors
- Capturing more site visitors and facilitating interactions
- Providing better, faster customer service
- Generating more search traffic from your social media postings
- Conducting surveys and generating valuable feedback from your customers and followers

There are many other excellent benefits to have social media managers in place. Don’t settle for less than decent social media management. Your social managers should be extremely proactive, responsive, and engaging in order to do it truly effectively. Make sure to check out Experience Advertising for your best social media management solution.

I wanted to let you all know about Experience Advertising’s new affiliate management client: pingg.com.

Just in time for the holidays, this service allows you to send ad-free
custom designed / branded eCards to your customers, suppliers etc… it also includes a branded eCard web site where you can post interactive content like photos and videos, and integrate your twitter stream etc…it’s really freakin cool. You should check it out.

I know a few people traditionally find eCards cheesy, but this is done *right*! Save a few trees, time and money, and check it out here.

Their affiliate program is available through the CJ affiliate network: https://signup.cj.com/member/brandedPublisherSignUp.do?air_refmerchantid=2838046

Thank you,
Evan

These days, it seems like everyone’s either talking about how social media is the next big thing in affiliate marketing, or they’re talking about how social media just doesn’t work for traditional affiliate promotions. As a result, most of us have probably given it a try at some point. Maybe we throw together a couple of Squidoo lenses, maybe we dabble at Yahoo! Answers, or maybe we submit a few things to Digg and see if anything sticks. Regardless, most of us don’t have a clear plan and we’re not giving much thought to how social media might be different from normal ad-driven traffic.

First off, let me say this – you definitely can get affiliate sales by brute force on social media. If you blindly spam enough people and get them to your landing page, someone is bound to buy. To succeed without getting yourself banned on a daily basis, though, you’ll need a different strategy.

Frequently, you’ll hear guys like Gary Vaynerchuk and Chris Brogan talking about how the key to social media success is building relationships and fostering trust. That’s great for them, and there’s certainly nothing wrong with that strategy.

The problem with relationship building is that it’s very time consuming. Those guys are heavily invested in a single area of expertise, so it makes a lot of sense for them to go all out with relationship building. What if you want to drive leads to a health insurance offer, though? Do you really want to spend months or years getting to know people and convincing them that you’re an expert? Do people even want to build relationships with an “insurance shopping expert”?

Luckily, there is another way to do things. Let’s take a moment to think about the typical mindset of someone visiting a social media site. Most of the time, they’re focused on either entertainment or getting some kind of specific information. Although people know that ads are a “necessary evil”, they generally don’t take kindly to blatantly commercial messages intruding on the areas of sites that are perceived as being ad-free (namely, in the user-generated portions of the content).

If someone is looking for tips on losing weight, they don’t want to see an shallow answer that refers them to a landing page for acai berry supplements. If they see a link labeled “The Best Way to Lower Your Auto Insurance”, they don’t want to be directed to a page for insurance quotes. If you take that approach, your accounts are going to get flagged, your content will get thumbed down or buried, and you’re probably going to spend more time trying to make sure your contributions stay up than doing anything else.

None of that means that it’s impossible to submit advertisements to social media and get the support of the community, though. What you need to do is find a way to make your message valuable to the user while still maintaining the commercial thrust. A couple of examples that you can run with or build on today:

Auto Insurance - Instead of sending users to an auto insurance landing page, make a list of auto insurance companies you work with and then do a little research about each one. Which states do they work with? What kinds of discounts do they offer? Who offers online bill-pay? Write it up as a one-page guide and then insert your affiliate link beside each company.

If you use promote insurance quote services, do the same kind of thing. Call them up and find out who they offer quotes for, what kind of privacy protection is in place, how long they’ve been in business, etc. You’re delivering real value and you’re going to be much more likely to gain the trust of your users this way.

Weight Loss Supplements – Yes, there are honest ways to promote them. Skip the flogs and instead try piecing together a brief 3 or 4 week action plan that your visitors could use. Make sure it combines exercise and healthy meals along with the supplement you hope to promote, and be sure to make it clear that you’re just a fitness enthusiast – not a doctor, trainer, or nutritionist. Sure, not many people are likely to follow through with your plan – but that doesn’t mean they won’t like the idea of taking the supplement to boost their usual regimen of Diet Coke, Doritos, and couch-warming.

Dating – Pick your niche and then thoroughly investigate the alternatives. Instead of pretending to be a real girl or just pushing users to the landing page, try creating a page that talks seriously about the benefits. I’m not saying you should make a review page – in fact, it’s best not to pass judgment unless it’s to say which ones are best for different types of people. Talk about privacy options, the number of people in different age groups, and the overall feel of the site. Is one better for older daters while another caters to the college and early 20-something crowd?

You could also take the approach of making a quiz that determines which dating site is best for you based on your personality. That way, it’s not only fun but it has some viral potential when people post the results to their profiles, too.

Basically, the idea here is to create the kind of page you’d want to browse. You don’t have to fill a site with 80 articles to add value when it comes to social media – a single page that fills someone’s need will do the trick.

The Murray Newlands Fan Page is a resource for affiliate marketing and social media innovation, as well as a great place to find other people who are doing just what you are- growing an online presence. Beginning this week is the End of Summer, Murray Newlands Facebook Fan Page Competition.
By becoming a Fan at the Murray Newlands Fan Page you will have access to great affiliate and social media information- The MurrayNewlands.com blog, the @MurrayNewlands twitter feed, conference recaps and photos and other resources.

But what about the competition? It’s a way to have fun and grow the community! The two best things about Facebook in the first place. (And you can win $100!)
With that, here is how you enter the End of Summer Murray Newlands Facebook Fan Page Competition.
What: End of Summer, Murray Newlands Facebook Fan Page Competition
Who: You
Where: MurrayNewlands Facebook Fan Page
Why: For that one last bit of creativity at the end of summer! (and to win $100)
How: To with the $100 prize, show how creative you can be at recruiting people to the Murray Newlands Fan Page!

Here is how you enter the Facebook Competition :
1. Become a Fan of the MurrayNewlands Facebook Fan Page and invite ALL your Facebook friends to join.
2. Tweet this message: “I signed up for the @MurrayNewlands Facebook Comp – $100 prize! Sign up @ http://tr.im/wGym Plz RT”
3. Post it to your Facebook Wall.
So how do you win the Facebook Competition?
The Facebook competition winner will be chosen at random on the 30 August 2009 by Murray Newlands. No purchase necessary. Murray Newlands’ decision is final and the rules are by his discretion. You must be able to take payment by paypal.

Anyone that knows me knows that I am a voracious networker and have been so since getting into the Internet marketing industry in late 2001. You don’t get 3000 Plaxo and 1500 LinkedIn connections by sitting on your fanny doing nothing! So, I decided to put together a list of some of the things I like to do to build my social networks and actual generate business and friendships from them.

1. Be Friendly, Out-going, Respond, and Retweet - Social media has forced people to network with each other, but I still don’t see much actual interaction. I mainly see people promoting themselves, which is fine, but doesn’t really build lasting bonds or generate business. Make sure to reply to your connection’s “status updates” and retweet stuff you find interesting. Reach out to your connections and try to find common ground for working together. Try to actually help your connections in some way by possibly connecting them with someone you know or a valuable resource…it goes a long way.

2. Use Ping.fm - I absolutely love Ping.fm for broadcasting my messages out on all my social networks at once. It makes it easy to update your “Status” everywhere in one motion. What I have noticed is an increase in the responses from my connections to the messages I’m broadcasting since using this wonderful tool.

3. TweetDeck – This is a great desktop based application that allows you to really keep on top of your Twitter account and what’s going on. This will allow you to interact and respond more actively, and overall manage your Twitter account better.

4. Invite – you can’t build your network unless you invite anyone and everyone you know to connect with you. Most social networks have an invite from address book feature….use it!

5. Start Your own Social Network – Use Ning.com to set-up your own social network, so you can start conquering the Internet and building your own social network. It’s really cool and easy.

These are but a few ideas for making you more productive with Social Networking. Let me know if you have any questions and I will help you out.

Famous People on Twitter are changing the way Marketing on Twitter works. Twitter is one of the newest social media networks around, so there are few established rules or standards as far as marketing in general, and some social media purists argue that marketing has not place on Twitter at all. From the looks of it, marketing on Twitter isn’t going anywhere- and neither are famous people on Twitter.

Famous people on Twitter seem to have the same magical influence over their Follower base that they have over every other kind of media- public fascination. Ashton Kutcher’s @aplusk profile is the ideal example of this. After his much publicized race with CNN to 1 million Followers he then skyrocketed to over 2 million just 6 weeks later. 6 weeks! Celebrities use Twitter however they want to- just the other day @aplusk tweeted (to his 2 million + Followers) that his friend was writing a book and could really use some feedback on the first chapter. I don’t know the numbers, but if even ½ of 1% of those Followers clicked through to the book, that’s 1000 people looking at a book they probably wouldn’t have otherwise heard of.

Social media does beg a different marketing approach, and the presence of famous people on Twitter has both profound and under-the-radar effects on Twitter marketing. The presence of famous people on Twitter and how they use the micro-blogging service exerts an influence over the etiquette, the approach and the metrics of Twitter Marketing.

Here’s how Famous People on Twitter Influece Twitter Marketing:

1. Tone- Famous People on Twitter utilize the personal tone that is the calling card of Twitter. On any other media platform, their relationship with the general public is carefully scripted. Twitter’s essence is real-time, personal connection, and that changes how famous people on Twitter interact with their Followers, leading to an expected tone with marketers. Marketing messages on any media are traditionally scripted as well, refined to get attention and evoke a call to action These kinds of messages on Twitter are not as effective. Top-down entertainment doesn’t work, and neither does top-down marketing. If famous Twitterers can teach us anything about tone it’s that there is power in the personal.

2. Personality and Trust- Famous People on Twitter have large numbers of “Followers” just because they are already famous. That’s just how it is- they are celebrities. As I have said, Twitter is based on personal interaction- old marketing techniques and a lot of newer online marketing is premised on delivering a message TO people. While there have always been spokespeople or brand representatives, never before has there been such an emphasis on personal reputation and trust- what Chris Brogan called “Trust Agents.” Marketers on Twitter represent themselves and a group of products rather than the product in a group of people. Personal branding people and bloggers utilize strong personal branding abilities to grow their own Follower base- they themselves become famous people on Twitter by using Twitter effectively.

3. Conversation- People on Twitter expect conversations and respond to them positively- even @aplusk or @THE_REAL_SHAQ are talking to people they probably haven’t met in person. Most messages in traditional marketing have been one-way and top-down. Again, just as famous people on Twitter interacting with people who aren’t famous and breaks the content delivery mode of traditional entertainment, so is the normalizing of conversation on Twitter challenging marketers to change the traditional content delivery mode of marketing.

My own blog competition has seen a lot of traffic from even semi famous people on twitter tweeting about it to try and get votes. And as Twitter continues to grow, the influence of what one trusted person has to say will only grow.
The personal nature of Twitter is changing how we view our relationships with famous people on Twitter, and that changes the way people expect marketers to act and interact on Twitter.

Guest post: Murray Newlands works in affiliate marketing and affiliate management. You can find out more about him at www.MurrayNewlands.com.

Can you write decently? Do you want to earn some extra cash this month? We are running a LinkedIn affiliate group contest this month for the best articles on the affiliate marketing industry! Here are the rules:
- Article must be 100% original and not currently on the Internet
- Article must be about the affiliate industry and not about your company
- Article must be 350-500 words
- Permission granted to publish the article on CostPerNews.com. All submissions will be published on the site.

Prize Money:
- $500 for the best article (judged by me)
- $200 for Second place
- $100 for 3rd, 4th, and 5th place

If you are interested in possibly earning some extra money this month start writing your article and send it to me. Get cracking!

Let me know your thoughts!

Email me at: evan “at” costpernews “dot” com

Everyone knows social media is on fire right now, but how leverage it for affiliate marketing seems to be up in the air. There are so many social networks out there it’s hard to know where to start. Using an effective social media strategy for promoting your own sites is a great way to increase traffic and build followers and friends. By building up your friends and followers on social media networks you will have more people to broadcast your messages to and more people to interact with. Once you starting building up your friends and followers you are well on your way to promoting via social media. Another thing you can do is add “follow me on Twitter” logos and icons to your websites/blogs, so people will do so. You can also add it to your email signature to futher build your friends and followers. If you would like to read a more in-depth social media guide for affiliate marketing click here.

Hey everyone! I have been building out my Windows Live area recently and so I decided to launch a group there called Affiliate Marketing Everything. I was pleasantly suprised that no one else had previously claimed the affiliatemarketing subdomain there. It’s simply another place to discuss topics and so I hope you will join the group and connect with me on Windows Live and MSN Messenger.

Hey everyone! I wanted to let everyone know about our LinkedIn affiliate group. Our group is the largest strictly affiliate-focused group on LinkedIn with over 2600 members and growing larger by the day. The LinkedIn Affiliate group is a place you can network with other affiliate marketing professionals, learning new things, share knowledge, and other great features. We would love to have you as a group member if you are looking for a good affiliate-oriented social networking group. We look forward to hearing from you!

Guest Blog Post by: Jennifer Crego

Social media is making the affiliate marketing industry a small world after all. Being responsible for the Affiliate Program for GiftTree.com, communicating with the affiliates in our program, as well as potential affiliates, is at the top of my priority list. Connecting with people within the affiliate marketing industry is key, and I have found social media helps me accomplish this.

Everyone is busy, often doing more with less these days. Affiliates are no exception. They are continuously hit from both sides, as shoppers and merchants vie for their attention. That’s why I network with affiliates where they are already spending their time – Twitter, LinkedIn, Affiliate Forums, and the growing Cost Per News Social Network.

These social sites help me connect without getting in the way. You have to admit, 140 characters forces a person to be succinct. I am able to suggest products, mention top performing links, and just simply check in. GiftTree has received rave reviews from affiliates who are thrilled that we communicate with them through Twitter. That tells me we’re on the right track.

Other social networks, like the Cost Per News Social Network allow me to meet new people who are in the industry. I can discuss a variety of affiliate marketing topics and learn from veterans who know the tried and true, along with new marketers who bring fresh ideas to the table.

I confess, I don’t utilize LinkedIn as much as I could. I use it a lot, but the network has so much to offer to those who take advantage, more than people generally realize. LinkedIn seems to be where everything comes together for me. It’s no surprise that many of the people I communicate with on other sites can also be found in my connections and in the same groups that I participate in.

So does affiliate marketing and social media mix? For GiftTree, and for me personally, the answer is a robust, “Yes!” I’d like to hear which social networking sites other people like to visit to connect with others in the affiliate marketing field.

Follow Jennifer Crego, Director of Business Development at GiftTree.com on Twitter. Follow GiftTree on Twitter.

Technorati has made a bunch of great upgrades and enhancements. Here is the letter they sent out to their members explain all the upgrades and features available:

Technorati members:

Every week we’re adding new features, product fixes, and opportunities for you to participate. You can get all of our product updates and news on:
Twitter (follow Technorati)
Technorati blog
Twitter (follow Blogcritics)

Here is some of what’s been going on:
South by Southwest – Sony Webbie HD camera giveaway
In partnership with Sony, we invited bloggers covering the SXSW event to enter to receive one of 10 Sony cameras to upload photos and videos from the event.
If you’re interested in participating in programs like this, keep an
eye on Technorati’s blog and Twitter.

Publishing original content on Technorati.com
We’ve created lots of opportunities for you to appear on
Technorati.com – and you can auto-tweet every piece of content you post.

Tag articles - Any blogger can post original tag articles on Technorati tag pages. Tag pages compile content from the blogosphere (posts, photos, videos, blogs) around any tag. Tag articles give you writer credit, link back to your blog, and can include links to any other references you choose. Contribute a tag article, via Blogcritics

Blurbs - Think of these as comments – with benefits – that link back to your Technorati profile. You can publish your blurbs directly on any Technorati post or tag page.

Blog reviews -We’ve given you 1000 words to write about the about the blogs that interest you most. You can publish your reviews directly on any blog’s information page.

We’ve rolled out a new crawler and cleared massive amounts of spam
from the Technorati Index

We’ll continue to post all of our updates and more ways to get
involved on Twitter and the Technorati blog so follow us there and
please don’t hesitate to reach out.

The Team at Technorati

These look like some really awesome new features from Technorati. I look forward to trying all of them out and leveraging them as best as possible. Let me know what you think of these new features!