Affiliate Marketing in the Age of Social Media by @DaveTaylor at Affiliate Summit West 2012 #ASW12

Dave Taylor, the man behind the famous blog AskDaveTaylor.com (Twitter @DaveTaylor) did a fantastic talk at Affiliate Summit West 2012 #ASW12 at Caesar’s Palace Las Vegas about “Affiliate Marketing in the Age of Social Media” on Tues Jan 10 at 2pm.

A few years ago, affiliate marketing was all about building a Web site or launching a blog and gaining readership. Today it’s all about Facebook, Google Plus, Twitter. What are the NEW best practices?

Dave has been paying his mortgage with Affiliate Marketing for over 6 years now

With Social Media, it’s not about SEO any more, it’s about relationships

Google changed search results this morning, you will see results based on what you have liked on Google +

Problem – People are Social, Affiliate Marketing isn’t

Maybe not all purchases are online, but the web impacts 50% of purchases

Don’t want to be a commodity space which is based on price.

But many people make purchases without caring what it costs. Like cars, Dave says he drives a $50,000 SUV, didn’t stop and say but I can get the same thing with a different logo on it for $38,000. Even if you buy a house, the price only gives you a range, you really pick the house that is in the best area / best amenities for you, there is a whole lot more than price.

If everyone is selling the same thing in the same way with the same marketing collateral and same images, its not wonder Google says they all suck. Way to get out of it is to start looking at the social side

Social Media is Popular … 1/5^th of time spent online is using Social Media. Even Myspace still has millions of users, Justin Timberlake is an investor and is here at CES pimping out Myspace and their new features

The numbers are huge:

Pinterest – visual social media site, in the space between Facebook and flickr, putting photos of your products there is a whole new way to drive interest

Whole Foods Market – does a really good job on pinterest, put up photos of the food they made, ingredients from whole food

Facebook – 800 million monthly active users

Youtube – 800 million monthly active users

Zynga – 232 million active users

Twitter – 230 million users

LinkedIn – 135 million users

Groupon – 115 million subscribers

Google Plus – 62 million users

Pinterest – 6 million users

We are all using social media to make purchase decisions

How do successful affiliate marketers sell their affiliate products so easily – nuture a trust relationship, then people will listen when you go to sell something

62% of people trust family, friends and contacts for recommendations of brands or products

We have the cheapest prices is not as good as “7 of your friends buy our products”

Facebook will show you an ad, then it will show you your friends that have liked that page/group or support that company of have brought that product

When you see, 3 of your friends like this, you catch on and pay attention, that is tapping into the social media side of commerce and transactions

The most valuable asset that amazon has is this extraordinary database of customer reviews

Gmail and Google Plus did the whole ‘invite’ and scarcity thing, this happens in Las Vegas, people walk past all the nightclubs and the one that has the biggest line people think must be the best and want to go in

Active Social Media users are:

–       19% more likely to attend a sporting event

–       45% more likely to go out on a date

–       75% more likely to purchase music

–       47% more likely to purchase

Facebook Memeology 2011, stuff people were most interested in:

No.1 was death of Osama Bin Laden, most talked about even

Google Plus Posting Ripples

Google will show you the graph when you get something re-posted or +1’d and republished. This is a graphic representation of how someone can write about a product and have it gain way more visibility than just from its own little world of followers

Linkedin is great as it shows you your overall circle when 3 connections wide. So Dave could get exposure to 14million people even though he only has 1400 direct connections, if some of them repost on

Bazaarvoice.com Social Commerce Statistics

12 times more frequently people will trust consumer reviews than descriptions that come from manufacturers

90% of consumers online trust recommendations from people they know, 70% trust opinions of unknown users

83% of online shoppers said they are intested in sharing information about their purchases with people they know, while 74% are influenced by the opinions of others in their decision to buy the product in the first place

Word of mouth is still the number one influence in their electronics (43.7%) and apparel (33.6%) purchases

If people are signed up for your affiliate program and actually making sales (unlike 90% of affiliates), give them something special, demonstrates they are one of the insiders and makes them feel special.

What Groupon and LivingSocial need to do is empower the merchant to create a relationship with the customer, but they don’t want that, they want to keep the relationship with the merchants

Merchants with Groupon & LivingSocial have to figure out how to turn this one time transaction into a relationship with a customer. Should say the Groupon deal gets you in the door, but to do the deal need to sign up for the loyalty program then get discount on next meal.

Company has an mobile idea – will warn you on your mobile if you are drifting out of your lane, as they figure you must be on your mobile, positioning it as a way to use your mobile while driving!!!

Proximity and geolocation are huge trends, as you are on your mobile it will say here is a deal for this local business nearby

Top Social Shopping Trends

–       Sharing items on Facebook, Google Plus, Twitter

–       Social Media fan offers

–       Real-time deals

–       Free shipping is huge, Amazon pushes really hard for you to get the free shipping, they still have the $25 minimum

Top Online Retail Trends

–       In-store pick up

–       Mobile apps

–       User generated video

–       Social networking participation

–       Daily Deals / Flash sales

–       Deal aggregators

Even when people are in a restaurant, they post a photo of their food, and people post, wow that looks fabulous where are you

Bumped into this great quote on PokerAffiliateSolutions.com “Every motivated online marketer needs to be on Twitter, Facebook and other social media outlets by directly engaging and informing their members. Nurturing these relationships is the key to success”

Your business is about the relationships you have, and your ability to create and nuture their relationships. If you think this is about data and templates, you are going to be more and more irrelevant

Successful businesses are all about relationships, that is what will differentiate successful businesses

Misquote of John F Kennedy nailed it “Ask not what your customers can do for you, but what you can do for them”