How to Build a Personal Brand on Social Media to Promote Affiliate Networks

A personal brand is all about a person’s unique qualities, knowledge and skills. An essential part of business success, – if you wish. It helps to stand out from the competition and attract both new clients and partners.

And that’s pretty important, especially in today’s topic. The thing is, a personal brand substance helps to gather leads three or even ten times faster than if you did it under any other wing.

Read on to find out how to build a personal brand on social networks to attract as many liquid affiliates as possible.

Affiliate networks & Affiliate Marketing

Let’s start by going over the basic definitions.

So, affiliate marketing is a way to get the product out there. Of course, it’s not just about one-way promotion, though. It’s rather about building a relationship that’s good for everyone involved.

Picture this: there’s one person (or company) with a great item or service. He finds other people (partners) to promote his item or service and pays them for each new customer, subscriber, or just for clicking on a link.

There is another player here, too. An affiliate network. It’s basically an intermediary, linking the both players. The platform takes care of the technical side and helps everyone find each other.

Okay, but how does this very marketing-thing actually work?

The seller provides affiliates with unique links to their site.

The affiliate then hosts the link and, if someone clicks and buys (or does something else that needs to be done), the provider sees who brought in the customer and pays the affiliate.

Let’s look at an example – just to make everything clear:

Jack is a business coach who runs training sessions for entrepreneurs and company sales teams. He uses a kind of conferencing service for his lessons. The developer of this very service is offering a bonus for recommending it to others. Jack has a lot of clients from the corporate world, plus he has a blog with 5,000 subscribers: he posted about the app on his social media and included a link. Thus, if someone buys a subscription, the business coach, that is, Jack, will get $500 (note that this amount is just an estimate – could be much lower or much higher; but typically, way higher).

Basically, anything can be promoted, from courses to devices to apps – even the services of lawyers or accountants. Additionally, it’s noteworthy that the United States, Great Britain, Germany, and France are the primary countries engaged in affiliate marketing, as they invest the most in this field. Statistically.

A Bit and Little About Building a Trustworthy Brand

Now that we’ve got the basics covered, we’re all on the same page. So let’s dive right in and talk about how to make your social media brand work both for you and your partner.

Emphasize the *person*, not the *company*

Nowadays, people trust companies less and less in advertising and more and more in specific personalities. The overall statements on how good, advanced, and environmentally friendly a company’s products and services are often overlooked by audiences.

But.

Instead, they pay attention to testimonials from either employees or invitees who are knowledgeable in one way or another. Featuring a guest star offers a dual benefit: promoting your partner through affiliate marketing and subtly advertising your own service. For example, a simple mention of the company they used can be highly effective. You can choose between a car and a smaller cart, as the options are pretty much endless here. To enhance this strategy, find influencers who resonate with your audience and align with your values, as their authentic endorsement can amplify your message even further.

The Audience is the Queen

If you want to make a splash on social media, you’ve got to know your target audience. There’s no shortage of advice out there on understanding. No, really. So it’d be better to just study the metric analyzer reports (something like GA…?) and figure out who’s actually visiting the website of yours.

Google Analytics, for instance, can tell you a lot, including things like:

• Demographics (language, country, city);
• Information about the system;
• Mobile device data;
• Traffic sources;
• Behavioral characteristics.

And so on.

Anyways, once you’ve got all this information, you can start working with it. And while all audiences matter, prioritize those that generate the most profit. Also, you may perform a power move, and retarget those who you believe can benefit your affiliate marketing partner:

Let’s assume for a moment you own an e-book shop. By looking at the data from GA and keeping an eye on recent purchases, you’ve noticed that some customers have been buying a lot of books that help with learning programming. Let’s also assume your partner is basically an online database of useful training courses in all possible areas.

Thus, a strategic referral of customers will cultivate a reciprocal relationship, leading to future benefits

Or even something more, perhaps?

The Content is the King

A successful brand relies on regular content to attract and engage its audience. Quality is also key to success. Like, every single thing should be useful and interesting.

That’s the absolute minimum.

Yet there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to creating content, though, there are a few ideas and concepts that seem to be working well:

To create great content, you have to think differently. And act differently as well: if you’re brave enough to put yourself out there, your audience will love it.

Your brand might be laid-back, representing, say, some delicious food (and its cooking, sure do).

Don’t you think that it might be an interesting challenge to explore that same cooking, but in a complete darkness? While it may not be the most comfortable thing for you to do, but it’ll definitely appeal to your audience. With such a charged audience, the work will be much easier.

It’ll also be easier to redirect them to other, more important channels – if there’s need to.

Colour, style and pitch

The brand’s website (and any other platforms) requires careful design consideration, particularly regarding color choices. Since color is a powerful tool for evoking emotion and establishing atmosphere: different shades trigger different associations and feelings.

For example, warm, bright colors like red and orange create a sense of passion and energy, while cool, pastel shades such as blue, gray, and even light cream project calmness and serenity.

Goes without saying that all should fit in with the brand. Sure thing, you can ignore the rules, and paint some nominal online-floristry-shop in total red.

Would that be alright?

Probably, not.

It’ll certainly grab people’s attention, but it’s probably not going to be a positive reaction. You could just add some green to your site instead. That way, you can highlight all the different plant species you have on there without causing a fuss. Yes, it might not get the same level of excitement, but it’ll also avoid any shock factors.

We’re sure you see what we’re saying.

Let’s move on to style and presentation. ToV, that is.

A brand has to stand out from the crowd. Even if it is not an end in itself. That means developing a unique and recognizable style, which can be done through the use of unusual fonts, humor, unique graphics, photography in a particular style, and even the way you communicate with your audience – formal, friendly, etc.

By keeping things consistent, you’ll attract better quality and sustainable leads. These *leads* will be ready to click on a referral link in no time, and they’ll help you and your colleague – just temporary or a permanent one.

Eight-C-Strategy

We think it’s a good place to end our discussion about brand development in social media with the eight C’s.

What exactly is it?

Well, it’s a formula that literally means the following:

• Consciousness – understanding what you are building and why.
• Constancy – never stop posting (even for a few weeks or months).
• Consistency – following a strategy and choosing relevant communications.
• Clarity – delivering a clear key messages and thoughts.
• Competence – understanding all the important things in your business niche.
• Compelling – persuading from the previous, expressed in always following the right tone of voice.
• Creativity – being memorable and standing out from the competition.
• Courage – being able to hold your own and not be afraid to experiment (and even take risks – to some extent).

Regarding the final point: remember that you’re the protagonist of your own story. Only you know the true cost of your achievements – the knowledge gained and the products created. To overcome any hesitation about sharing or providing any of these, try the simple exercise: imagine the consequences of withholding your knowledge.

It’s probably safe to say that nothing awful is going to happen if you speak up, yet if you stay silent, the audience may be missing out on something important.

And missed moments have never been a good look – that’s not the way to build a marketable audience.

So, following these eight tips will give you a better shot at success.

Mistakes to Avoid When Building Your Personal Brand

We all make them, yet some are more damaging than others. To build a strong and successful personal brand, avoid these blunders:

1. Passivity – don’t wait for a huge following – start doing things today. If you get involved early, you can acquire a pretty loyal audience who are interested in your expertise and insights. If This way, you’ll just save yourself a lot of hassle later on.
2. Copying others – it’s a nice to be inspired, but copying others is a big no-no – copying will damage your credibility and hinder long-term success. So, try your best and develop your own unique voice and approach.
3. Chaotic promotion – spur of the moment efforts are a waste of time and resources. What you should do is make a plan, figure out what you need to do, and change your strategy when (and if) you need to.
4. Faking it – your audience will value your personal experience and expertise, so stick to real-life examples and you’ll have a much better chance of making an impact than just going over dry, theoretical advice.
5. Burst on any criticism spotted – not everyone is going to agree with you, and that’s totally fine. Learn to take criticism on the chin – use feedback to make improvements, not to get off track.

Tracking Actions to Results

You can use metrics to get a sense of whether the actions you’ve taken are actually useful. There are two main types of them: general and specific. In any case, the most common ones are ROBI (Return on Branding Investment, that is) and the weighted average volume of search queries about the brand. The second should be kept under everlasting audit and re-check.

That covers pretty much everything.

If the metrics are looking good, just keep doing what you’re doing.

If they’re not looking good, it’s time to make some adjustments.

You could just switch up your strategy. But don’t go overboard – there’s no need to make sweeping changes straight away. And remember that it’s always worth aiming for growth. Otherwise, you won’t be able to attract people and, as a result, boost the affiliate program.

Personal Branding for Affiliate Network Success – How to Achieve It

By posting affiliate links where it makes sense, for example. Probably the most obvious way. And it’s traditionally been the most effective way to grab people’s attention and get them interested in what you’re offering. The thing is, if you’ve built a strong personal brand, you’ve got a flexible audience.

And there’s a good chance you’ll find someone who’ll be interested in your offer.

It’s important to remember that those links need to be backed up by quality content.

Just as we’re doing.

Jokes aside, these aren’t all options.

We suggested placing ads within the feed, page, and other designated areas. However, it’s also possible to integrate links directly into the profile header – this ensures prominent visibility. And to maximize impact, it’s a good idea to include a concise description of the benefits and a compelling CTA.

There are a couple of other ideas one could consider at as well.

For instance, you could try creating a sense of urgency. Highlight any offers with a limited time frame, such as exclusive sign-up bonuses or time-sensitive affiliate promotions. Also, don’t forget about hashtags. Anything that looks like #affiliatemarketing or #affiliateprogram will definitely help boost the visibility.

That’s pretty much all of it.

Promote yourself, help promote others, and may the Force be with you.