It’s been a long time between drinks here at Alexwhalley.com but a dinner with friends the other night prompted me to come out of hiding and share some insights into what I think is the Anti-Social side of social networking. Aaah the irony.
It’s not that Facebook and Twitter are a bad thing, on the contrary – if you own a business/product and/or service and you know what you are doing then the social networks can be a very profitable way to raise awareness and make sales, but this is where the confusion starts to set in, with many would-be affiliates jumping into the fray wondering how they can make it work for them.
The straight answer: They can’t! Now I am not being negative here, more matter of fact if anything, but if you have tried to use the social networks as a blogger and/or affiliate then let me explain why it’s just NOT working out the way you planned. (and I am assuming that it’s not or you would have stopped reading right about…. now 
)
Anti-Social Networking with Friends
An all too common sight now-a-days
So I’m out to dinner with some old school friends that I have not seen for a few years and one of them, James – spends a good portion of the night buried in his iPhone. Now I assume – as does everyone else at dinner that he is in the middle of some sort of business deal in which he is waiting on information/texts/whatever but after a few ‘chimes’ of his phone I realise it is the familiar tone one gets when they recieve a Tweet or a Facebook update. I ask what he is doing and James tells us proudly that he is Tweeting and Facebooking the fact that he is at dinner with some old school friends.
Are you shitting me?!?! That’s the stupidest thing I have ever heard. I can see the conversation later:
“So James, how was it seeing your old school friends the other night?”
“Not sure, didn’t really get a chance to talk ’cause I spent the whole time telling the rest of the world that I was at said dinner”
“O…K….. then??!?”
Really? Now that is what I call Anti-Social networking!
But how does this relate to Affiliate marketing?
I could be honest and say that it doesn’t but I’m a blogger – so of course it does… well I’m going to bloody well make it relate (so help me God)
Why Affiliates Should Avoid Social Networking
I mentioned in the first paragraph that Social Networking can work if you own a business that provides a product or a service and THIS is the key to why it does NOT work for affiliate marketing. Blogging is much the same in this regard as most bloggers (myself included until I can finish my Build Rank Profit Members site) do not actually promote their own product but rather try and seek an audience to then sell other peoples wares (aka: affiliate marketing).
It is for this reason and this reason only that I tell would be affiliates to avoid the social networks like the plague.
What is the primary goal of business minded people when they venture onto the pages of Facebook or LinkedIn, or even Twitter?
To advertise their services and promote their products!
If you are simply an affiliate (not that there is anything wrong with that of course) then all you are doing when you try to make a name for yourself there is indirectly promoting other people! Sure, you spread your own name around a bit and probably get a little bit of traffic from it too, but I bet if you could monitor that traffic – not many would convert into buyers.
It Takes Time to crap on Socialise
Utilising social networks to build a following and get traffic can work, but when you look at how much time it takes to do so you will realise that the same amount of time invested in either link building or guest blogging (the greatest traffic generation method of all I might add!) will yield far better results.
And it’s Crowded there too!
Don’t be a Sheep like every other Affiliate
Another reason affiliates should avoid the social networks is because of the competition that already exists there.
Every new Internet Marketer who comes along jumps straight into the fray with no actual idea what they are doing, and granted you as an experienced affiliate have the edge on them, it does not take away from the fact that there are simply too many of them to avoid direct competition.
Not only are you competing against 5000 other affiliates all pushing the same products and services, you are also now trying to sell to a customer that is overwhelmed and confused – a place that not many people will then purchase from.
Why try and sell Ice to Eskimos when you can take a few extra steps and sell them Cocktails instead?! (OK I just totally made that expression up and although it makes absolutely no sense, it still kinda works LOL)
The Point I am Making is…
When my friend spent the greater part of half an hour updating his status and Tweeting his whereabouts to the world it made me realise that as an affiliate, these Social Networks are the last place I should be spending my time. If you own a business that provides a product or service then sure – use these networks to extend your client base, let the world know what you have to offer and of course ‘network’ with potential clients. But if you are simply a middle man trying to spread the word about your new blog or even just a discreet affiliate promoting a profitable product then honestly, spending your time on these networks is akin to wasting it (time that is) and you are much better off expending the same amount of energy on writing guest posts, building backlinks and creating content. Trust me on that.
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- Do you Want FRIEndS with that?
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{ 59 comments… read them below or add one }
Well I do know that social media is one of the best bet when it comes to affiliate marketing but im not so sure if it makes a difference with my traffic.
and… I rest my case
Seriously though, I think it is hard to balance the ‘getting traffic from social media’ and the ‘getting your brand out there on social media’
Both are important but in the long run I honestly believe that guest posting and commenting will get you both quicker.
I trust you on that Alex, very well said. Being an affiliate is working for someone and that ruins my basic belief of work at home promise. I work at home coz I don’t want to work for someone and by being an affiliate I am doing nothing different than working at 9-5.
But still affiliate marketing mixed on a small proportion with everything else is fine I think. It is something that should not be totally ignored
Hey Jane, you are one blogger whos opinion matters as you are definitely doing something right
I appreciate your input and of course ‘ good to see you again girlfriend!’ LOL
It depends on the person making promotions and advertisements. Business strategies are meant to make or break the company. It’s only a matter of making the right choice and taking the right actions.
Hey! Alex we have the same thought I agree with you! Guest posting and commenting will get you both quicker, yes this is true.
was glad to read this, i too dont want to waste my time with twitter and facebook, i think that although social media is the best for affiliate marketing, in my opinion it doesnt make a difference with traffic.
A few months ago, I came to the conclusion that I was wasting my time on the social-media sites. (I’m a blogger.) Your reasons for reaching the same conclusion are great, and others exist as well. The turning point for me came when I began to observe my own behavior and realized that on Facebook I unsubscribed from anyone who posted often and on Twitter I had set up to tweet automatically. Thanks for the insights!
Alex, way to go! It seems that every one is on the social bandwagon. So it takes a lot of guts to take an opposite stand. I think there is a danger in spreading yourself to thin. Most affiliate marketers are solo acts so time is always a precious commodity.
The reality is that it takes a lot of time to build a decent site and get enough traction with an established, etc.
And I’m not sure just how much of a relationship you’re really going to get out of 140 characters. Commenting and guest blogging take more work then a tweet here and a Facebook post there, but I think there is more potential.
“And I’m not sure just how much of a relationship you’re really going to get out of 140 characters”
LOL too true Stephen.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts mate, glad you enjoyed the post
Hi Alex
The thing about Social Media, Twitter in particular is the sheer amount of potential traffic. Whilst on that platform you are right, they tend not to buy and the competition is fierce.
However, take people away from that platform onto your list then I would say that its a good lead generation tool more than anything else.
Hey Peter, You make a good point about social media being a great place to ‘generate leads’ as you can them take them away from the distractions of FB and Twitter and provide quality marketing material to them. Of course that being said you are still competing against the ‘noise’ when attempting to get them on that list in the first place.
Hi Alex,
Let me start by saying that I love reading your blog. You write really naturally, and you have a unique style that flows well.
Anyways, I completely agree with you. I hate seeing affiliate on Facebook constantly post links to the same old products (which I can assume the vast majority of affiliates have never even touched) and their own sites. I, as a reader, simply don’t care. If I wanted to have an affiliate recommend a product, I would go to their website where I can read all of their posts to see if they actually know what they are talking about (to determine if their recommendation really holds any weight, opposed to a random marketer just trying to make some money). Thanks for sharing this.
-Brendan
Hey Brendan,
You make a good point about needing to see proof from affiliates that the product actually has benefited them (so in turn we can see how it will benefit us)
I also appreciate the feedback and the kind words mate – you are too kind
A comment like that deserves a return visit so I will see you at your blog shortly
I believe that social media can really boost a lot of your traffic but I also understand that too much use of them can lead to wasted time that could have been used in other areas of marketing. I guess it is just a matter of proper time management.
Amen to that LOL
whoever decided to only put 24hours in a day anyway?!!?
I think all the social media is good for everyone..but you should know how to balance your work..
Just use social media to spread your business or product.
You bring up an interesting point here that I have also thought about. I see people all the time tweeting about what they are doing… so therefore not really participating in the activity they are tweeting about! I love social media, but you can’t let it interfere with your real, offline life. Thanks for sharing!
Consumers are constantly being bombarded with advertisements and businesses promoting themselves that they just kind of tune it all out. As consumers, I think we can all agree that we participate in this. Social media marketing really is a great tool if you have a standing name and a large client base. But, like you said in the article, just starting out…it’s probably not the best venue for you.
Affiliates really are better off doing guest blogging and link building, because they will have more conversion rates rather than someone just “liking” them on Facebook or following them on Twitter. Alex, you’re completely right when you said that all of these networking sites are so cluttered! Which is exactly why we as consumers kind of tune out advertisements and all of that jazz.
Great article!
“Which is exactly why we as consumers kind of tune out advertisements and all of that jazz.” Well said, this is EXACTLY why it is just not worth the time and effort (for affiliates anyway)
Hey Alex,
Good to see you back
You are right, Social media does suck in a lot of time and effort (and the results won’t be that interesting until you really build up your influence).
I am glad that you wrote this article. I was planning to start spending a lot more time with Social media sites, but even if I do that, I won’t get that much traffic out of it (I should just focus on guest posting on other blogs).
Thanks once again for the reminder
Jeevan Jacob John
I think it’s something most of us are guilty of. We do want to try everything because we lack patience. We want the money to come in quickly because a lot of internet marketers tell us we can be making money overnight.
Hi Alex,
I think your article is very interesting and timely as well. I use Facebook and Twitter mainly for personal purposes, to be honest I find it annoying when I get messages or tweets that are obviously about marketing or networking whatever you call it. So you’re right about this one, it’s not effective because I usually just ignore those LOL
Thanks for the advice Alex, I think sometimes people jump into social networking because it’s the latest thing and they feel they should be using it, but as you say you can waste alot of time trying to establish yourself when you’re just a middle man. I have a Facebook account but I only use that for friends and family and I think they would tire pretty quickly if I constantly tried to sell to them, so I’m also going to stick to making guest posts, building backlinks and creating great content.
then you can’t go wrong Beth.
Add to those three things ‘Consistency’ and you are on your way
Alex,
Oh My Gosh! You had me laughing my ass off with the story about the school chum who spends his time, not conversing with the people he is with, NO, but updating everyone of FB and Twitter about the “time he is spending with his school chums at dinner” ! What!?!
And you summed up the whole thing nicely when you said that people’s time is best spent 1. building backlinks, 2. guest posts, and 3. creating quality content. Any blogger who does those three things cannot go wrong.
BTW, Your blog is on my list of blogs (on my site) that I recommend that people check daily!
Thanks for all your great material!
Sincerely,
Jupiter Jim
Thanks Jim,
I appreciate the kind words and the link love (and yes I appreciate the grammar checks too LOL)
getting slack in my old age hahaha
You are perfectly right. I just hate it when people tweet every day long affiliate links. It’s just the opposite of what Twitter is all about: socializing, making new friends or sharing points of view. Social media networks are a great way to build a name or to generate decent traffic, but it requires honest work.
Hi Alex,
I am 100% agreed with your point of view why affiliates avoid the social sphere.Its a comprehensive post and you give a good suggestion to middle man and the person who wants to promote their new blog.Thanks for giving idea of creating backlinks and guest posting.
Hi Alex,
I did the same mistake at early stages of my blogging career and I used social media to promote my blog.I found it helpful but if I put my effort to backlinks and guest postings then it would be more better for me.
Alex,
I am always down for a little bit of good social media bashing! I (rarely) post on my personal social media accounts and while I do a little more frquently on “business” related ones, I have always tried to streamline that process and spend as little time as possible. (While still somewhat being a “real” person now and again)
Social media can surely be effective, but the problem is how effective is it vs. the amount of time some people spend on it? Not very I would think…
Nice to see you back bro… don’t be a stranger!
ahha! G’day mate.
Yeah it is a rather long time between drinks – but you will be happy to know its because I am busy with client work and NOT because I am a lazy blogger LOL
Social media is the best way for what business partnership real is, as a marketer you need to consider such things to feel good and not regrets at last… Thanks for this great information ahead..
Alex, you are a genius! Your post has freed me from the desperate, sweat-covered social media contest to focus on how to actually make money on my blog. I’m not sure how that will work but relieved to know that tweeting and liking is a waste of time. You don’t get all the credit. I have had my suspicions for awhile.
Hi Alex, this time I am on your side. It really makes me imagine why people love their virtual lives and running from their actual one. Using things for socializing or achieving sales is great of course, but for Christ sake plug out for those real moments. And believe me the world would have been better if these things would haven’t been cordless.
The dinner example you give Alex is far too common. It’s the new body posture, hand holding device and head staring down into it. It’s really a shame how face to face communication is starting to suffer, and the thing is…………it’s only going to get worse.
Avoiding the social sphere completely, I would say no! Yeah as far as the real time social media activities like; facebook and twitter is concern I would say yeah that’s right!
I think blog commenting, guest blogging and stuff like these are important even for affiliates
Very interesting points, Alex. I totally agree that it sucks when people you are at dinner or in conversation with, spend most of the time buried in their phones. It’s so rude. At times, I’ve lost patience and called them out on it.
But coming back to the main topic, I think it can be incorporated or used by affiliates in small doses to see how it works for or against them, and then step it up accordingly if they see benefits. Everything deserves to be given a fair trial after all.
-Jean
One of the things that concerns me most as a Adsense publisher is that you can indeed get a lot of traffic from social networks, but it doesn’t typically convert nearly as well as search traffic does. All those impressions but few click throughs can lead to Adsense smart pricing. Your nice clicks that used to be worth a buck or two are suddenly valued at .05.
No one seems to talk about this.
I think it’s an entirely different mindset from social traffic and search traffic. Social traffic sees a link to you site and thinks, “Oh, ok that looks kind of cool; I’ll check it out.” But often they aren’t necessarily looking to solve a problem.
Search traffic has more of a vested interest in finding a solution to a problem, whether it be clicking on an Adsense ad or on an affiliate offer.
Hey Norma! Good to see you again stranger
Thanks for the value add – anything you say regarding Adsense is always going to be worth its weight in gold!
Well I can say I never thought of social networks making people less social. That is so true if you are so into the network itself you miss out on anything outside of that. I think social networks are meant to connect with people so you can be social with them outside of the computer.
Good story about your friend…and kind of similar to the time I was on Safari (as you do). We were on one of those open air land rover trucks that take tourists to all the hotspots in the park and one guy spent the entire time with a video camera virtual attached to his face. Presumably he missed out on all the sights and sounds outside of his viewfinder so that he could bore his friends and family senseless when he got back home. Wake up and smell the coffee dude…or is that elephant dung…kind of smells a bit funky doesn’t it.
Whilst I agree with you to some extent, wouldn’t you say that a blogger offering an ethical bribe to get an email address is like having a product ? If you can get an email address from a tweet isn’t that job done ? The real problem I find as an affiliate marketer in many niches is that I don’t have the time to devote to social media for all the niches so never use it. Too busy with other stuff to worry about tweets. If I was in one niche I might be able to make it more productive – get leads.
The first part or “Anti-Social Networking with Friends” sure is funny.(I don’t know bout you guys if this sounds funny to you, but it sure is to me.
Anyway, there is no use attending a party when you are too focused on your virtual friends and not your real life friends. I don’t say that it’s bad but you can’t always have a time for your old school friends.
Truly fantastic! Anyone who withdraws their phone during a meal out who’s mother ins’t actually in surgery at that precise moment deserves to be forcefully ejected from the table (hanging, drawing and quartering optional) and shunned for all future social gatherings.
Anyway; this is certainly a unique take on social networking for the blogosphere, but I can’t say I find myself disagreeing with anything you say. I think I more fair compromise would be that the utility of social networking for business affiliates has been greatly overstated.
Alex, I’m with you 100% on the “Get your face out of your fucking phone” when you’re in the company of friends out in the real world. Be where you are. And if your friends suck that bad that you don’t even want to be with them – go be where you are with people you actually enjoy the company of.
Yeah, I can see wanting to share your experiences but you can do by taking pictures and then when you’re alone in your underwear at your computer and you’re done having your way with yourself after visiting your naughty site of choice, because of course this takes priority over everything else when you’ve got some uninterrupted me-time, you can upload the pics and tell your story that way and then interact on the spot there with the people other people who are in their underwear or being assholes to their friends/family at the dinner table who respond.
Man, if people would be where they were in every aspect of their life – work, play, fun – I believe there’d be lot less drama, mediocrity, and disappointment.
Your point strikes close to home with me Alex. I once had 5-6 friends over to the house, only to realize at one point in the evening, I was the only one not buried in my cell phone. I don’t even take my cell phone into restaurants with friends and dates if I am not expecting another party that needs to contact me for directions. I won’t ask to hang out with you if I don’t want to give you my full attention. Do you think there is a social trend toward quantity over quality? To combat this problem, I made a three tier system for my social network (not counting the business side of social networking). Tier 1 consists of 10 people. I put a lot of effort into maintaining contact with these 10. Tier 2 is 20, and tier 3 is 30 respectively. Each lower tier has more people, but I maintain less contact–the occasional email, phone call, or message. I think it is unrealistic to have more than 60 people in your life you are contacting with any regular frequency, and even that is high in my opinion.
Thanks for the great post. I can’t stand when people are lost in the outside world and forget to enjoy the people around them.
Ryan
LOL… yeah tweeting and facebooking whilst actually ‘socialising’ is one of the rudest and most played sports these days… couldn’t they do it after dinner and say how wonderful or crappy it was? What is this world coming to?
Hmm… worthy enough to consider. You are successful to stir the mind and compel to rethink on whatever anybody is doing. Thanks for the awesome tips, content creating! Yup, sit for that and minimize the social networking.
That antisocial network logo would make a great t-shirt. I’ve stubbornly avoided Facebook and Twitter so far and was wondering if I’m missing out on some opportunities by doing so. Glad to see my instincts might be correct that it’s more of a time sink than a benefit.
You make some really great points here. But I do believe if you link your blog to your twitter than twitter can update your facebook when something is posted other than using the social networks to spread the reach I don’t think it is good to use them .
Now people are saying that Google is the new resume. You can search it and find a person’s whole life on the internet. With Facebook timeline we are being offered the chance to put out a self-published biography and the ability to update, daily and by the minute and by the second. We are addicts of other biographies. When social networking becomes our main social event, then the problem develops. We should not forget in person relationships. Time to put away the phone at dinner!
I get what you are saying there is nothing more annoying than people that won’t get off of their phone. It is rude and people just don’t get it.
FB will be the social media bubble money bubble that will burst. It wasn’t so long ago that people were making obscene amounts of money based on selling dot com names with no ability to ascertain whether they actually were profitable. The same will happen with FB. Greed rules it seems and we never learn!
Hey Alex,
Your post actually made me feel better about social media. While I do use social media, I haven’t spent a ton of time there choosing instead to focus on things like content, backlinking, keyword research, etc. Perhaps I have made the wise decision by doing so. Social media can be awesome but it sucks up a huge amount of time if you really want to stay active and out in front of the rest of the “noise”.
I agree that in the Affiliate marketing realm that you should stay away from social media.
Social Media is more about personal brands, than shopping brands.
I don’t like social media sites to run my affiliates program.Its my own opinion and my opinion may be not matched with other.But i just decline it.We should find other source and that’s why i use AMAZON.
Social networks are a lot of work, and right now there are so many of social networks that it will take a lot of time and resources to maintain all the pages. However, I think that if you want to have a business that will make money in the future on the internet, you won’t be able to avoid using at least one social network, you just have to choose the one that will be the best for your business.
Seems to be true, I have noticed social media give some amount of traffic to my blog or landing pages but the there are very few conversions and even traffic changing to returning visitors is very less. Also social media is the top reason of loss of productivity for most people nowadays.
Hi Alex.. This is awesome and great post ! Very interesting to read one also. Thanks for sharing with us.