Marketing your brands via social networks

Lately I’ve been playing around with links on various social media networks and platforms, the aim was to conclude on some sort of average CTR for links. Not very surprisingly the average CTR landed on 4-5% for the twitter profiles I tested with and slightly less with my facebook account. The twitter profile used for testing had 2,100 followers, which is easily achieved but just follow as many accounts as you find, the following limit is set to 2,000 by default. After that you have to make sure to have an equal follow/followers ratio.

Using affiliate links on social networks and especially twitter seems to a somewhat untouched subject. However, applying a good strategy and a transparent model I’m convinced that there’s room for affiliation on twitter without being seen as a spammer. By the end of the day, people who don’t like what you tweet will unfollow you.

I quote Jeremiah Owyang’s opinions on the matter :

1. Make sure it lines up editorially with your personal brand, promoting a product that people don’t associate you with will raise eyebrows.
2. Disclose it’s an affiliate link, perhaps with a hashtag #affilliatelink.
3. Be sincere about your recommendation. If you truly love that product you’re promoting, perhaps write a review on a blog first, explaining why.
4. Be fully transparent before people follow you: Create a link from your Twitter profile page that is up front about how you use Twitter, and explain your intentions when it comes to product recommendations and affiliate links.

http://expektaffiliates.com/index.php/en/blog/65-twitter-profiles-generates-on-average-4-5-clickthrough-rates