How affiliates should be using Twitter more effectively for content strategy

Twitter has been an incredibly hot topic in the last year. In October 2022, it was taken over by Elon Musk, who has introduced some controversial changes. Some of these have made digital marketers more cautious when using Twitter as part of a social media strategy. But is all now lost with Twitter? Or can affiliate marketers use this as a monetisation tool? I’ll go into further depth in this article.

It’s much easier to go viral on Twitter than with other social media platforms (with the exception perhaps of TikTok). If you tweet the right thing in the heat of the moment, there is the potential to capture audiences of thousands just like that. Organic relationships are important in the world of Twitter, in fact relationship marketing is even encouraged as part of its mission statement on the site. These are far more difficult to develop on other platforms such as Facebook. The challenge? Twitter moves so quickly that affiliate marketers need to constantly be on the ball to keep up with the fast-paced environment.

Treat your profile right

The reality is, most people who follow you on Twitter don’t do so because of one tweet. They will visit your profile, suss it out – and then decide whether or not they want to engage further with you. That’s why you should treat your Twitter profile as if it’s a micro landing page of your brand. Think of it as stage two of the affiliate marketing funnel, with the first being a piece of content that got them to your page to begin with. Now they are here, you want to ensure that they can easily access the relevant information and take the next step. This would include you establishing yourself as a brand of authority, ensuring the tweets you are pushing out are useful and relevant, and that you have strong calls to action.

Pinned tweet functionality 

Twitter allows you to pin a tweet at the top of your profile. Use this to your advantage by promoting an evergreen offer that has always been popular with your existing user base, or to promote seasonal campaigns. It should hold an important place in your social media strategy as a prime content slot. Make sure that your pinned tweet is clear and concise, is visually appealing, and has a strong CTA.

Don’t just use affiliate links

People don’t respond well, if at all, to a barrage of affiliate links, so you need to make sure to mix it up. Remember, social media should complement the rest of your content marketing strategy. Ideally, you’d have valuable SEO content featured on your site that would be of value to the user. Make sure you link to the content on your site as well as to operators, this will mean there is diverse content to digest and also provide additional click-through to your website. The rule of thumb should always be to provide value to the user first, then you can start to sell.

Only work with reliable partners

Remember, as an affiliate you will be inherently linked to any brand you promote. So, take as much care when tagging operators in tweets, retweeting them or pushing them on Twitter as you would when placing them on your website. Make sure you take a good look at the partner’s profile and the background of tweets to ensure they are aligned with your brand values before interacting with its content.

Keep in the moment

Twitter isn’t just about being proactive with activity, but reactive. It is the most fast-paced social media platform. That’s why it’s critical to make sure you know what’s happening and trending in real-time when using it. By being quick off the mark, you can make your tweets go viral and get much-needed engagement on your profile. Keep on top of your account and react when you can. Don’t be shy about involving yourself in other threads or tweets too if relevant – it’s all about exposure.

Accept it is trial and error

One of the most common mistakes we see from affiliate marketers when implementing a social media strategy is giving up too easily and not making use of the built-in insights that are provided by social media channels as a way to craft a personalised platform-native content strategy.

Twitter has great analytical tools that will allow you to see the most popular tweet, the top tweet and the tweet with the highest level of engagement. It also gives you the ability to benchmark that against previous months. It’s best to accept that every tweet you post might not be a home run, but that they can be fine-tuned. Give your strategy some time to evolve.

If you are working on your social media strategy, Twitter still has its place in the industry. This is particularly true for sports betting affiliates where there is always ample trending content to proactively push, to be reactive to and to use as conversation starters.

Photo by Benjamin Balázs on Unsplash