If you're not yet, it's definitely something to consider as many other companies begin to embrace social media as a marketing tool on the Web. Think about it this way, if even the Pope is pushing for the Church to blog and utilize social media tools online, it’s probably time to acknowledge that social media isn't a fad and it's here to stay. (You can read about the Pope’s love of social media here.)
MarketingSherpa recently released a study that shows how companies are allocating their online marketing budgets and even though email and PPC still garner a big piece of the pie, social media is moving up in the list, accounting for 11% of online marketing budgets. Take a look:
Social Media's Share
of the Online Marketing Budget
Considering the drastic growth of Twitter and Facebook over the last year alone, there's no question that social media is ripe with opportunity for affiliate marketers. To date, Facebook has more than 400 million active users. (The keyword there is "active".) Then there's Twitter, which in January passed 1.2 billion tweets per month – an average of almost 40 million tweets per day!
Over the next few weeks we'll be delving into the ever evolving world of social media to share insight and tips on different ways that affiliate marketers can use social media for online marketing initiatives. If you've already joined the social media wave, feel free to share any tips, tricks or advice as we go along. We'd love to hear from you!
Deanna Templeton is the Director of Consumer Education for Credit.com and has more than 10 years of experience in the online credit and personal finance markets and works closely with the affiliate marketing side of the business. Deanna shares her unique insight on everything from credit and personal finance to affiliate, social media and email marketing.
