"Expect affiliates to exploit social media marketing (SMM) for SEO"

Social networking was definitely the biggest story in affiliate marketing in 2007, as merchants and affiliates tried to convert the huge surge in user traffic on sites such as Facebook and MySpace into a viable sales platform, points out Share Results affiliate network as it anticipates how online marketing trends would translate for affiliates this year.

As 2008 evolves, expect affiliates to exploit social media marketing (SMM) for SEO, controlling search engine rankings through links and growing fan bases on the sites above, plus destinations such as Digg, YouTube, Del.icio.us, and many more, said Share Results affiliate network CEO Nicky Senyard.

"New avenues for SMM monetisation are also opening up. Facebook's social ads, for instance, despite initial consumer privacy concerns, can potentially compete with Google for affiliate PPC revenue. 2008 should also see a boom in niche social media interest sites in areas such as travel and home and garden that affiliates can align their affiliate program verticals with," added Nicky.

It was added that video should also prove a major marketing trend in 2008.

"Over 48% of Internet users visited video sharing sites such as YouTube in 2007 (source: Pew), and advertising during video content is expected to spike by more than 70% (source: eMarketer)," said Nicky.  "We're seeing affiliates in the Share Results network experiment with attaching their own pre-roll ads to video content on their properties, and especially affiliates who are using their personal identities to promote through blogs and social networking."

Behavioural targeting should also become more widespread in 2008, the company projected. 

"Affiliates will be pleased to learn that 2008 brings with it better targeted ad technology from affiliate programs as network, advertiser, and visitor data converges to build better consumer experiences. Share Results, for example, includes interactive creatives among its marketing tool capabilities," said Nicky.

Widget advertising should also take off, as affiliate networks introduce these powerful brand relationship building tools to their marketing creative line-ups. "Widgets deliver a rich media experience compared to traditional banner ads, packaging everything from news feeds to video, games, music and more into one vehicle that users can drop on their desktops, blogs, social networking sites or start pages. Affiliates will find widgets an engaging, portable and trackable way to reach potential customers."

Nicky recommended that affiliates and merchants need to expect more from their affiliate networks than competitive commissions in 2008.

"Test networks on their adaptability to your business model, open customer support, industry reputation and software analytics capacity to find the service that will maximize your affiliate marketing revenue," said Nicky.