Affiliate marketing is a well established form of marketing that has been around for years. For most businesses, it can be a useful way to drive sales and attract new customers.
For women who own their own businesses, affiliate marketing can help tap into new and undiscovered markets and spread their reach far and wide. As the provider of an affiliate program, you pay your affiliates a certain amount of commission for every sale or lead they drive to your website.
When Affiliate Marketing Meets Instagram
In recent years, there has been a rise in the number of affiliate links that have been used in social media networks, which have typically been confined to blog posts, YouTube, and Facebook. However, affiliate marketing has slowly crept into Instagram where affiliate links can be placed in the profiles of the Instagram users. This is an interesting tactic that several companies and ‘Instagram famous’ individuals have been using – interesting because of the intimacy of the platform.
Instagram offers a personal look into the lives of others ranging from celebrities to politicians. It is valued as being a space where you can build friendships and seek trusted advice. Of course, there are brands on Instagram, but they are instantly recognizable as just that—brands.
If you are planning on using affiliate marketing on Instagram, I urge you to be careful and to not break the delicate bonds created amongst the Instagram community.
Dos and Don’ts
When working with influencers on Instagram:
- Do make sure they disclose their affiliation; either in their profile or on their posts. A simple hashtag can suffice.
- Do not force influencers to stick to a script and to write anything that feels forced or insincere.
- Do let influencers choose if they want to post an affiliate link on their Instagram profiles or not. If they are uncomfortable with it, then respect their decision.
- Do not let anyone and everyone become an affiliate. It will not look trustworthy if a fashion influencer on Instagram suddenly starts to endorse your home DIY products.
To Sum Up
The bottom-line is that affiliate marketing is a fantastic way for women with small businesses to earn more revenue and to increase brand awareness. If you do venture into the world of affiliate marketing on social networks such as Instagram, make sure to be careful and ethical.
About the Author
Alice Williams is a writer for BusinessBee. She has written in-depth on a wide variety of topics which include business, technology, and social media. She has a masters degree in Communication Studies from San Francisco State University.
Is there a certain hashtag that people use to disclose that they’re an affiliate of what they’re promoting? I’m just trying to figure out how you’d disclose that without talking about it too much. I mean you don’t want to make a huge point of it, but it should be disclosed.
Hi Fred,
You can definitely use hashtags to disclose affiliation but I have not seen anyone do this. I think the best way to disclose affiliation would be t have it in your Instagram profile; just something short and sweet.
Those who do sponsored posts on the other hand do use hashtags to disclose and normally use hashtags like #ad.
Thanks for your comment!