GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 26 - October 2013

By Allan Petrilli D oes anyone know when the practice of social networking began? We’re not talking exclusively about the Web 2.0 ver- sion of social networking – we’re talking about the Merriam-Webster definition of traditional networking based on the con- cept of information sharing: The exchange of information or services among individuals, groups, or institu- tions; specifically: the cultivation of pro- ductive relationships for employment or business. That’s a definition with a rather broad scope, something which could also be said of social networking in the history of human society. If we wanted, we could probably find examples of social network- ing going back to Mesopotamia, which is when a structured form of writing is said to have first been used. Before doing any such thing, the question must first be asked: How did ancient soci- eties that you may have only read about in history class influence the world of affili- ate marketing? Communication evolution When we think of communication today, our minds will habitually guide us in the direction of Facebook friend requests, tweets and endorsements. This world we live in has resulted in an evolution of the tools used to make businesses more ac- cessible. Regardless of tools, however, the goal of social networking remains the same: to communicate, to engage and to play a role in the society in which we live. Despite having a greater arsenal of stra- tegic tools at their disposal, affiliates face much stiffer competition in trying to gar- ner the attention of iGaming operators. Where the average Mesopotamian would be challenged to carve wedge-shaped symbols into clay tablets, affiliates need to be savvy in establishing a presence among throngs of online competitors. Which of these qualifies as the greater challenge is up for debate. Affiliates should always be striving to open new lines of communication with pro- spective operator partners. This includes connecting with the affiliate managers who can help them play a greater role in the iGaming sphere. So, how do affiliates optimize their communication with the iGaming operator audience? Where are you? Despite our promise of a sweeping nar- rative taking us through the evolution of social networking over the last two and a half millennia, we will start with some- thing a bit more pedestrian but immea- surably important: contact details. In a society like that of ancient Rome, news of new businesses could be distrib- uted through a couple of channels, pri- marily word of mouth and written com- munications that would gradually make their way across the empire. Suffice to say that key performance indicator estimates were modest at best. Today, target audiences need to be able to find you easily, and ideally, once they do find you they’re going to want to com- plete a call to action. Should they reach that point, it’s vital that you make it easy for them to contact you. Visitors to a site should be able to find an affiliate’s contact details less than a minute after arriving on the home page. Ideally, this should be eas- ily located in just seconds. As much as an affiliate manager may have interest in exploring a partnership at the onset, if it’s difficult to make contact it will naturally lessen the chance of developing a business relationship. Moreover, it sug- gests a lack of strategy in the design of the website itself. Perhaps the affiliate really is savvier than this oversight would suggest. But in a world where perception is reality, first impressions are absolute. It’s important to note that having acces- sible contact details does not mean that the affiliate has finished making a first im- pression. That comes when the visitor, af- filiate manager or otherwise, reaches out to the affiliate and receives a cordial reply. There is no point in making such informa- tion available unless the intention is to fol- low up and ensure that affiliate managers who are willing to invest their time do not feel as though that time has been wasted. Getting social There is such an overabundance of con- tent on the best ways to make use of social media in brand building and traffic driv- ing that an affiliate can quickly become lost in one big tangled mess of informa- tion. So let’s try to keep this simple and fo- cus on one key benefit to a well-conceived social media strategy: It is the most cost- effective way of reaching out to target au- diences and keeping them informed. Consider how information from a political speech delivered in Rome eventually tra- versed the empire to the east andwest.While some written copies were commissioned by the orator himself, the momentum of its cir- culation was fueled by the desire of others to both distribute and access the information. A strong link can be made between that ancient process of dissemination and what we currently see with Twitter, Face- book and even YouTube. Simply put, you can do a lot more for a lot less. Where a Roman politician would want to distribute news of the state, an affiliate may like to share information that rein- forces the social media strategies of both existing and coveted operator partners. In each case the first step is accessing the available tools to optimize the sharing of news. The second step is letting others do the work of spreading the message. Another similarity between these two unique periods of human history is that influence is still a by-product of consis- tency. One speech may attract a great deal of attention, as might a noteworthy tweet, shared article or viral campaign video. To sustain that influence, however, affiliates need to bolster their presence through the continued sharing of content that is both informative and engaging. 41 Expanding your affiliate presence