This infographic was made to be a handy guide for both Merchants and Affiliates to reference when posting on social media. You want to ensure you are presenting your brand, your site and your blog in the best light possible. Follow these simple sizing, formatting and timing guidelines and you will be off to a great start this year. 

MERCHANTS

Every post counts as a reflection on your brand. Make sure that each message is consistent and visually appealing to best represent the products or services you sell.  Use authentic and unique language – don’t become a social media robot with generic copy and stock images! You would be surprised how just a little promotion on social channels can go a long way for even the simplest of posts, especially with a well thought-out campaign behind it. 

Don’t discount Instagram, while you cannot “click” a link on it, there are many creative ways it is used to highlight a product or show off your brand, and it is VERY popular with distinct age groups that you may not normally reach. While it may not be very scientific, supporting a presence on Instagram is great for branding and awareness. 

It should go unsaid, but do not continuously or inconsistently post on social outlets. Users could interpret this as a form of spam and get “turned off” by it. It is an easy way to lose followers, and give people a negative view of your brand. Schedule a few posts per day at the correct times, and you should see success in your campaigns. 

AFFILIATES

Affiliates, your goal is to have people clicking on those links as much as possible. For this to happen, there are some things to keep in mind: first and foremost, pay attention to the timing. You should be able to use a general analytics page which will show you when you had the most traffic and engagement on your posts. Use this information to your benefit and TEST, make some posts around the “hot” times and maybe even experiment with promoting them.

Utilize the ShareASale Custom Link creator to create short links (we call them ‘License Plate Links’) that you can use on your social media sites without taking up much space in your posts. More information on these can be found here:

Can’t Find the Right Link? Create Your Own! – ShareASale Blog

Remember that hashtags you use on Instagram also work when you share it to Facebook and Twitter (and vice versa). Utilize them wisely, 2-3 hashtags is a good number to increase the number of views of your posts. Having the option to make a great visual post on one social media site and then share it (with all the hashtags intact) to two others is a big help in boosting that post organically.

Resources:

Hubspot – The Best Times to Post on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other Social Media Sites

Hubspot – Ultimate Cheat Sheet to Social Media Image Dimensions

Buffer – The Complete Guide to Social Media Formatting

Convert With Content – 8 Ways to Stand Out On Instagram

Additional Resources