Part 1 of the iGaming affiliate practice series provided a comprehensive guide on how pull away from the market competition and touched on the importance of affiliates embracing the power of social.

Here, in Part 2 of the series, we dig deeper to look at the 5 Social Media tips Affiliates need to take on board to become the iGaming industry’s number one social voice:

1. Don’t Be Too Promotional

A high number of affiliates still have the age-old view that “the more promotions the better”. Whereas this was once the case in the past, online audiences now crave content that not only offers something of value but also content that triggers the sought-after emotional connection.

Affiliates should take a leaf out of arguably the iGaming’s leader in the social sphere’s book – Paddy Power. Finding the optimum mix to promote exciting, engaging content along with promotional content that will drive direct traffic to your site and ultimately end in the all-important conversions, isn’t always easy.

Paddy Power capture the attention of their audience (often through humour), before using pushing promotional content. The formula seems easy: grab the attention, and then get the eyes of your audience looking in the right direction at the right time.

2. Visual Content Will Get You Shared

Recent Cisco studies have forecast that “by 2017, video content will account for 69% of all consumer traffic”, so it’s no surprise that this is the next clear opportunity affiliates need turn their attention towards.

A 2014 SocialBakers research study found that 75% of the worldwide brand content posted on Facebook in 2014 were images, and with these images came an impressive 87% interaction rate.

The above example comes from Coral’s Twitter account. In the space of 2 hours, the video gained over 100 retweets and over 100 favourites.

It’s clear to see that from research findings and real-life examples, that the power of visual content is the now and the future.

3. Establish & Portray A Clear Brand Personality

Social Media audiences like to humanize brands.

In the iGaming industry, the value of brand personality is often overlooked by affiliates and it’s normally the operators that really integrate it into their Marketing Strategy.

According to Buzzsumo’s (2014) study, the top 8 popular emotions that inspire users to share content on social platforms are:

• Awe
• Anger
• Laughter
• Amusement
• Joy
• Empathy
• Sadness
• Surprise

Affiliates should understand the primary emotions of their audience they want to trigger and strategise how best to use this knowledge to appeal to new audiences all stemming from a defined social personality.

4. Capitalise On Trends & Make Them Relevant To Your Audience

Trendjacking, aka Newsjacking. The point above discussed the importance of having a defined brand personality; and trendjacking can help amplify this without compromising your brand voice.

Getting involved in the right trending topics and adding your own brands twist to it is single-handedly one of the most time and cost-effective methods of social media marketing.

Paddy Power are the specialists in trendjacking. With all the attention on the new FIFA election, Paddy Power straight away injected their tongue-in-cheek brand personality into it to create a simple image tweet which acquired almost 1,000 retweets.

Time-consuming? NO

Effective? YES

In the Affiliates vs Operators war, those affiliates who choose to use this tactic wisely, can find themselves on a social pedestal quicker than they ever imagined.

5. And Finally… Educate, Educate, Educate!

The final piece of the social media puzzle is to educate your audience. As an affiliate, along with your promotional social content, you should also be providing trusted advice in the form of tips and news. Teach your online communities and they’ll be sure to bring this value back to you in the near-future.