New Ways To Monetise Social Media

New ways to monetise social media

Alicia NavarroCEO & Founder

Where do I come from?Where do I come from?

We began as Skimbit.com, a social decision-making tool…

We began as Skimbit.com, a social decision-making tool…

…and became Skimlinks…and became Skimlinks

Observed performance of many different types of sites:

• Blogs• News sites• Magazine sites• Content sites• Social shopping sites• Forums• Widgets and web apps• Twitter

Observed performance of many different types of sites:

• Blogs• News sites• Magazine sites• Content sites• Social shopping sites• Forums• Widgets and web apps• Twitter

BlogsBlogs

News sitesNews sites

Magazine sitesMagazine sites

Content sitesContent sites

Social shopping sitesSocial shopping sites

ForumsForums

Widgets and web appsWidgets and web apps

TwitterTwitter

Affiliate marketing is hard to do well

• Small % of affiliates make a lot of money

• Technically challenging

• Time-consuming

• Error-prone

• Onerous maintenance

• Fragmented networks and merchants

• Competition from cashback/coupon

Traditional publishers don’t do it at all

• Core business is content and community

• Structured around display ads

• Fragmented departments

• Editors don’t think commercially/technically

• Requires distribution of logins to everyone

• Tend not to link to broad variety of merchants

• Yet these publishers carry influence and traffic

Traditional banner advertising not working

• Ad blindness

• Low CPM rates

• Limit to number of ads on page

• Brand advertisers don’t like small sites

• Small sites struggle to make money

• Web 2.0 technologies ≠ high page impressions

• Incentivises keeping users onsite

Source: IAB/PricewaterhouseCoopers

Social media sites convert much better

• Forums convert 5-10x more than editorial sites• Social shopping and blogs convert 2-3x more

than editorial• Personalised recommendations • Deeper links• Friendlier calls to action

New movement: Change the way sites monetise

New movement: Change the way sites monetise

Sites should be rewarded based on:

• The calibre of traffic• The delivery of a service• The fostering of a community• Allowing and encouraging outbound links

Social media monetisation is the future!

• Nurture an eco-system that encourages more forums and social sites to form

• First way these sites can genuinely monetise!• Initial pain for merchants (was free traffic)• Future joy for merchants:

– More forums created– Better moderation and encouragement– Compelling designs– More optimised search for posts

Opens way for more forums & social sites

• Traditionally a labour of love– Expensive to run (licenses, hosting, bandwidth)– Pressure to be free and run fast (no ads)

• New business model = new innovations• Great for all parties

– Merchants get communities talking about them, and highly converting traffic

– Publishers can sustain their sites– Users continue to use valuable services for free, no

intrusive ads

Ethical framework is required

Value chain of ethics…to publishers…to users…to merchants

Ethical framework is required

Value chain of ethics…to publishers…to users…to merchants

Rules for ethical behaviour to users

1. Must uphold user/site contract

2. Non-intrusive to user experience

3. Always err on side of user-experience

4. Be careful when fiddling with UGC

5. Retain editorial integrity6. Disclosure (it may help

with revenue!)

How to retain editorial integrity

• Editors write what they want, but add link out if they have an affiliate program

• Use services to allow agnosticism• Rotate attention to different merchants• Offer multiple links to products• Link to where editor would look – make it useful• Avoid finance/news, just subjective content

Examples of disclosure

Ethical grey areas

• Avoid affiliate-enabling pure news• Take care when making financial

recommendations without disclosing affiliations

• Using affiliate links in URL shorteners/Twitter– Standard way needed to disclose– Can lead to mistrust unless genuine

Rules for ethical behaviour to merchants

• Add value to the purchase process– Value = content OR a service– An eco-system that encourages purchases

• Therefore:– No cookie stuffing random merchants– No toolbars– Coupon/cashback need to add value to brand

• Reward merchants that perform well for you– Extra content/widgets– Use their CPA banner ads

Nice things to do for merchants• Offer differentiated service to merchants

– More content– More links out

• “ASOS don’t have an affiliate program so lets not link to them as often. Focus on products from merchants that have an affiliate program.”

New services to reward great merchants

New services to reward great merchants

Rules for ethical behaviour to publishers

• Reward highly converting traffic• Reward community managers• Grasp opportunity of social media• Support deeplinking to products and search

result pages• Offer good landing pages for out-of-stock

products

Conclusion• Social media sites

should be rewarded and nurtured as they are the best converting type of site

• Remain ethical to user and merchant

• Help publishers that drive traffic to your site to survive.

Thankyou

• [email protected]

• http://www.skimlinks.com