How to Share Affiliate Links on Social Media

As social media continues to surge in popularity, we’ve received lots of questions from publishers about how and where to post affiliate links.

In response to those requests, we created this handy guide! We'll walk through how and where to share affiliate links on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, and live streaming platforms Discord and Twitch. 

This article was last updated on September 21, 2021.

What to Know Before You Post

• You are legally required by the FTC to disclose any relationship with a brand that is giving you compensation in exchange for promotion. Yes, this includes affiliate links shared on social media. Read the FTC’s guidance for disclosing on social media.
• Before you start, you’ll need to add your social media accounts to your CJ publisher account under Account > Websites > Promotional Property Manager.
• Once you’ve added your social accounts to the Promotional Property Manager, each social account will have a PID, or Property ID associated with it. When grabbing your affiliate link using the Deep Link Generator tool or in the links tab within your CJ account, make sure to select the website you’ll be sharing to. This alters the link with the correct PID and allows you and the advertisers you promote to know exactly where the traffic or sales you referred are coming from in CJ reporting.
• You may place links on social media sites that you own, but not on sites that belong to others. Placing links on sites owned by others violates CJ’s network quality standards and will lead to account deactivation.

Facebook

Facebook allows you to share affiliate links to your Timeline and the About section.

Timeline

1. Navigate to your Facebook page.
2. Scroll to the top of your News Feed and under Create Post click the gray text next to your profile picture.
3. Enter the affiliate link, an image if applicable, and any necessary description or copy to give the link more context. A preview of the destination URL will appear below the text.
4. If it looks good, then click Post.

More detailed information about editing URLs and images in your posts can be found in Facebook’s Help Center article, How do I share a link from my Facebook Page?

About Section

You can also include clickable links in the About section, under Contact and Basic Info. This section is set up to add your websites and social links, as well as additional content which may contain affiliate links.

Instagram

On Instagram, there are two areas where you can place a clickable link: your Instagram Bio and Instagram Story Swipe-Up.

Instagram Bio

Instagram allows all users to post a link in this section, but you’re limited to a single link.

1. Navigate to your Instagram Profile and click Edit Profile.
2. Add the link to the Website field.
3. If you have more links to share with your followers, tools like LinkTree and Linkinbio can help.

Instagram Story

If your Instagram account is a business or creator account with 10k+ followers, Instagram gives you the ability to add a clickable URL via an Instagram Link Sticker in your Instagram stories (although Instagram recently shared that they're currently testing making Instagram Story links available to all account sizes). Formerly a Swipe Up feature, Instagram replaced the swipe with the sticker in August 2021.

1. In the Instagram app, tap the plus sign icon in the upper right corner and select Story (or, swipe right to get to the Story screen in one quick step).
2. Create your Instagram Story by taking a photo, video, or adding previously captured content via your phone’s library.
3. After uploading content to your Story, tap the sticker icon in the top row.

4. Tap the Link sticker or search in your Instagram Stories sticker tray for the link sticker.

5. Add the URL of the CJ tracking link and select Done.
6. Make sure to include a call to action in your Story so that your followers know to click through.
7. Send to your Story!

Pinterest

Here are the steps we took to pin an affiliate link on Pinterest:

1. Choose the product you want to promote from one of your joined advertisers.
2. Find and download the product image from the Links > Products page in your CJ publisher account.
3. Save the image for your pin locally on your computer.
4. Click the “+” button on Pinterest to create a pin.
5. Drag and drop or click to upload your product image to Pinterest.
6. Add your affiliate link as the Destination Link. Generate an affiliate link using the Deep Link Generator tool or grabbing the click url from the Links>Search section of your CJ publisher account. It’s a short link that should look something like this: http://www.jdoqocy.com/click-xxxxxxx-xxxxxxx
7. Add a description or any copy to state what the pin is about.
8. Choose the board you want to pin to.
9. Save!

Note: Due to Pinterest rules, the visible URL in the pin will be the first redirect which is the CJ tracking domain.

TikTok

TikTok allows affiliate links for business accounts. To sign up for a business account or switch your personal account to a business account, use the TikTok app as the desktop version of TikTok doesn’t have an option for switching account types.

1. Click on the three lines at the top right to open Settings and Privacy
2. Select Manage Account
3. Choose Switch to Business Account
4. Choose one category for the account
5. Add your CJ tracking link to the Website field.
6. If you have more links to share with your followers, tools like LinkTree and Linkinbio can help.

Twitter

On Twitter, it’s easy to add affiliate links to your tweets, bio section, or direct messages by typing or pasting the tracking URL just like you would when sharing any other link.

Note that all links included in Tweets are shortened by Twitter using their t.co service. When viewing the Tweet on twitter.com the original URL (or shortened version of the original URL) will be displayed. When clicked, the link would redirect through a t.co link before arriving at its destination to an advertiser's site.

Why? Twitter shortens links to protect users from malicious sites that engage in spreading malware, phishing attacks, and other harmful activity. A link converted by Twitter’s link service is checked against a list of potentially dangerous sites.

YouTube

Affiliate links can be posted in the Video Description or in the comments below the description. Adding too many links can violate YouTube rules regarding spam, so limit your choice of links to the video topic.

Video Description

Providing links in this area helps followers learn more about the products or services you presented in your video. Links to your other promotional properties (website and social channels) are allowed as long as they are registered in your YouTube account.

Comments

If you allow comments below your Video Description, you may include a link in one of your own comments, as long as it is related to the video. Posting links in the comments sections of other vloggers is a violation of the platform’s policies.

Streaming Platforms

Video streaming platforms that are primarily used for gaming often will allow user content including links in the Bio, Chat, and About Me sections.

Discord

You can drag and drop text links into the Chat box in your own server to share them with your community. Don’t post your affiliate links on servers belonging to other members. It’s a best practice to disclose that it’s an affiliate link.

Twitch

User content, including links, can be included in Stream Chat. Twitch allows user-generated content throughout the platform in virtually all media available according to their Terms of Service.

--

Happy posting!