At the F8 Facebook developer conference last week, Facebook unveiled three major launches of interest to the affiliate marketing industry.

The new tools were presented by Mark Zukerberg, the CEO of the company, and Bret Taylor, the Head of Platform Products, and are as follows:

1) Social plug-ins:
With this tool, developers and affiliates will have the ability to integrate certain key Facebook features (‘plug-ins’) into their websites. These will include the ‘Like’ button, for example, which is being offered to publishers so that users can watch if their friends have ‘Liked’ material on their site. Other examples of plug-ins available are the ‘Recommended’ box and the ‘Activities’ feed.

two) Open graph protocol:
In effect this is a map of each individual user – their likes and their friends’ likes, their habits etc. – which can be utilised by publishers to make a targeted and suitable recommendation to users.

3) Graph API:
Developers will be able to access the Open Graph API which they can pull as a live feed of Facebook data.

The new tools being offered by Facebook will potentially allow search affiliates to deliver targeted campaigns to its 400-million user audience and are being seen as a positive development in Facebook’s relationship with affiliates.

For search engine optimisation there are distinct advantages to using an SEO professional rather than managing the process yourself.

For a start, SEO companies will have extensive knowledge of the latest developments in SEO and will be able to tailor-make a campaign to meet your specific company needs. And, very importantly, an SEO professional would know better than to indulge in certain practices that can seriously damage your brand reputation and get your site demoted or even blacklisted by search engines.

There are a number of practices that could bring this about. They include cloaking, using stacked titles, keyword spamming, using duplicate content and linking to awful sites.

SEO experts should be able you to research new keywords and relate these to web pages on your site, all the while ensuring that the right keyword density is maintained. They may well have good connections to help you get in-links from highly trafficked, relevant third-party sites – a heavily weighted factor in Google's search algorithm.

When in doubt it is always better to consult a professional to ensure you achieve a high search engine ranking without incurring any risks. With your reputation and the financial stakes so high, the risk of going it alone if you don’t know what you are doing is just not worth it. There are plenty of reputable SEO companies to turn to.

This article was brought to you by Newsvend – delivering online news, blogs and other unique content. Adding unique and relevant content is a key factor in search engine optimisation.

From bingo operators to travel companies, from footwear retailers to fast-food firms, successful companies in the UK and throughout the world are increasingly turning to affiliate marketing as an important part of their sales and marketing strategy.

To follow are five simple tips to consider when implementing an affiliate marketing campaign:

one) Be sure to use a reputable affiliate agency or network for your campaign. You can capitalise on their prior experience, knowledge and relationships with affiliate partners.

2) Prepare well. Make sure you have the tools you need for an effective affiliate marketing campaign. These include creative and clear messages regarding what you want to achieve.

3) Know your competition and the key drivers in your industry. You can use the information to your advantage.

four) Always keep affiliates informed. You can use various communication channels to keep them up-to-date on any upcoming online and offline marketing campaigns or other relevant developments. Make it a two-way channel so that you listen to what they have to say too.

five) Monitor the campaign closely to make sure that affiliates are not earning commission through sales that your brand would have gained besides through or email marketing or online search.