If the phrase “how to make money” caught your attention, and you clicked through right away, you’re going to enjoy this.
I want to share a few ideas on making money on social media.
Not only would you discover monetization methods, but you’d also get a perspective on social media impact.
The caveat is that this article is going to cover how social media influencers make money.
Who is a Social Media Influencer?
A social media influencer is a social media celebrity who has followers, impact, and the power to influence the audience.
An influencer can build or change the audience’s opinions, which becomes his/her superpower on social media.
Are you wondering how to become a social media influencer and whether you should read along this article if you are not one at the moment?
The answer is “yes” because sooner or later, you’d need to know all these things.
Are you still confused?
Let me elaborate on this.
I want you to answer these questions:
- Are you making videos on YouTube?
- Do you have a Facebook page?
- Are you interested in TikTok?
- Do you interact on LinkedIn?
- Are you active on Twitter?
So if one of the answers was “yes,” then you’re all set.
Means, you must know about influencer marketing, especially how to make money as a social media influencer in 2022.
Influencer marketing is on the rise for the past few years. Therefore, the number one medium for channeling influence is social media.
You must be excited to know how you can get your hands on the money-making methods on social media.
Let’s dive deep and find out.
#1: Monetize Videos on Facebook
Have you ever heard of Facebook monetization? Facebook offers video creators a money-making opportunity on the pages. You have to have at least one thousand fans before you could apply for monetization. Moreover, you can go through the details to find out how you can check the eligibility of your Facebook videos for monetization.
If you haven’t thought about uploading your original video content on Facebook, then you’re missing out on a lot of opportunities.
If you want to be a social media influencer, but haven’t done videos on social media before, then it’s time to get started with it. You’d hardly see any social media influencer who doesn’t upload videos on social media.
Platforms evolve over time and norms change every few years — you must know how to adapt along the way. When it comes to money-making on the internet, Facebook is among the platforms that pay content creators through content monetization.
However, there are a few things that you must understand as a social media influencer:
Upload Videos Natively on Facebook
It may seem difficult to go through all the trouble of uploading videos on Facebook, but it’s worth it. Most people simply upload on YouTube and paste the URL everywhere on social media — it doesn’t do justice to your video content. Facebook values natively uploaded content because it showcases the creators’ authenticity and seriousness toward the platform.
Retain Fans on the Platform
The next thing you might want to consider is trying to retain people on the platform. If you’re continuously trying to share links that are driving people off the platform, then Facebook may automatically start noticing this behavior, and you could end up decreasing your reach.
Engage the Audience through Your Content
Engagement is the key to social media growth and reach. To engage the audience, you must create relevant and interesting content that entices the audience to react or respond to it. The more the audience engages with the content, the higher the reach of your social media profiles.
So these were a few important points to consider while utilizing Facebook video.
As far as video monetization on Facebook is concerned, there is something you should know:
The key element which you need to comprehend is that “money” isn’t essentially the purpose of your video. If you keep persisting on the money part of the equation, you might lose interest in the content-making, which would be disastrous for your social media marketing campaign.
Secondly, you must know that the Facebook page is required to monetize your videos. Videos that are being uploaded through profiles aren’t monetizable. So make sure that if you want to cash in on your videos via Facebook, then upload them on your Facebook page rather than a profile.
Moreover, you can always share your videos through your profile if you want to share them with your friends. The more they get shared, the better.
Here’s how you can start monetizing your videos on Facebook:
Go to “Creator Studio” from the “Publishing Tools” section to get started.
Then, go to the “Monetization” section.
Go through all the details regarding page eligibility and monetization requirements.
Once you’re ready and eligible to apply for monetization, submit the application.
Once all done, you’re good to go.
Now, you can put out original, high-quality videos and make money with Facebook.
#2: Make Money with Instant Articles
If you haven’t heard of Instant Articles before, then let me elaborate on this first. Instant Articles is a Facebook feature that allows content publishers, brands, and news outlets to provide their readers with a faster and responsive way of reading content.
The fundamental idea of the Instant Articles feature is that it doesn’t take a reader off the Facebook platform, but instead, it displays the whole article right away without having to leave the Facebook app.
It’s faster, time-saving, and engaging; what it does is that it allows publishers and writers to get their content read easily, whereas, the user doesn’t leave Facebook, which is a huge plus for the platform.
Since we’re discussing how to make money, this Facebook feature has surely got this covered. If you’re into writing content, it could turn things around for you. The majority of social media influencers publish various forms of content, and written content is one of them.
It could easily bring in a few hundred bucks if you’re a social media influencer.
If you’re considering monetizing your articles with Instant Articles, pay close attention to the following factors:
- Direct-sold Ads:
You can serve direct-sold ads in Instant Articles. Facebook allows publishers to integrate third-party ad networks into Instant Articles and make money with their reach on Facebook.
- Audience Network:
You can also monetize your articles with the Facebook Audience Network. Simply sign-up with the network and embed the code into your site. You don’t have to be web-savvy to get this done.
- Ad Placement:
Ad placement means where to display and how to display an ad. You can choose either automatic or manual settings for placing ads in your Instant Articles.
- Branded Content:
Facebook allows branded content in Instant Articles. The branded content is sponsored content that has paid promotions mentioned in the content. Social media influencers often create branded content whether they are videos, articles, or podcasts.
If you’re wondering how to get started with Instant Articles, here is the step-by-step process of setting up Instant Articles:
- Sign Up with Instant Articles
First things first, you need to sign up for Instant Articles to be able to access the feature and allow Facebook to review your content. Remember that it’s free to sign up for Instant Articles; don’t let anyone scare you off.
- Create a Style for Instant Articles
What it means is that you have to choose a pattern of how you want your articles to be displayed in Instant Articles on Facebook. Go to the “Configuration” section in “Publishing Tools” of your Facebook page setting and scroll down to the “Styles” option. Then you can create your style for Instant Articles. Moreover, you could upload your blog or site logo to display the articles.
- Import Your Articles
An essential step of setting up Instant Articles for your blog or website is importing your articles for submission. At this stage, you’d have to decide whether you want to import articles through the RSS feed or through connecting your content management system. Else, you could also take the help of a developer for setting up Instant Articles API.
If you’re using a third-party content management system such as WordPress or Drupal, you can grab the plugin and install it on your site to configure it with Facebook Instant Articles.
- Connect Your Site
At this point, you need to authorize your site to begin converting the articles into Instant Articles. To make this happen, go to the configuration in publishing tools, and click on the connect your site. Furthermore, if you’re using WordPress, then you’d have to provide the URL while setting up the plugin. If you use an API or an RSS feed, you’ll also need to add a piece of code to the <head> of your website’s HTML.
- Submit 10 Articles for Review
Once you’re done, you’re good to go for articles submission. You can submit up to 10 articles to be included in the Instant Articles program. Please remember that the team at Facebook manually reviews content to make sure that all publishers are following the content guidelines and Partner Monetization Policies. It may take 3 to 5 days to get the articles approved.
So that’s another way to make money for social media influencers.
- Join the YouTube Partner Program
YouTube Partner Program is a widely popular online money-making tool for video creators, brands, celebs, and influencers. YouTube Partner Program (YPP) enables YouTubers to earn a living by doing what they love on the giant video platform.
It opens up the opportunity for social media influencers to make money with their videos. Since they have attention so they don’t necessarily have to struggle much to be able to wait for such opportunities.
If you’re just starting out, you may have to reach a specific threshold to get approved in YouTube Partner Program. As of now, you must have gotten at least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours in the last 12 months to be able to get approved in the YouTube Partner Program.
Here are three things you should know if you want to cash in on the YouTube Partner Program:
- Quality matters on YouTube
What I mean by “quality matters on YouTube” is that this platform has an abundance when it comes to content. So it’s difficult to break through and build an audience. What you need to do is stand out from the crowd to win. So quality content would make a difference in such a situation.
- You can’t succeed without consistency
Consistency is the key to success on YouTube. What happens is that sometimes it doesn’t work out for some creators and they quit YouTube. On the other hand, some creators experiment with their content and even come up with new ideas or channels and succeed eventually. So if you’re being consistent on the platform, you’ll get through.
- The appeal works on YouTube
“The appeal works on YouTube” means that you have to make your content attractive to get the attention of the audience. There are several ways to do that, for example, choose an attractive title, create catchy thumbnails, and pick popular topics in your niche to talk about. All these techniques help you stand out and get your voice heard on that platform.
If you’ve developed a social media following on other platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or TikTok, try bringing them to YouTube by naturally injecting your YouTube channel into your content on other platforms.
It’s not just about making money as a social media influencer; YouTube must be an important platform for any social media influencer. In case, you haven’t started producing videos on social media, it’s time to get started with it.
#4: Find Social Media Sponsorship
The opportunities to make money for social media influencers are pretty much unlimited. When you have the attention and audience, you can dominate almost every social media platform.
One of the ways for social media influencers to make money is to get their hands on sponsorship opportunities.
There are many platforms out there that connect social media influencers to the brands and provide the facility to strike sponsorship deals. I’ll highlight some of the popular influencer marketing platforms in a bit.
Before we dig deeper into this, you must know what it takes to get social media sponsorship:
An In-depth connection with your followers
It’s essential to have a deep connection with your followers, especially if you want to be a social media influencer. This type of connection is built on trust and loyalty. Thus, delivering value to the audience without any expectations provides a foundation for this connection. So don’t shy away from being the bigger person and provide as much value as possible to the audience. That’s how it works.
An Engaging audience on social platforms
One of the key requirements to succeed in influencer marketing is an engaged audience. If your followers don’t respond to you, then you lose all the leverage of being a social media influencer. Therefore, it only becomes possible if you have an in-depth relationship with your followers. So you’ll be better off if you come up with a plan to engage the audience. You’ll read about content strategy later on, which would help clarify the picture.
Presence on multiple social media platforms
When an influencer dominates on multiple social media platforms, meaning, the person has a sizeable audience on more than one platform, it becomes a huge advantage for the influencer. The reason is that it adds authenticity to the profile. It shows that people are genuinely following this person and want to stay connected with him on multiple platforms. Brands like to work with influencers that have the power to engage, attract, and convert the audience.
A content strategy to help the audience
To build influence, social media experts and influencers create content that helps their audience. What matters is the content strategy that drives the content in the right direction. If your content is pointless or doesn’t make any sense, then it won’t be effective from the marketing and engagement point of view.
Awareness of the influencer marketing platforms
Last but not least is the awareness of influencer marketing platforms. Meaning, you must know the right influencer marketing platforms to get started with them. Go through their websites and see where you fit in. Here are some of the most popular influencer marketing platforms:
So sponsorship deals could be a viable option for making money on social media.
All you need is to have some following and influence on social media.
If you’re wondering you don’t have millions of followers so there is no chance for you to dominate this space, then you’re wrong.
A lot of Instagrammers with at least five thousand followers get accepted at many influencer marketing platforms. It’s true that such influencer marketing platforms have criteria to accept the influencers into their program, and the number of followers, is one of the factors.
But, it shouldn’t stop you from making money on social media in 2022.
If you have five thousand followers on Instagram or ten thousand likes on Facebook, you can attract so many relevant brands and work out sponsorship deals with them.
In today’s social media world, the opportunities are overwhelmingly enough to focus on the right ones.
#5: Monetize Your Articles
The statement “monetize your articles” is surely going to confuse a few readers.
They’d think: am I going to talk about Google AdSense or Affiliate marketing?
The answer is neither.
I’ll be discussing two standalone online publishing platforms that have partner programs for writers to make money.
It may surprise you that you could get paid for publishing articles on the internet. There are publishing platforms that pay publishers based on the number of views the articles get. It’s, however, not the best way to put it in, but you got the point. Right?
Sure, the whole articles’ monetization system would have different metrics and criteria that determine how much money an article generates. I won’t go deep into that; you’d read more on this later on here at ContentStudio blog.
But you should know that being a social media influencer, you can get paid for your articles. However, there are certain factors that make it happen.
Let me shed some light on those factors:
- The eye-catching topics get the attention of the readers. Don’t mix up article topics with the article titles. The article topics generally refer to the category of the articles. For instance, if you’re interested in entrepreneurship, you could publish articles related to entrepreneurs’ life or struggles. The better the topic, the higher the chance to get attention.
- Attractive article titles help the authors in attracting readers. Let’s be honest, nobody pays attention to the mundane titles. For instance, an article with the title “How I made $300 dollars with blogging in a month” would get more attention than “How to win as a businessman.” The reason is obvious; the first one seems more attractive.
- Well-written content matters a lot because if the content has grammatical or sentence structuring mistakes, it would showcase that the content isn’t properly edited. The readers lose interest in reading such content. So don’t neglect the quality of your copy when you publish articles on the internet.
- Experimentation opens up new opportunities. What it means is that if the articles you’ve published aren’t getting any views, then try experimenting with more genres or sub-categories of the same genre. There are almost no guarantees that what would work for you. So testing helps you understand what type of content could break in and disrupt the market.
- Collaboration helps the cause. When you’re publishing articles, you’re a content creator. And, there are so many opportunities such as affiliate marketing and sponsorship deals for content creators. You can make money off your articles by collaborating with brands or promoting affiliate products.
- Engagement works on every social platform. So don’t shy away from starting conversations on publishing platforms. If someone likes your content, start off saying “thanks” or ask questions to further write relevant content. The more people would interact with you underneath your articles, the better.
Publishing Platforms to Make Money
1. Medium
Medium is a popular writing platform for authors, bloggers, and business owners to come forward, share ideas, and deliver value to the audience. Not only does it provide a platform to share your thoughts and ideas, but it also helps businesses share their solutions for the customers.
Medium Partner Program is a viable option for social media influencers who write content or have a team of writers to publish articles for them. Their monetization system is rather unique; you get paid based on the attention your articles get. Read more about the Medium Partner Program by clicking here.
2. Vocal
Vocal is another publishing network that allows writers to publish articles across multiple sections of their website. It is undoubtedly an emerging publishing platform after Medium.
Vocal does have a revenue-sharing model for authors and writers. You can sign up and get started with making money with your articles. They also pay authors based on the number of views on their articles. Simply put, they pay based on the number of reads an article gets.
#6: Earn Extra Cash with Podcasting
There are so many ways to make money for social media influencers. You must have heard influencers talk about their podcasts or been invited to someone else’s podcast.
If you haven’t heard of the podcast, then here is some explanation for you:
The podcast is on-demand audio content that is distributed through the web.
In other words, it’s audio content that is distributed through RSS across multiple online platforms. The audio content competes head-to-head with video content. Therefore, podcasting is one of the major avenues for audio content.
The question, however, is how one can make money with podcasting.
The answer is that there are podcasting platforms that have partner programs, meaning, you can monetize your podcasts. As your numbers start to grow, your podcast could generate revenue on a monthly basis.
Let’s take a look at a couple of podcasting platforms that have partner programs:
- Stitcher
Stitcher is a popular podcast platform that offers a revenue-sharing model for users who’re interested in partnering with them. It’s a freemium service for listeners, meaning, they have both free and paid plans. Moreover, if you want to make money with podcasting, then check out their partner program. - Anchor
Anchor is the fastest-growing podcasting platform that is completely free to use. The best thing about Anchor is that it doesn’t require you to set up an RSS feed and audio hosting separately. It does everything for you. Moreover, you can record, edit, and upload your podcast right from the Anchor mobile app. They have a sponsorship feature to make money from podcasting. You can insert your sponsorship ad in your episode to get paid once the monetization is enabled.
So these were two podcasting platforms that make podcasting monetization easier than ever.
If you’re a social media influencer, and you haven’t started making money with podcasting, then you’re definitely leaving money on the table.
A lot of social media influencers have already been podcasting for quite some time. Gary Vaynerchuk, Tim Ferris, Tony Robbins, Pat Flynn, to name a few.
It may look a little odd at first because you may not have done it before. So try to make the most of this opportunity.
It’s time to take action
So I shared six ways to make money as a social media influencer.
If you’re someone who has Instagram or YouTube following, but you haven’t thought about being a social media influencer, then take action now.
Now, you know that there are opportunities out there that you can cash in on right away.
You can get paid for videos, articles, and even the podcast.
What you shouldn’t forget is that things may not happen very quickly; all it requires is how you sustain and stay persistent.
A lot of people quit just because they don’t see any return on investment (of their time and energy) in a month or so.
It doesn’t work that way; people spend years and years and then suddenly things turn upside down.
When you keep going forward, you evolve along the way and learn things you might not be able to learn otherwise.
So, let me know what you’re going to do about social media.
I’m interested in your thoughts and ideas.