Social media is used by more than 3.6 billion people around the world and a lot of them want to earn money from social media. But not many people know how to make money on social media and how to monetize their followers.
There are people who make $1,000 for a single post on their social accounts. And this is a bare minimum. Instagram influencers, on average, make $10,000 for a single post. No matter what social media platform you are using, you can monetize it and earn money.
How to do it?
Let’s find out.
Prerequisites of Making Money on Social Media
There are a few basic prerequisites that you must meet to start earning money on social media. These include:
Followers
You need followers if you want to make money on social networking platforms. The more followers you have, the better.
More followers mean better reach and this is what brands are more interested in. Even if you aren’t interested in brand collaboration, a high number of followers will mean more money.
For example, if your followers convert at 1%, you’ll have 10 conversions with 1,000 followers, 100 conversions with 10,000 followers, and 1,000 conversions with 100,000 followers.
Quantity matters.
It is similar to website traffic, the more you have the better.
Engagement
How active your followers are is equally important (if not more). If you have a million followers who don’t like and comment on your posts won’t deliver great results as compared to 10,000 followers who like and comment on every post.
It is all about engagement.
Here is an example of an engaged audience. With just over 2,000 followers, this post received 132 likes:
Here is an example from Fast Company that has 646K followers but only 190 liked the post:
If you want to make money on social media, you must engage with your audience. If they don’t bother your content, it won’t work.
Quality Content
Finally, publish quality content regularly. Publish new posts often to keep the audience engaged, increase your reach, and build your credibility.
How often to publish on social media?
Here is a great infographic to help you figure out how often to publish on social media:
Ideally, you must publish at least once per day to show your followers you are alive and active, and they must stick with you.
How to Make Money on Social Media
So, how to make money on social media once you have a decent number of engaged followers and you are posting high-quality content regularly on your preferred platform?
The best techniques include:
- Affiliate marketing
- Sponsored posts
- Join influencer networks
- Outreach
- Create your products.
1. Affiliate Marketing
One of the best ways to make money on social media sites is via affiliate marketing. You can promote relevant affiliate offers and get paid. Here is an example of how to promote affiliate products:
Here is how it works:
- Identify relevant affiliate products on top affiliate networks that your audience is most likely to purchase
- Don’t spam your followers by adding affiliate links in every post rather do it naturally and in a planned manner. Mix affiliate offers with quality content
- Create a schedule and promote affiliate offers maybe once or twice per week
- Focus on problem-solving. Guide your followers on how the affiliate product you have recommended will help them solve a problem they’re facing
- Recommend multiple products instead of one to keep things natural
- Add an affiliate disclosure statement and tell your followers you have added an affiliate link in the social post.
Affiliate marketing will work if your followers are engaged and take your recommendations seriously. Else, nobody will click your affiliate links and it might backfire. So, before you try affiliate marketing, make sure your followers are highly engaged.
2. Sponsored Posts
It is the most famous and most used way to earn money on social media. A sponsored post is where you get paid by the brand for talking about them. It could be a product mention, product review, product recommendation, a case study, or any other kind of post.
Here is how a sponsored post looks like:
The content is finalized after mutual discussion. However, you must disclose that it is a sponsored post as it will improve your credibility.
How much you will get paid depends on the number of followers you have. If you have under 2000 followers, you’ll be paid $124 per post on average and $1,405 per post on average for more than a million followers:
These rates aren’t fixed and there is always room for negotiation. If you have an engaged audience in a specific niche, you can bargain and charge more for sponsored posts.
You need to mention in your bio that you are available for sponsored posts so that brands and marketers can contact you.
3. Influencer Networks
This is the best way to get noticed and paid on social media. Join influencer networking platforms as these are the platforms that businesses use to find influencers and partners.
Influencer networks will connect you with the right brands and marketers that helps a lot in monetizing your social media account. It doesn’t matter how many followers you have, you must join influencer networks of your choice.
Here is a list of the top networks you can choose from:
Sign up with multiple influencer networking platforms and update your profile. Leading brands and marketers use these platforms to find influencers so your chances of making money on social media will increase significantly if you are on these networks.
Final Thoughts
Once you have a decent number of followers who are active and engaged, you don’t have to worry about or even look for ways on how to make money on social media. You’ll see tons of ways to generate income without much effort.
Brands will start contacting you, there will be branding opportunities, you’ll receive partnership offers, and so on. The only thing that you must focus on is follower engagement. It is the key to making money on any social networking platform these days.
Featured Image: Pexels
