While some old fashioned definitions of career may disagree, but being a popular, well-known, and influential personality in the world of social media today is nothing short of a career. Several personalities on the web that you may already be aware of are doing much more than just paying their bills with their influence on social media.
So if you are wondering what the best ways to get some finances flowing through social media influence are, here are some of them.
1. Sponsored Posts
Sponsored posts are the most popular means by which social media influencers are making money these days. This arrangement is known as influencer marketing. The experts over at social book (https://socialbook.io/influencer-marketing) estimate that influencer marketing has become a 5-10 billion dollar industry. Social media influencers have large followings, which means lots of attention something brands would be more than happy to capitalize off of, hence in this arrangement brands pay influencers to promote either their entire brand or a particular product in their post. Said posts can be entirely about a single product or could include a multitude of products, the posts can be about the product specifically or can be regarding any content where the product can be featured.
2. Brand Ambassadorship
When a brand assigns a brand ambassador, it is more than just a one-time sponsored post activity; a brand ambassadorship requires the influencer to sign a contract with the company that may last anywhere between a couple of months to a couple years. As a result of this contract, the influencer will receive all of the brand’s latest products in return for promoting them all over their social media. There are various types of contracts between brands and influencers in the realm of ambassadorship, some of which allow for additional earnings for every time they make a promotion for the brand in one of their contents.
3. Co-creation with Brands
This one is for some of the influencers who are already ahead in the race. If an influencer has already built a particularly large following and has done multiple partnerships, then the next (somewhat logical) step would be to partner with a brand to create a unique and original product. Promoting a product that the influencers create themselves partnering with a brand will add to their credibility as an influencer and will also allow them to potentially have a percentage share in the profits from the product, depending upon their involvement in the creation process.
4. Original Merchandise
If a social media influencer is popular enough, their own name can turn into something of a brand. Once an influencer has reached that level, then instead of partnering with a brand to make products, with a small investment, the influencer themselves can make their own products. This investment may be a bit more long term, but it will make sure that all the profits, growth, and benefits come directly to the influencer and their brand. This is why while this may seem like a lot more effort than just partnering with an already popular brand to produce a good, creating one for yourself will lead to a lot more profit in all spheres of the business.
5. Patreon
Patreon accounts are a popular entity among social media influencers these days as they allow for a way to monetize the content directly. Patreon allows an influencer the option to sell exclusive content to their followers in return for some small fee. This exclusive content can include various types, for example, extended versions of videos or songs, podcasts or streams that the influencer only plays on patreon or early access to upcoming content. Setting up a patreon account is easy to do, and this method of making money through social media influence is particularly effective for influencers with loyal and dedicated followings.
While all of these are “methods” to make money as a social media influencers, here are some tips to becoming and staying an influencer who will reap the benefits of his/her efforts:
1. Top-notch content
It goes without saying that if there is any chance of someone becoming an influencer, to begin with, they need to be producing high-quality content. Any brands that may wish to collaborate with an influencer will surely evaluate the quality of their content along with their influence. The mark of high-quality content is usually the use of excellent equipment, creative scripts, attractive thumbnails and fun, and witty captions, etc. These are the standard of the internet set up by the internet itself and must be obliged by every social media influencer whether up and coming or already established.
2. Consistency
Social media influencer is a fulltime job title. If you are to make a considerable income from this, then your social media needs to be buzzing all the time. The human attention span is becoming shorter, and the things demanding attention on social media are ever-growing in number, which means that if you are to attain and maintain a position as a social media influencer, you need to consistently produce content.
3. Interact with your Audience
The beauty of social media over regular old fashioned media is that in the latter influencers and celebrities etc. could only showcase their content while through the former influencers now have an opportunity to interact one-on-one with their audience and establish a connection which will lead to a loyal following, something that all potential partners such as brands will be searching for when they look for influencers to collaborate with. This engagement can be done by asking your followers questions, doing daily challenges, providing useful information, prompting them to make content which you would like to see more of.
The life of a social media influencer is nothing short of anybody working an office job from 9 to 5 in terms of hard work, strict discipline, and certainly not in terms of the paychecks they make, which help them pay the bills. This is why becoming a social media influencer as a career to some of the old-fashioned among us might be a foreign idea, but is very much a viable plan.