The days when social media was just for fun are long gone. Today, social media is an essential part of our lives and, for some, even a source of income. This comes as no surprise considering that half of the world’s population has an account on multiple social media platforms.
It is no secret that there are people who live very comfortably solely from the money they earn using their social media accounts.
The good news is, earning money on social media isn’t reserved for those with a massive following; it is a possibility for anyone willing to put enough effort and persistence into making it happen. While we can’t help you when it comes to the persistence and effort aspect, what we can do is introduce you to some popular ways of making money using social media, and that is exactly what we’re going to do in this article.
Sell your products and services
One of the best things about social media is probably how easy, fast, and far word about a brand/product/service can spread. This makes social media perfect for those who have created something of their own. Regardless of what your niche is, through social, you can make sales, do advertising, answer any questions a customer might have. You can be a photographer running your own photography business, makeup artist, personal trainer, life coach, business adviser, you name it, and your social media can be a place where you will provide your potential customer with proof of the quality your products and services hold, encouraging them to do business with you.
Where a lot of people go wrong when doing this is making their business an extension of their personal account. If you want to do real business on social media, then creating accounts dedicated to your product/services is the way to go. This way, you will be taken more seriously and look more professional. Also, satisfied customers can then easily link the profile for your business in their posts, stories, messages to friends, etc. Another thing you could try is creating your own signature hashtag. This way, you can become memorable, have a bigger outreach, and build a stronger brand image on social media.
Sponsored posts and affiliate marketing
What most brands, big and small, want and need is exposure, especially on social media. An easy way for them to get exposure is through paring up with social media influencers by doing affiliate marketing and sponsored posts. Doing this is often a safer route for them than devising a brand-new marketing strategy. Marketing strategies often fail, while people who advertise the brand’s products/services to their audience, in the right way, of course, will surely bring them sales form at least a portion of their audience.
First, a thing to keep in mind
When doing affiliate marketing and sponsored posts, you’ll have to be a little careful. Depending on your country of residence, you will most likely be obligated to disclose that you are getting paid for linking/posting about a product or service. Otherwise, you might get into some legal trouble. Also, some companies/brands won’t allow you to work with another company/brand at the same time or even for a certain amount of time after working with them. So just be sure you know what your legal and business responsibilities are before agreeing to these types of deals.
Affiliate marketing
When you start doing affiliate marketing for a company/brand, you will get an affiliate link/code, and each time someone makes a purchase using that specific link/code, you earn a commission off the sale. Meaning, your earnings depend very much on the willingness of your followers to spend money. If none of the people you shared the link/code make a purchase, you will also make no money. So relying only on affiliate links to earn you money isn’t the smartest idea, but they can certainly be great for “on the side”. You can integrate affiliate links and codes in your posts, stories, your profile description, any place you see as fitting.
Sponsored posts
Sponsored posts are a way more certain way of earning money than affiliate links, but the downside is that they are often offered for people with large followings. The reason for this is, with sponsored posts, the company/brand gives you the money for just posting or talking about their products/services and not for the number of sales you brought in. That is why brands give sponsored posts to people with a large audience; they want to ensure that the person will be bringing at least a decent amount of sales. Sponsored posts might not be an option for someone just starting out on social media, but it can definitely be something to consider as you grow your online presence.
How to get them
You could easily become the person on social media doing the sponsored posts and giving out affiliate links and codes. The brand might contact you on their own initiative because they see you as a good fit for their brand, or you can reach out to brands yourself.
Tell them why you like their company, product/service, and that you have a following that might like it just as much as you do.
Don’t just wait around to get noticed by brands and companies, with so many people on social media, they might ever come across you, but by contacting them yourself they could potentially discover that you were exactly what they were looking for. Give it a shot, you have nothing to lose.
Become a content creator
If there is something that people are always hungry for, its new content. When people are genuinely interested in a topic, they can never get enough blog posts, videos, podcasts, tutorials on it. A topic might not be the only thing people are interested in, and it could also be your life and personality, so you can center your content around that if it’s something you are comfortable with.
Online content creators come in many different forms, bloggers, podcasters, streamers, YouTubers, artists, and so much more. It’s a great profession because you are doing something you genuinely love, but it’s also something that won’t bring in money overnight and will take a lot of time, effort, creativity, and, to be honest, sheer luck to start doing so.
The money will start coming in when you have an audience big and engaged enough for companies to start putting ads in and around your content when you are able to monetize your YouTube channel, for instance, and when you start getting those affiliate links and sponsorships that we mentioned earlier. Another great thing about a career in online content creation can also lead to much bigger opportunities in the same or related industries that you didn’t even think were a possibility.
Manage social media accounts for other people
If you aren’t someone who likes to be in the spotlight, but you do possess the interest and skills required to turn someone’s social media presence into a business, then you should maybe consider managing accounts for others. This is slowly but surely becoming a serious profession for many people because there are so many brands/companies/individuals whose accounts need management, but they aren’t able to do it themselves. The great thing about this line of work is that it can be done as a freelancer and/or remotely from the comfort of your own home. If you feel like you have a knack for social media, but you would much rather be behind the scenes, this might be your thing.
Conclusion
Hopefully, you got some inspiration from this article on how you can make money using social media. These were only a fraction of the possible ways, but they are the ones proven to work. Earning money this way is very appealing to many people, especially the ones tired of a 9-5 work schedule, but it shouldn’t be thought of as something effortless and easy to do. Establishing yourself in this profession will take a lot of persistence, hard work, resourcefulness, and creativity. The advice we can give you is to put your best foot forward, give it your best shot, don’t get discouraged, and don’t take anything for granted. With a bit of luck on your side, your social media career might be the next one to take off.