Like so many people who are already achieving a lot with their platforms, you can use the social media to improve your life, grow a business, earn a living and even make money as an influencer.
With just a social media platform, a decent audience and a reasonable number of content and engagement, you can use social media to recreate your lifestyle but so many are yet to realize this.
Of course, it’s not exactly a cakewalk. To get to the point where you can monetize your influence and actually make money as an Influencer, you’ll need to map out and use a handful of very practical strategies that’ll deliver your expected outcomes.
Even at that, there are times when some of your best strategies might work while some will simply fail flat. But, most often, you really can’t remove the steps that’ll work from the ones that cannot work until you try them out.
Yet, trying out some of these steps until you find the ones that work can be time consuming. That’s why in this guide, I am going to take you through the proven strategies you can actually use to monetize your social media influence.
But, before I show you the steps to make money as an Influencer, in the following paragraphs, I’ll to take you through the four things you have to put in place before you can monetize your influence online…
Four Things to Put in Place Before you can Make Money as an Influencer
Setup a Platform
This is a no brainer. Whether as an influencer or not, before you can make money online, you need a platform. It can be a blog, a social media page on Instagram, YouTube, Tiktok, Facebook etc.
Your Platform is where you’ll host your followers, share your content and create engagement.
Without these two things in place, we can’t even start the conversation about making money as an Influencer.
Create Content
One of the important factors that will get you followers, keep them engaged and attract paying advertisers to your platform is content.
Without content, you won’t have followers or engagement. And without followers, you’re definitely not an Influencer.
So, before you can influence anyone, you’ll need to be able to create the kind of content that will attract them to your platform. And keep them coming back repeatedly.
Get Engagement
One of the most important factors that identifies an Influencer is engagement.
Engagement can be anything like comments, likes, shares etc. They are part of the key indicators which shows anyone interested in partnering with you that you are worth the investment.
Reason being that if your audience do not like, comment and engage in your post then it means they are not interested in your content.
And by extension, they may not be interested in any other paid partnership content shared on your page.
For this reason, you have to keep posting interesting and valuable content that is relevant to your audience so you can keep up the engagement levels.
Have followers
Now, the fourth thing you need to put in place before you can make money as an Influencer is followers.
Like I already mentioned above, you need a sizeable number of followers as an Influencer before you can monetize your platform.
This is very important. Without followers you can hardly partner with any promoter.
That’s why everything you’re doing on your platform will have to be done with the end goal of achieving increased followers and engagement.
This is what drives your ascension as an Influencer and your ability to monetize your platform profitably well.
PS: No, you don’t need to have a million followers before you can be classified as an influencer. There are different categories of influencers based on their followers and target audience and with a decent number of followers, you can always get a head start.
So, now that you’ve known about the four things you need to put in place before becoming an Influencer… The following are the important strategies you must use to monetize your platform.
Partner with Brands
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One of the most famous ways to make money as an Influencer is to partner with brands.
And this is applicable to influencers everywhere. Whether you’re an Influencer in Nigeria, USA, India, anywhere, you can make money as an Influencer through brand partnership.
Partnering with brands can involve acting as a brand ambassador for a specific brand, in return for a certain fees.
Usually, this is one of the popular ways to make money as a public figure. A lot of your favorite celebrities are already doing this.
With a large following and a good number of engagement, you can use this as a good first option to monetize your platform and make money online.
Some of the cons here however is that brand partnership can span over a long period of time. And some clients might have very specific needs which might get to limit you as an Influencer.
But frankly, like I usually tell my students, it’s your platform, and set the rules.
Create your Digital Product
As an Influencer with a good number of followers, instead of partnering with others, you decide to create your own products and sell them using your platform.
This will save you the stress of having to work with some certain kind of brands whose products may not be in line with your brand values.
For this to work, you’ll need to have a specialized skill on the particular topic or niche which you want to create the product.
Alternatively, you can get another expert to create a specific digital product for you, at a fee. With this, you can still sell your own digital product on your platform without having to be the one to create it.
Learn how to create a digital product here.
Besides digital, there are also physical products that works for some audiences. Before creating any product, make some findings.
Also, check around, what are your competition in a similar niche doing? What’s their audience’s feedback? These and some other detailed research can give you an idea on the best product that will work for your brand.
Write Sponsored Posts
Sponsored posts are posts written by you and posted on your platform, un behalf of another brand. It can also be written by another brand and sent to you to post on your platform at a fee. And it’s a great strategy to make money as an influencer.
The idea behind sponsored post is that since you already have the audience, you can use a one off post to promote a particular brand at a specific time or engage the brand in a promotional contract that can last over a certain period of time.
In return, the brand will pay you a certain amount as fees, while also furnishing you with other important items as may be demanded by you.
Unlike some brand partnership which may have to span over a specific period of time, sponsored posts are most often a one off arrangement.
And since it’s easier to come by, you can target as much sponsored posts as possible.
Sell Affiliate Products
Affiliate products are products created by other brands which you can sell on your platform, in exchange for a commission.
They can be physical or digital products. You can use affiliate marketing as a strategy to make money on your platform.
Most often than not, this strategy is popular with influencers on platforms like blogs, websites, YouTube etc. And a bit less popular on social media platforms.
Although that doesn’t mean you can’t use affiliate marketing on social media based because others are already using it.
The good thing about affiliate marketing is that the product is all set, including your earnings and the rules of engagement where available.
So, you can easily shop for products that aligns with your brand, promote them on your platforms and get your earnings, based on predetermined arrangements.
There are a handful of platform which you can register on and get a list of affiliate products.
Setup your eCommerce Store
Besides selling digital products, you can also create your own ecommerce store and sell your physical products.
A lot of influencers are already doing this. Especially on social media platforms like Instagram, YouTube etc. You can also use this as a strategy to make money as an Influencer.
Some of the popular products sold on these ecommerce platforms include skin care products, clothes and fashion items, shoes, make up kits, underwear materials etc.
You can analyze your audience to find a product that works with them. And then begin to introduce your products to them.
Sell your Posts
If you have a wildly large audience on platforms like Instagram, you can get paid to make a post.
Sounds unbelievable? Well, celebrities like Beyoncé, Ronaldo, Kylie Jenner etc. are some of the top paid individuals for each post they make on Instagram.
Sure, you might not be a Beyoncé or Ronaldo, but; you can still get paid for your posts on some social media platforms.
Instead of paying you to make full sponsored posts, with a large audience and huge influence, brands can pay you to have them, their links or handles mentioned in your posts.
This is more common with brands who do not want to include the “sponsored” or “paid partnership” tag in their posts. Or others who prefer not to go fully ballistic with sponsorships.
Although less common when compared to sponsored posts, this is a good strategy to make money as an Influencer.
Write & Sell a Book
As someone who’s well versed in what they are doing, a thought leader or an influencer with a special knowledge, writing and selling your own books could be one of your best shot to make money as an influencer.
Even where you’re not a great writer, you can learn how to write and publish your book or get someone to do the writing for you while you publish it and keep your earnings.
Final words.
In conclusion, it’s very possible to make money as an Influencer. But before you think of getting started, you need a sizeable audience and a platform among other things.
When this is put in place, you can then work on using these strategies to monetize and earn from your platform.
Remember, you don’t have to use all of these strategies at same time. You can use a few of them or a combination of these strategies to see what works for you.
And where you feel stuck, reach out to our experts to give you further guidance on how to get started monetizing your influence and platform.
Now, it’s your turn. What’s the best step you took to monetize your platform and how did it turn out? Drop your comments below…
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[…] Influencer marketing is a type of social media marketing where a brand leverages endorsements, recommendations and the influence of popular personalities with a dedicated number of followers, to promote a their services or product to a specific target audience. […]