Social Media Influencers: How They Can Earn Money?
Social Media Influencers: How They Can Earn Money?
Influencer marketing is a term on everyone’s mind right now. So many brands have utilized this strategy to achieve great results. Social media influencers are amazing to collaborate with. Some influencers began by doing what they love, sharing their expertise and helping people. They grew their audience and were able to earn money through influencer marketing. In an earlier article, we looked at ways brands can compensate social media influencers for their efforts. Today, we will look at ways social media influencers can earn money through multiple revenue streams.
Sponsored Social Media Posts
Airbnb frequently uses this strategy to spread brand awareness and gaining market exposure. Airbnb collaborates with major social media celebrities for a sponsored social media post. Each post is a photo of the celebrity staying in one of Airbnb’s lavish properties for no charge and thanking Airbnb in the caption. Look at the following example:
Brands often hire social media influencers to create brand integrated content on a particular social media channel and share it with their followers. Influencers announce these partnerships explicitly according to guidelines enforced by the various countries. This is an excellent starting point for social media influencers because of the simple and direct nature of such collaborations.
Sponsored Blog Posts
Some social media influencers publish a personal blog to share their thoughts in more detail than it is possible on social media. Blogs allow publishers to create long-form content where they can talk about things they love in depth. Blogs also provide the opportunity to drive your audience to your website and with enough traffic, bloggers can also earn money.
Blog posts include product links which lead potential customers to the brand’s website where they can make a purchase, benefiting both the brand and the blogger (influencer).
It is important to bear in mind that not all content on the blog is sponsored and designed to promote a product. Instead, bloggers should be transparent about brand partnerships and have a good morning of organic and branded content.
Social Media Influencers Can Be Brand Ambassadors
Brand ambassadors are people who use your products regularly. They like your offerings and are ready to be an advocate for your brand. Nowadays, brands hire social media influencers to become brand ambassadors. This is an effective way to build long-term relationships and brands pay them on a retainer basis.
In this form of an arrangement, the social media influencer shares brand-related content on an ongoing basis and broadcast their partnership with the brand on all social media channels. This type of content has become a regular feature on the influencer’s account and the audience regularly engages with it.
Any brand chooses people who are a natural fit for the brand and align well with its target audience. These brand ambassadors can be celebrities & major influencers or they can be micro-influencers depending upon the requirements of the brand
Here are a few examples:
American Express delivers product information. Notice the use of branded hashtags like #AmexLife, #AmexAmbassador and #AmexPlatinum
American Express partners with social media influencers who live a lavish lifestyle and travel often where they get plenty of opportunities to use the brand’s services and feature them on their social media feeds.
Forever 21 engages fashion micro-influencers around the globe as their brand ambassadors. This is actually a smart move seeing as how working with micro-influencers is cost-effective and has superb engagement levels. Partnering with many such micro-influencers instead of big celebrities will create true brand advocates and authentic, organic promotion opportunities in the long run. Additionally, it’s easier for businesses that are just starting out and may not be able to afford a celebrity brand ambassador just yet.
Event Coverage
Brands invite influencers to an event they are hosting like a product launch to draw more attention to it. Companies and the influencers they wish to work with can collaborate during major sports and entertainment events. Brands can give influencers exclusive access to its products, resources and other valuable content creation opportunities so influencers can create and share it on their channels.
A great example of this campaign is Bobbi Brown’s launch of their Crushed Lip Color, a high-impact colour line in 2017. They hosted a three-day event in New York City, attended by 25 influencers having a combined reach of over 25 million. The event had plenty of photographable activities and Bobbi Brown also invited their customers to share their photos wearing the lipstick for a chance to be featured on their website.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a partnership based model for promoting products. The main objective of this strategy is to drive sales and convert leads. Social media influencers can sign up for such programs to promote the products and get compensated for every lead they generate or every sale that happens. You might have encountered this on YouTube, Instagram or on the websites of influencers. Usually, there is a coupon code or an affiliate link to track the number of conversions as a result of the influencer’s efforts. Look at the following example:
This is a post promoting Daniel Wellington watches. If you look at the caption, you will see a code “GETDRESSED” offering 15% off and a 20% off link in the bio of this influencer. This discount is an incentive for people to buy from this link. When the link is clicked and the code is used, the sale is attributed to the influencer and they earn a commission.
Digital Products
Digital products are e-products like e-books, workout programs or a fitness meal plan to give a few examples. This is an effective way to share content with your audience because these products are relatively inexpensive, easy to produce and easy to distribute online if promoted right.
Digital products enable the influencers to create something valuable and tangible using their wealth of experience, knowledge and expertise. An example of selling digital products in the form of online courses is Pat Flynn’s Smart Passive Income website.
Webinars
A webinar is essentially an online seminar conducted to provide information and education purposes. These webinars are often live or they can be recorded in advance and shared across social media influencers.
Influencers can use webinars to promote products, online courses or generate leads. Influencers can partner with brands to conduct webinars for similar purposes. A great example would be the way Intercom conducts webinars in a conversation form with thought leaders and influencers. This helps the brand reach out to new audiences and simultaneously provide valuable industry insights through engaging discussions.
Final Thoughts
Social media influencers love what they do and are experts in their field. They have worked hard consistently to build an audience by creating value. Working at such a magnitude provides many opportunities to monetize their influence through multiple revenue streams. One of the most basic revenue streams is sponsored social media posts where brands hire social media influencers to promote products. The more independent methods include creating digital products and conducting webinars which are cost-effective. It is worth noting that influencers can collaborate with brands on such avenues as well.
This list while not exhaustive serves as a good starting point for social media influencers looking to share their content with their audience and earn money while doing so. Do you have more ideas about earning money as a social media influencer? Let us know in the comments below!