How to Make Money on Social Media With Actionable Tips
Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, TikTok and more have become integral parts of everyday life for billions of people.
As these platforms continue to grow, many wonder if there are ways to monetize their accounts and turn their social media presence into a money making opportunity. The good news is – yes, there are plenty of options!
Whether you have a personal profile with a large following or want to grow an account focused on a hobby or passion, social platforms make it possible to generate real income.
With some strategic planning and consistent effort, you can create multiple revenue streams that allow you to get paid by leveraging social media’s massive built-in audience.
This guide will walk you (and y’all) step-by-step through the various methods, best practices, tools and more to start earning money from your social media accounts. Let’s dive in!
Grow Your Following
The first key step is growing your audience on social platforms. After all, the larger your following, the more potential opportunities you have to monetize through advertising, sponsorships, affiliates and more. Here are effective tactics to organically grow your reach:
Optimize Your Profile
Make sure your bio clearly summarizes what you do and what people can expect from your content. Utilize your name, handle, profile and cover images to further establish your brand. The goal is to pique people’s interest so they follow and remain engaged.
Post Valuable Content
Consistently share posts that provide value and utility to your audience. This could include informative, educational, entertaining and inspiring updates in line with your niche. Post frequently to stay top of mind but space out updates to avoid overwhelming followers.
Use Hashtags
Include relevant hashtags in your posts so they appear in keyword searches people conduct. This exposes your content to new users. Over time, posting quality content with strategic hashtags will earn you more followers.
Interact With Others
Be an active member of your social community by commenting on others’ updates, sharing user generated content that mentions you, responding thoughtfully to comments and messages, etc. This raises your visibility so more people discover and follow you.
Run Contests & Giveaways
Encourage current followers to tag friends by holding exciting contests and giveaways. This can help you gain exposure and new followers rapidly. Just be sure the terms comply with each platform’s promotion guidelines.
When starting out, focus on one or two main platforms rather than trying to manage every single one simultaneously. As you build your audience and establish your personal brand on your chosen platforms, you can then expand to additional ones.
Monetization Methods
Once you grow your social media following, there are numerous ways to actually generate revenue from all those engaged viewers and followers. Here are the most popular and viable options:
Advertising
Nearly all social platforms offer some form of advertising that allows creators to earn money. For example, you can run promoted posts and stories on Facebook and Instagram or sponsored tweets on Twitter.
Users have to apply for and be approved to access these built-in ad programs but once enabled, they provide a streamlined way to run paid ads right within each platform and earn income based on set pricing models and your content’s engagement levels.
Affiliate Links
You can earn commissions by sharing affiliate links across your social profiles and content. This allows you to recommend products or services, then receive a tracked percentage of any sales. Most brands offer generous affiliate programs with cookies lasting from 30 to 90 days so you earn on both immediate and delayed purchases from your referrals.
Sponsored Posts
Popular social media creators can collaborate with brands to create sponsored posts and stories promoting products or services to their audience.
Brands typically pay a set rate based on your follower count and engagement metrics for one-off sponsored posts or an agreed monthly amount for recurring partnerships.
This allows you to diversify your monetization while letting brands expand their reach by accessing your audience.
Consultation & Coaching
Some social media influencers leverage their personal brand and industry expertise to offer paid consulting services. For example, you could provide customized guidance to help businesses improve their own social presence and online marketing strategy.
You can also sell digital products like pre-made marketing templates, guides, online courses and more by promoting them to your followers.
Crowdfunding
If interested in developing a new product, creative work or organizing an event, you can run a crowdfunding campaign across your social channels to raise funding from your supporters.
Popular platforms like Kickstarter, Indiegogo and GoFundMe make this process easy by handling payment collection and campaign promotion tools. As long as you meet your funding minimum, you keep all money raised minus small admin fees.
eCommerce
Those with niche hobbies or special skills can directly sell related physical and digital products online to social media followers.
For example, crafters can market homemade goods, artists can sell printables or apparel showcasing their work and fitness experts can hawk specialty meal plans or workout guides.
You would drive customers to a personalized storefront set up on Shopify, Etsy, Teachable or similar ecommerce solution to handle product listings, carts, payments etc.
Creator Funds
Select platforms like YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat provide creator or partner funds that pay users based on the engagement and viewership their content generates.
You have to apply to be accepted but if approved, this delivers steady payouts from the platform itself on top of what you generate from fans and brands. The actual payment rates vary across programs and are usually tied to factors like views, shares and performance benchmarks.
Live Streaming
Apps like Twitch, Instagram Live and YouTube Live let you broadcast real-time video streams to your followers which they can support via virtual tips, paid channel subscriptions and more.
Live streaming works well for Q&As, behind the scenes footage, tutorials, events and all types of exclusive content fans are willing to pay for. Top creators can earn significant income from loyal viewers who pay monthly to support their channel and watch live broadcasts.
The great news is you can combine several of these methods simultaneously to create multiple income streams.
Just be sure to focus on your strengths and interests so your monetization approach aligns authentically with the content you publish and personal brand you establish.
Consistency and gradually diversifying income sources as your following grows is key.
Best Practices
To maximize your social media monetization success, keep these best practices in mind:
Deliver Value
Viewers have to feel like they get something out of following you in order to stay engaged over time.
Make sure you over deliver value by consistently publishing stellar content they genuinely benefit from. Think entertainment, information, inspiration, motivation, utility etc.
Maintain Quality
The level of quality and polish with your social content, engagement, products and services has a massive impact on revenue potential.
Establish high standards for yourself and keep refining what you offer followers so it feels premium enough that they are happy to pay or donate to show support.
Prioritize Mobile
Given billions of social media users access platforms primarily via smartphones, you must cater to mobile viewers by optimizing layouts for vertical screens and using bite-sized text/video. This ensures maximum visibility and minimizes barriers to engaging with or purchasing from you.
Provide Variety
While sticking with an overall niche, provide adequate variety and diversification with your posts so followers always see fresh content. For example, share informative articles, behind the scenes footage, user generated content, memes, reels/shorts, live broadcasts, polls and more.
Drive Conversions
Make sure you prominently promote ways fans can support you by converting from free followers into paying subscribers, customers or clients. Use channel links, profile badges, website integration, cross channel promotion, overlays, captions, etc. to drive conversions across multiple platforms.
Reward Supporters
Find creative ways like giveaways, exclusive content and early access to reward your most loyal, supportive fans for free. This further incentivizes them to stay subscribed and converts more passive followers into potential buyers and brand advocates.
Optimizing Each Channel
While many monetization strategies work across various social platforms, the best approach for earning as much as possible is tailoring to the unique features and functionality each channel provides. Let’s explore top optimization tips for key networks:
- Run both video and image ads using simple, emotional creative focused on reach and engagement over hard selling.
- Promote affiliate links for products relevant to niche/content that incentivize valuable actions like email sign ups.
- Launch a Facebook Shop profile to easily sell physical products and merch.
- Use Facebook Live and IGTV for interactive broadcasts fans support with Stars and Badges.
- Partner with brands that want sponsored posts or IG story takeovers promoting products to your audience.
- Add shoppable posts tagging products from your own ecommerce store or affiliate sources .
- Add swipe up links and exclusive content to Close Friends Stories that fans pay to access via badges.
- Run Instagram Live broadcasts and share replays gated behind exclusive subscriber access tiers.
TikTok
- Produce engaging short videos based on viral trends and niche topics optimized for TikTok’s algorithm to access the For You feed.
- Join the TikTok Creator Fund once eligible to start earning income from a Creator Fund based on video views and engagement.
- Work with brands already active on TikTok to produce fun sponsored video campaigns catered to the platform.
- Add shoppable pinned product links to your profile and directly in videos to highlight items for easy purchasing.
YouTube
- Develop a customized channel identity and intro bumpers to bolster watch time and subscribership.
- Upload consistent niche-focused long and short-form videos based on researched topics optimized for discoverability.
- Monetize eligible videos via built in advertising programs like YouTube ad revenue sharing once qualified.
- Provide channel membership tiers and exclusive member perks to incentivize paid subscriptions.
- Use Super Chat and Super Stickers to earn income from fan support during live streams and premieres.
- Curate content and provide commentary on trending topics and current events to grow an engaged following.
- Collaborate with complementary accounts to organize Twitter chats and Spaces focused on popular themes that engage both audiences.
- Promote affiliate links and products relevant to your niche from ecommerce partners offering generous commission structures.
- Run promoted tweets and accounts to grow visibility with new demographics outside your main following.
The most lucrative approach is diversifying across multiple channels so you generate several income streams that collectively add up to full time earning potential.
Getting Started Checklist
Ready to start earning from social media? Here is a checklist covering key steps:
✔️ Determine your niche – Identify topics and areas of expertise you can create content around and credibly promote products within. Consider hobbies, skills, passions etc.
✔️ Evaluate platform options – Research platforms aligning with your niche and monetization goals to determine where to focus.
✔️ Optimize profiles – Set up accounts showcasing your expertise with optimized branding to start establishing your identity.
✔️ **Set content calendars **- Map out a posting schedule for regular content production helping systematically grow your following.
✔️ **Develop monetization mix **- Based on platform options and audience engagement, determine what blend of ad revenue, affiliates, consulting, ecommerce etc. works best.
✔️ Apply for programs – Submit applications to access monetization programs like YouTube Partner Program, TikTok Creator Fund etc. if eligible.
✔️ Analyze performance – Track key analytics across chosen platforms to identify high performing content worth repurposing and opportunities for optimizing your strategy.
✔️ Refine techniques – Consistently test new content formats, engagement strategies, product offerings and more to maximize conversion rates.
With some determination and commitment to regularly creating compelling social content and engaging your growing audience, you will quickly start to see the money making potential. The platforms provide loads of built in analytics to learn what resonates best with your followers to refine your approach even further over time.
So pick one or several networks, establish your unique value proposition tailored to each, and implement a diverse menu of monetization models that collectively can drive real income. You’ve totally got this!
Disclaimer: The information provided on MoneyBert.com is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. We do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or suitability of the information. Investments carry risks, including potential loss of principal. For detailed information, please read our full disclaimer here.
