Having the right demographic of social media followers opens a lot of opportunities to make money.
Sure, if you were growing a social media page with no intention to monetize it later, then it might be a bit challenging to come up with a strategy, but even that should be possible. After all, there are quite a few different methods to make money on social media.
Your expected return on investment usually depends on how many followers you have. More followers mean a larger audience. At the same time, you also have to consider how to create a tailor-made campaign and whether it is worth trying multiple methods.
With that out of the way, let’s take a look at some of the best methods to monetize social media followers. And as a bonus, you can also expect to attract even more followers while you are monetizing your SM pages.
Organize Giveaways
Making money while giving away stuff on social media sounds counterintuitive, right? Well, not necessarily, because the stuff you give away could come from brands that sponsor the giveaway while also paying you to promote the brand.
Giveaways are arguably the best method to attract new followers. Usually, a giveaway post on social media asks participants to follow and like the content. The more people share the post, the more social media users it reaches, which results in a snowball effect.
Giveaways range a lot in terms of what social media pages offer as prizes. Some stick to simple things, such as discount codes for an online store. Others, meanwhile, give away significant prizes like smartphones or tablets.
Taking advantage of the current holiday season is also worth consideration. For example, if Christmas is around the corner, you might want to consider giving away Christmas socks or Christmas cookies, to name a couple of examples. Coming up with ideas for other holidays should not be an issue either.
The bottom line is that having enough social media followers can lead to opportunities for brands to reach out to you and ask to promote them.
Learn to Create Social Media Content
Since social media is commonly used for marketing, it is no surprise to see so many brands seeking content creators who can offer something truly unique.
Of course, it means that you will need to focus more on the content itself rather than your social media pages. At the same time, learning how to create interesting videos and high-quality infographics, and other visual content popular on social media is a great investment regardless.
Getting in touch with various social media pages actively is a good approach, but you can also publish content directly on your own social media accounts with the hopes of getting noticed. Ultimately, it is about content quality. If you have what it takes to stand out, then you should not have problems finding brands that are interested in hiring you as a content creator.
Promote Affiliate Links
Even though affiliate marketing is not as popular as it once was, you can still utilize the idea and make money from it.
The premise is pretty simple. You post affiliate links and hope that social media users click on the link and carry out the call-to-action after they end up on a landing page. Usually, the CTA is about downloading, watching, or purchasing something. So long as the browser cookies are active, you will get conversions from users who complete the call-to-action.
Manage Social Media Pages
The big brand and influencer pages you see on social media are hardly ever managed by people who are the face of the page. If anything, celebrities hire social media agencies and leave everything in their hands.
There are certain things that need to look professional, and a random celebrity without any prior social media experience is unlikely to accomplish as much as a proper agency would. And since these celebrities want to keep their presence on social media, they need activity and interactions with their followers.
If you have enough experience managing social media, thanks to the success you had with your personal pages, you can outreach to social media managers and offer your services. However, keep in mind that the competition is pretty fierce, so be sure to have something to back you up in terms of achievements and experience.
Grow and Sell Pages
Not everyone has the patience to grow a social media page organically from scratch. This is where you and your social media experience come in.
You can work on growing multiple pages simultaneously with the intent to sell them later. The method is a bit slow, but if you can find reliable buyers and establish yourself as a good organic social media page grower, you can expect to make decent money.
Sell Goods Directly on Social Media
More and more social media platforms have a policy of implementing marketplaces that allow users to sell directly on social media.
Facebook marketplace is an excellent example of this. Instead of having to redirect people via URLs to landing pages, you can now sell the goods on social media. Cutting that step makes it easier to increase conversions because it simplifies the process of purchasing hassle-free.
Of course, to make money using this method, you will have to come up with an idea of what you can actually sell. Perhaps it could be custom-made merchandise? Or maybe you know a lot about vehicles and can make the most out of this knowledge by selling used parts?
Offer Advertising in Your Group
If you have a large group with active members, you can see whether it is possible to monetize the group by advertising various goods or services.
Brands might approach you directly, or you could approach them and explain how you have a group with a relevant audience. Of course, this method is a bit tricky since group members might not appreciate seeing promotional stuff on their feeds. Thus, you need to be careful and not push advertisements too much.
