How to Become a Paid Social Media Influencer: 7 Steps to Take in 2024

The social media influencer market is predicted to hit about $24 billion before the end of 2024, and the good news is that you don’t need to be a celebrity to take part in the success. Yes, social media influencers have a large following, but there are many types of influencers who can use this avenue as another income source.

So what is a social media influencer?

It’s anyone who builds an online presence on any social media sites, such as Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, TikTok or Snapchat. The term influencer means you have followers or people who look up to what you share and say, some even following in your footsteps.

While the size of your audience is important, what’s even more important is understanding how to become a paid social media influencer. I have many friends who have jumped online, shared some viral content and garnered quite a following, but it wasn’t until they got serious about it and learned the steps to monetize their habits, that they created a side hustle or earned a full-time income doing it.

Becoming a social media influencer: Is it worth it?

Like any method to make money online, there are pros and cons of becoming a social media influencer. It’s important to consider both sides of the coin so you know what to expect and how to best prepare for those downsides.

Our verdict: If you enjoy creating content and working with brands and products, being a paid social media influencer may be worth it. However, it's essential to understand that social media is a business that takes a lot of time and effort. There’s little guarantee of success, as you may see only a little return for your hard work.

How to become a paid influencer in 7 steps

Here’s the hard truth.

Learning how to make money from social media takes a little more work than simply signing up on a platform, uploading content, and waiting for the cash to roll in. I’ve seen it firsthand with my friends.

Becoming an effective influencer means balancing being authentic, building trust with an audience, and creating paid opportunities to help you succeed. Honestly, it’s a double-edged sword.

As more people connect to your voice and content, the better chance you may have of attracting sponsorships. But if you generate content only to attract sponsorships, your organic audience may fade away because it feels too “salesy” to them.

Not only that, but being an influencer is becoming increasingly competitive, so understanding how people use social media to make money can help you develop a strategy to set you apart from the competition.

Try these steps before considering becoming a social media influencer.

1. Choose your niche

Niche markets are small, specific sections of a broader market. Your niche is usually about a particular subject, like health and fitness, lifestyle, fashion, or entertainment.

I suggest drilling down into a specific segment of bigger topics. These smaller topics generally have less competition and offer greater opportunities.

For example, many people enjoy fashion, but trying to include all things fashion as your niche would be overwhelming for you and your audience. Instead, your fashion niche might focus on finding sustainable fashion on a budget, hunting for vintage clothes at thrift stores, or finding or reselling quality kids' clothes using a specific platform like Facebook Marketplace.

To help you develop a niche:

• Reflect on your interests and passions: Develop a list of potential topics. Then, apply a business lens to your ideas to help narrow your choices.
• Consider fixing a problem many people have: Find a group not served by the existing products and voices available. Research your potential audience's needs and wants and develop a strategy to help them meet those needs.
• Pay attention to your potential demographics: Learn more about the people you’re trying to reach, such as their age range, gender percentages, common race, and geographic locations.

2. Choose your channel

I know it’s tempting to jump into every social media platform to try to make as much money as possible, but that’s the wrong way to go about it.

Instead, I suggest choosing one channel and mastering it before adding on. This doesn’t mean you can’t have a social media presence on multiple platforms; you absolutely can, but to maximize your earnings, focus on one at a time.

As you gain experience on one platform, developing a presence on one or two other social sites can be beneficial. For example, if you create a following on Instagram, crossing over to Facebook or YouTube might gain new followers or encourage existing followers to engage in new ways.

Some of the biggest social media platforms today are:

TikTok Facebook YouTube Snapchat

Instagram Pinterest X (formerly Twitter)

So which platform do you choose?

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach. You must do your research to determine where your target audience spends time. For example, if your target audience is millennials, you may find a larger audience on Facebook than Instagram or Snapchat, as 75% of Facebook users are 30 to 49 years old, whereas the average Instagram user is 18 to 24 years old.

Before you go all in on one social media platform, spend time on each site to help you determine which works best for your brand and gives you the best results. Consider the pros and cons of each and how you might create crossover content from one platform to another.

Learn how to make money on TikTok.

3. Create a strategy

After choosing a platform, you must create a strategy. Just posting random ideas and posts will not garner you the audience you desire. I suggest spending time looking at what your competitors do. Evaluate how they engage with their audience, how often they post, and the types of posts they make. Look at the engagement and determine what your audience likes and doesn’t like so you know what to avoid.

It’s best to create a content strategy that focuses on entertaining, actionable, or emotional content that adds value to your viewer's life and encourages them to share with others. This is how posts go viral and audiences grow.

4. Post quality content consistently

Before just throwing content on a social media platform, consider how your audience will receive it. Just putting content up for the sake of posting could make you lose followers rather than gain them.

However, the opposite is also true. If you only post content occasionally with no real consistency, your audience will become bored and move onto a creator who posts regularly.

Just ask yourself before you post anything if there is value in what you’re posting. Also, consider the action you want from your followers after you post the content. Do you want them to like and comment, visit your website, or share with their friends?

Make sure everything you post has a call to action so your followers know what to do with it to help you grow.

5. Engage with your followers

Creating a community around your content brand and consistently engaging with viewers can help people feel like they have found a place where they can interact safely and where their opinions are valued.

To engage with your followers:

• Be proactive about liking or replying to comments so your followers know you’re a real person who cares about them
• Ask your followers questions about a topic you’re interested in and discuss it with them or use a Q&A format to take questions
• Consider joining other communities where your followers hang out

The more you engage with the content your audience likes, the more you’ll remind them of your brand and encourage them to interact with any products you endorse.

6. Use SEO

Believe it or not, search engine optimization plays a key role in obtaining a large audience. Using the right keywords and SEO analytical tools will help you post the content your audience wants, and help more people find you.

Just be sure you don’t keyword stuff or just use keywords for the sake of using them. Google and your audience will quickly catch on, which could cause you to lose followers and search engine ranking.

7. Reach out to brands

Once you’ve gained a following within your niche, do some research to see which brands may work with the size audience you have. After narrowing your list, reach out to brands for sponsorships or endorsements. Here’s how:

• Research the brands that match your audience well, especially if you already use and like the products
• Look for specific contact information for a brand's social media or marketing team and review its website for information on where and how to pitch a brand partnership
• Use platforms like Upfluence that can help brands and influencers connect
• Create a pitch deck to help you summarize your brand, audience metrics, and what kind of partnership you are proposing

As you develop your pitch, focus on how much you can help the brand grow its sales with your audience and use actual data instead of aspirational numbers.

How many followers do you need to be an influencer?

Obviously, the more followers you have, the greater your chances of making money, but you don’t have to have millions of followers to start.

Here are some different types of influencers:

• Nano influencers: 1,000 followers is usually the minimum to start making money on social media. Nano influencers are usually well-known in their real-life circle and slowly grow a larger social media following, reaching up to 10,000.
• Micro influencers: A social media influencer with 10,000 to 100,000 followers is in a good position to get in with brands, while getting in front of a large audience. Brands often pay micro influencers less, which can be a good way for you to get more brand deals as companies try to keep their marketing budgets small.
• Macro influencers: These influencers have generally been around for many years, have experience in growing an audience and garner the best brand deals and sponsored posts because they have 100,000 to 1 million followers.
• Mega influencers: Anyone with a following that exceeds 1 million people is a mega influencer. They often become household names even without becoming a “real life celebrity.”

How much money can I make as a social media influencer?

Many people learn how much Instagram celebrities make and think posting online is the key to a healthy bank balance, but most influencers don’t make millions of dollars during their careers.

Average paid influencer income

The income you earn for social media posts depends largely on your audience size. For example, on Instagram some influencers can make $10 per post per 1,000 followers. So in theory, this would mean that if you’re a nano influencer, you’re making $10 - $100 per post. However, if you’re a mega influencer, you could make as much as $10,000 per post.

According to ZipRecruiter, the national average salary of a social media influencer is $57,928 annually, which works out to about $28 an hour. However, this is not guaranteed.

Costs and expenses to consider

I know it seems like that’s a lot of money for short videos, but there is much more work that goes into social media posts than meets the eye. You should consider the hours spent planning, researching and developing a content strategy as you determine your per hour rate. Also, consider the costs you’ll incur such as renting or purchasing equipment and supplies.

Because social media influencers are independent contractors, they must also cover any costs employers typically handle, such as taxes, health insurance, and retirement savings, so $57,000 may not stretch as far as you’d think, but it could be a great side hustle.

How to monetize your social media presence

Once you put the work in and create a decent following, you can begin monetizing your social media sites. Here are the most popular ways.

1. Sponsored posts

Sponsored content is one of the most popular ways to monetize your social media presence. Brands who want to access your audience pay you to post about a specific service or product on your social media channels.

Much like pitching a brand collaboration, you can find sponsorship opportunities by contacting brands directly through their marketing email, social media channels, and official websites.

Some brands will only provide free products in exchange for a review on your site. Others may offer a small dollar amount for multiple posts, making it hard for an influencer to profit from the collaboration.

To effectively negotiate a bigger payout, research and structure your pitch so it's specific to each company’s brand and strategy.

You generally have the best chance for success by researching the brand’s customer base, marketing approach, and values and demonstrating how your audience is a good fit for the brand. Highlight the size of your following, engagement numbers, and the potential reach for the brand’s product to help create a successful partnership for everyone.

Before signing any contracts, be sure you understand the amount offered, the terms for payment, and the scope of work or number of posts required. It’s also important to clarify who controls the script and the final usage rights of any content you create.

Negotiating a contract is less fun than making a video, but it can be vital to ensuring your influencer business succeeds.

2. Affiliate marketing

Another form of sponsorship is affiliate marketing. An influencer will share a link to a brand or service they like in a post or video. Every time someone clicks on the link and completes a sale, the brand will pay the influencer an agreed-upon dollar amount or a percentage.

To find the right affiliate program for you:

• Research the commission rate and program structure
• Learn how to become an approved affiliate
• Ask questions about the commission structure
• Confirm the types of products and brands the program generally works with

It’s important to only offer affiliate links for products that fit your niche. For example, if you are a sustainable fashion influencer, you don’t want to link to a brand or site with fast-fashion products that aren’t created in environmentally friendly ways. Not only will you not make a sale, but you might offend your followers.

3. Selling products or services

If you want to diversify your income or limit the amount of brand sponsorship you do, selling directly to your audience can be an effective way to earn additional income.

Many influencers use this strategy by offering a certain amount of content for free on their primary site, then they create a course or ebook for a small fee that offers more in-depth information or strategies to help their audience succeed.

For example, a vintage fashion influencer might offer general content about finding great clothes in thrift shops or garage sales for free, but then offer a paid ebook or course offering in-depth advice on rejuvenating a piece of vintage clothing or preparing a piece for resale to achieve the highest profit.

FAQs

Other side hustles to consider

If becoming a social media influencer doesn’t feel like the right fit, you can consider weekend side jobs or side hustles that can help you make money from home. This includes:

Starting a blog

If you enjoy writing about interesting topics, blogging can be a good way to earn extra cash. Although starting a blog is relatively easy, gaining a following and making money from your hobby can take time and effort. Be patient and focus on providing engaging content that people like interacting with.

Learn how to start a successful blog.

Running an Etsy shop

If you enjoy crafting or collecting vintage items to resell, consider starting an Etsy shop. You can create a personal storefront to sell your work and choose how much you want to charge or if you want to offer discounts. Creating a shop is straightforward, but be aware of the listing, processing, and payment fees that Etsy charges and some limits on what you can sell.

Learn how to start an Etsy shop.