Monetizing social media can be a difficult task but with the right guide, you can easily make it happen. A proper strategy can make you earn millions. With this age of the Internet, social media presence is in billions so it makes no sense to miss out on this platform. 

So, if you are looking for a detailed guide on how to monetize your social media following you have come to the right place. We have covered all the steps to help you make a lot of money from this platform. 

Why Monetize Social Media Following?

Social media with its billions of followers is the perfect platform to earn money online. You can use social media to analyze the target audience, drive brand awareness, and sell products. 

Although monetizing social media platforms is not easy. You need to keep engaging with your audience through commenting and liking. Apart from that you need to provide valuable content. It is a game of patience and strategy but one that is worth it. 

There are influencers earning millions through using the right strategies and the best platforms. So, we aim to guide you on the steps to earn money through social media following and also introduce you to a platform that can be a game-changer for you in earning money from social media presence. 

Things to Do Before Monetizing Social Media Following

There are two important steps to take before you try to monetize your social media following. 

Let’s get into the details of each step. 

Define Your Niche

Find your niche. That’s the number one step. If you want to build your social media presence, find a niche that you are passionate about. The best will be to find one that is both widely sought after and passionate for you. 

Evaluate Target Audience

Before diving into how to make money on social media, consider your target audience. Instead of trying to appeal to everyone, focus on a customer-centric approach. 

In a world accustomed to personalization and fierce competition, attempting to reach a broad audience may feel like a fruitless expedition. 

Having millions of followers doesn't matter if they aren't genuinely engaged. It's more valuable to have a few engaged users who understand and support what you do than to have numerous fake or irrelevant followers.

How to Monetize Social Media Following?

Before you start monetizing your social media following it is important to remember the 60-30-10 rule of social media marketing. If you don’t know what it is, let us break it down. 

• 60% of the content posted should be of interest to the target audience and not related to sales
• 30% of the content should be about non-competitive businesses mostly shares from relevant industry pages or sites, or posts from members of the community
• 10% of the content should be sales-oriented 

This strategy will make your content look like a constant bombardment of advertisements. Now that you know about this strategy, let’s get into the methods of monetizing social media following. 

Sell services related to the Niche

Once you decide on your perfect niche, it is time to capitalize on it. This means selling specific services catering to people interested in this niche. It can be consulting, coaching, or course plans. 

Normally, online courses are a good way to earn money through social media following. If you have a good idea about any topic with results you can use the social media presence to communicate and teach others. This can be in the form of video lessons or even e-books. 

It does not matter what topic you cover, anything from digital marketing to Quantum Chromodynamics, if you have the expertise or knowledge then you can use your social media following to earn money.  

Affiliate Marketing

Although affiliate marketing may have been tarnished a bit over the years this is still a great way to earn money through your social media following. You just have to research and promote the right product. 

Make sure to promote a product that is relevant to the niche. Let’s say your niche is based on providing website services. In that case, it makes more sense to promote services like Hostinger or WPEngine.

So make sure to understand the niche and then based on that promote a product. Also, do not put the affiliate links everywhere. That can be annoying to your followers. Make it subtle and transition-worthy so that the links don’t seem forced. 

Sell Products

You can use the social media platform to sell both physical and digital products. To set up your business on social media and boost sales, follow these steps:

• Change your personal account to a business account.
• Connect your Instagram account to your Facebook page.
• Build a product catalog or link it to an eCommerce platform.
• After approval, enable shopping and use tags to attract attention.

This way, customers can shop directly on social media, saving them a visit to your website.

Keep an eye on metrics, and fine-tune your strategy based on what works best.

Remember, building a social media community is crucial. Don't expect sales right away rather focus on growing your audience first.

Similarly, you can sell digital products on social media platforms as well. Whether it is an art or an e-book, social media is the perfect platform to grow your audience and then sell that content. 

Send Traffic to Your Website

You may have set up an e-commerce platform like Shopify or Etsy where you sell products. You can use the social media platform to send traffic towards those platforms and generate more sales. 

This will work in two ways. First, your website will get more traffic and second more traffic means more probability of your products selling. 

This approach works better for selling expensive products or services that need detailed explanations, landing pages, and answers to customer questions.

It's challenging to provide all that on a Facebook shop, and relying solely on Google or Facebook/Instagram ads might not generate sufficient sales.

Instead, use this strategy in content that gets your Instagram followers' curiosity about your offer.

Include a link or button to direct them to your website's store or the landing page for your offer, and monitor results using Google Analytics.

Sponsored Content

Sponsorship posts are another way to get more monetization from your social media following. 

A sponsored post is when someone pays you to make a post. If you've put in the effort to build a following and genuinely enjoy a product you want to recommend, it can be a rewarding experience. On the other hand, promoting a product you don't know or like just to make money can feel uncomfortable.

The earnings from sponsored posts can vary, ranging from a few dollars to a whopping $1 million, if you have a big following on social media platforms. 

Partnership with Other Brands

You can collaborate with different brands to sell services or products through your social media following. You can even try influencer marketing yourself because it will give more visibility to the brand’s product and your posts. 

If you want to advertise for big brands then the prerequisite is to have a big following on social media platforms. After you build up your presence as an expert in the specific niche then the brand will approach you to endorse their products. 

While going for a brand make sure to know about their reputation. For that you should understand the niche and the target audience. There might be brands that although reputable are not popular or particularly endorsed by your audience, in that case, you should not advertise such brands.

When you are going to choose a brand remember the following criteria

• It must fit naturally with your content and personality
• It should have products that you use
• It offers value to your audience 

If it ticks all the conditions then go for it. 

Content Subscription Models

Another way to make money on social media is by creating exclusive content that followers pay to access.

If you already produce helpful content and your audience keeps asking for more, a subscription-based model can work well. Platforms like Patreon, Xperiencify, Crowdfundly, or similar ones allow you to set up paid memberships.

Experiment with features that work best for you and your audience, delivering your top-notch content. Besides providing more personalized engagement, this approach helps you balance the time you spend creating content with the income you generate.

Building your social community? Consider offering various subscription options. This not only provides a base income but also ensures that those subscribing are genuinely interested in what you offer.

There are two ways to implement this. First, if you're on a platform with built-in subscriptions, like Twitter's "Super Follow" button, you can activate it easily. 

Alternatively, if your platform doesn't have this feature, you can use dedicated software solutions like Substack for newsletters, providing the tools to run a subscription-based content business.

Host Events

Events and workshops provide a quick way to make money through your social media presence.

Although setting up and promoting them can be a lot of work, the content can be repurposed for various purposes. You can break it into multiple social media posts or convert the entire event into a course for selling.

Here are some event ideas to consider:

• In-person courses or workshops.
• Online webinars or livestream presentations.
• Charity fundraisers and networking events.
• Summits or conventions, collaborating with other creators or brands.

Alternatively, you can benefit from events without creating them yourself by:

• Becoming a paid speaker at conferences.
• Participating in podcast and media interviews (not always paid but can be).
• Sponsoring or advertising at someone else's event.

Whether hosting online or in-person events (streaming in-person events to your online audience is also an option), charge a small fee based on the event type (Q&A, workshop, etc.) and use it as an opportunity to promote your other offerings.

The key to successful event monetization on social media is to focus on connecting with your target audience. Let them get to know you better, and in turn, you'll learn more about them.

Things to Keep in Mind During Monetizing Social Media Following 

While you start monetizing your social media following there are a few things you should keep in mind. 

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• Focus on building a social media presence first. A good impression will be crucial for you to monetize your social media following.
• Build your expertise on the specific niche
• Interact with your audience regularly
• Build an email list
• Promote what you are offering
• Provide the best value to your social media followers
• Build a portfolio of revenue streams. As they say in the stock market, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. 

But on top of all these suggestions you need a platform that can help you as a creator. A platform that offers good interaction with the followers and better optimization of your craft. Crowdfundly is such a platform that can help you easily monetize your social media following. 

Through Crowdfundly you get options for

• Uploading your products, and sharing them on an interactive platform
• Premium subscriptions
• eCommerce site building guide 
• Direct payment options

Here’s why we recommend you use Crowdfundly: 

Besides, you can easily use social media to send traffic to your website built by Crowdfundly and have more control than ever. 

So, more control, flexible policy, and easy setup. Plenty of reasons to give Crowdfundly a try. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, you can easily monetize your social media following through using the methods we have discussed here. Just make sure to follow them properly and you can add your innovation to each step. Through the work, you can easily manage to make a lot of money from the social media platforms.