How to make money on social media: 4 ways anyone can profit

Perhaps you’ve witnessed the rise to fame of your favorite social media influencer who’s now living the good life, completely paid for by brands they love. Maybe you’ve frequently caught yourself purchasing a product someone you admire mentioned on Instagram.

Either way, you’ve probably realized by now that social media is about more than just friends and funny videos. It’s also about making money. And if you’re wondering how to make money on social media, we’re here to help.

The good news is that you don’t need a million followers to get paid for posting on social media. There are roughly 3 billion users out there! Think of those folks as your future fans, if it helps.

Put your social media usage — whether it’s scrolling on Instagram or dancing along to the latest challenge on TikTok — to good use. You don’t have to be a mega influencer to make your social media presence work for you. And that’s why we’ve compiled this “How to make money on social media 101” just for you. Let’s dive right in and find out how you can be an influencer or simply monetize the time you spend on social media.

@linktr.ee If you've ever wondered if it’s possible to make money as creator with a small social following, we're here to tell you that it IS 🙌 From UGC content to affiliate links to even brand deals, you can do it all regardless of how many followers you have. It's time to start monetizing as a small creator! #creatortips #contentcreatortips #microinfluencertips #incomestreams #creatoreconomy #ugccreator #tiktokgrowth #socialmediatips #tiktokstrategy #waystomakemoney #passiveincome ♬ original sound - Linktree

Choose your stage

Before you get started, choose your favorite among the popular social media platforms. If you love making videos, prioritize the apps that focus on those types of posts, like YouTube or TikTok. And, if you love sharing perfectly curated images, go with Instagram.

Instagram

With around 1 billion monthly active users, this photo-focused platform is an excellent place for you to find new followers for your selfies, art and photography. It’s easy to get noticed here if you have interesting or artistic content to share.

TikTok

This platform also boasts approximately 1 billion users, and that’s a lot of eyes that you could train toward your latest dance routine or stand-up comedy clip.

YouTube

Are you a born teacher? Why not create tutorials on something you do well, like doing smokey eye makeup or baking a perfectly moist banana bread? With roughly 2.6 billion users, this is the ideal platform to showcase and share your expertise or promote your brand.

Get down to business

After you choose a platform and post the very best of your content, you have tons of possible ways to monetize your posts. We’re giving you four ways to make money on social media.

1. Affiliate marketing

Are you a home chef who swears by a certain brand of butter? A yoga enthusiast who has finally found the most comfortable clothes for a hatha routine? Through affiliate marketing, brands pay you to use your expertise and reach out to show your followers why their products are useful. Your influencer marketing helps companies reach their target audience, so you’re providing them with valuable service via this partnership. Social media platforms now make it easy for you to start with in-app affiliate programs that ensure you earn a commission for the products you promote.

2. Sell products

That’s right, sell your own swag. Whether you’re building a brand as a graphic artist or a skincare expert, there’s a way to turn your talent into money. If you’re already into creating art or clothing, use your social media platform to promote and sell these items. Another idea is to create “merch” around your brand itself. If people love your sense of humor, why not print a few of your best one-liners or coffee mugs or T-shirts? Drive traffic to your e-commerce site, portfolio or gallery page by dropping a Linktree URL in your bio. This special URL will branch out to all of your different sites and other social platforms.

3. Share your knowledge

Start a social media business. If people love your cooking videos or tech hacks on YouTube, offer them a full course. Charge entry to your masterclasses, and show viewers worldwide how to perfect their risotto or write code. Not only is this a way to make money, it’s a way of establishing community. And what are followers, if not a community?

One of the great aspects of virtual learning is that you don’t have to cap your classes. Once viewers catch on, you can make quite a bit of cash simply by sharing your knowledge and passion with others.

4. Ads and sponsored content

If you’re an entrepreneur or a small business looking to use social media as part of your marketing strategy, consider investing in advertisements or sponsored content. Surely you’ve noticed that your favorite social apps have started posting pictures on your feed with advertisements. As the algorithm gets to know you better, the ads you see look a lot more like the content you follow anyway. It’s a win-win.

Offer your services

Even if you don’t see yourself as an influencer or don’t care to be one, you can still make money on social media by helping others be, well, influencers. We’re talking about applying to social media jobs or freelancing as a content creator.

If you have copywriting or visual arts skills, you can offer your content creation services to rising social media stars and influencers. If you’re a tech wiz, you can offer to manage influencers’ posts and web presence so that they can focus on what they do best: making money on social media. Will you look at that? It’s a win-win, once again.

So roll up your sleeves and start making money doing something you already love. Start by getting noticed. We recommend using Linktree to build your social media presence, connecting your audience to your network across platforms. Start linking today.