November 10th 2023.
Cristiano Ronaldo is now the highest earning Instagram influencer. He has 611 million followers, and earns an impressive $2.39 million per post. If we counted his fanatical followers as citizens, he would be the third largest country in the world – behind India and China! In 2021, he earned an impressive $136 million through sponsored posts.
I became an accidental influencer in 2009 when I started a blog on social media. I built an audience of over 500,000 followers on Twitter, where I shared long form articles and 140 character text tweets. Now, however, I feel like a social media dinosaur in a world dominated by Instagrammers and TikTokers.
A Microsoft study revealed that the attention span of humans has drastically decreased in a world filled with so much content screaming for our attention. The average attention span of a notoriously ill-focused goldfish is nine seconds, but the same study found that people generally lose concentration after eight seconds. This is a worrying trend, and goes to show why social media is so important.
Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok have created the influencer industry and given celebrity and lesser known influencers the chance to become media companies and millionaires. Distribution size matters; television measures its viewer size and newspapers measure paper sales. On social media, the size of your audience is essential.
Engagement is also important. Likes and comments are the metrics to consider when it comes to influence and product sales. For example, the Instagram post of an advert between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo received over 42 million likes and 500,000 comments.
There are many ways to make money as an Instagram influencer. Sponsored content, affiliate marketing, selling products or merchandise, Instagram takeovers, and offering paid subscriptions or exclusive content are all viable options. Michael Jordan is a great example; he signed a deal with Nike for an athlete endorsement sponsorship in 1984, and it is estimated that he has earned around $1.3 billion over 40 years.
Having a big following on social media with great engagement in your industry niche is essential to make money as an influencer. But don’t forget to also build your own digital asset such as a website, blog, and email list. You own these assets, and you have control.
Creating and sharing your passion and purpose with content can change your life. It did for me. With the right knowledge and understanding of the changing media landscape, you too can be a successful influencer.
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[Generative AI is experimental.]
