How Money Is Made on Social Media

A few days ago I had a post emphasizing ‎that social media is not just a place to be silly and kill time. Many people wanted to understand how money is made on social media or how to get the best out of social media. I will detail how this can be done.

Getting the Best Job

So you have completed school in your chosen field of study but very few people know what you do. Before social media we could send CVs to announce what we do. Nowadays we can tweet, Instagram or Facebook it. Recently I met this lady who I reckon was a prolific communicator from how she posted on Facebook. I thought this person could be someone I can work with in my start-up as Communications Manager. I reached out to her and true to my suspicion she is studying Communications. That is how she became part of the winning team; before she finishes her degree she could find herself as a Communications Director, can life be any cooler? If you are doing nothing connected to your dreams and aspirations on social media, you are robbing yourself.

Becoming a Brand Ambassador

‎There are things that you love maybe clothes, perfume, makeup, food, a football team, a brand of cars etc. You are most likely an expert about the A-Z of it so why not showcase it on social media? You are already doing something you love and need no extra motivation.
You could approach the brand manufacturer or one of the dealers to do demos e.g. going to Mercedes-Benz and doing recording of their new cars then share on Facebook or YouTube. You become an extension of the dealer's sales department or can convince them to open a Facebook page and be the manager getting extra income. I became a brand ambassador for BlackBerry after being identified to be doing well to support the brand. Even now BlackBerry regularly recruits for such brand ambassadors.

Thinking Money on Social Media

Promote Content for a Fee

If you establish yourself as a fountain of knowledge in a particular area there is a good chance you will stand out from the crowd. So you know how to apply makeup like Floridah Mapeto and keep up with fashion trends, you ensure to build an audience ‎that shares the same aspirations. (If you have an audience already make sure you align it with your goals, it's not a crime to unfriend those who are connected for things you no longer pursue). The likes, retweets, comments you receive will not go unnoticed. A company or an individual looking to promote their product can reach out to you so you promote their product, you can agree on a fee per post maybe $10 for one post. 20 posts per month is $200 which is a good extra income. But you have to be smart in how you promote content because you will be competing with Facebook’s ads. Avoid web links and hash tags otherwise Facebook will hide the content from timelines. If you should share links rather post them under comment on main post because Facebook hates you diverting traffic to other social networks like Twitter or LinkedIn. If you must share pictures then post to Facebook via instagram because they are trying to increase user base on Instagram by promoting its content on facebook.

Manage Pages/Do Causes

There are many businesses out there that are willing to extend their Public Relations department but they just don’t know how to do it. Some are looking at engaging with their customers beyond the physical contact they make during transactions. However many of these companies are not aware of the power of social media or how to use it effectively. They can be willing to pay a small amount for this service by an expert if they are appraised on the benefits. Another gap in the market is that of causes, these are activities that will enhance the life of people or bring communities together. Most causes involve things like Politics, Sport or Human Rights which encompass things people deeply care about. Right now there is campaigning for US elections and candidates are trying so much to appeal to the masses. People like Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have people helping their campaign through social media. They may volunteer their skills for free but this experience they can put on their CV to land the next big job or be rewarded with proceeds from campaign funding.

Generate Intelligent Data

With over 1 billion people on social media, the number is useless unless it can be broken down into smaller and manageable units for example how many women use social media in your country, how many older people use it, how many people actively participate in politics, how many people are involved in causes, who are the most influential social media users in your country etc. This is intelligent data which can be used for selling purposes. A company might want to know which people to use for getting their brand heard or making things go viral, you can make them pay to get the word out. As an example everyone heard about the maid in Uganda who was filmed beating a child, everyone knows of the woman who was kept in a septic tank in Tanzania, everyone knows about the woman who was accused of injecting a step child with HIV. This knowledge went around social media before it reached newspapers, it had gone viral simply because many enough influential people jumped onto it and shared. With the right data sets it is possible to create awareness of an event faster than TV or radio can.

Help Social Media Security

Like we need security in real life, social is no exception. Many people never think of security online because it is all fun and games right? But nothing could be further from the truth. As the online community increase in size, so are the social engineering thieves and impersonators who are willing to another’s name or intellectual property for gain. In a day there are people whose facebook pages, groups and profiles are being stolen and have no clue how to recover them. You could spend your time investigating how security of email, phones, and social networks is intertwined and help these people recover their accounts for a fee. Some people are willing to pay big bucks to get back their pages. If you know how hard it is to build a facebook page to 200,000 you can understand why they would rather pay to get it back. I have done reverse hacking for many people’s profiles back in the day.