Ciao, Bella.
I’m writing this from Italy.
Right now, I’m on a press trip with a bunch of influencers.
I always find it fascinating to get a glimpse into their businesses.
Read on and I’ll tell you what I learned at dinner last night…
I was minding my own businesses sipping a strawberry daiquiri by the pool yesterday, when the lady next to me said:
“Look over there – that’s that couple off Love Island.”
In case you’re not familiar, Love Island is a reality TV show where a bunch of ridiculously good-looking single people live in a house together and have to ‘couple-up’ to stay in.
Those not paired up get booted off the show each week until the last couple win the prize of true love and £50,000 cash.
I didn’t tell the lady by the pool, but the famous couple were on the same trip as me.
And a few hours later, I was eating dinner with them as the conversation turned to my favourite thing – work.
After Love Island was aired, the couple each went from zero followers on social media to over half a million.
As well as finding each other, they found new careers in social media.
So, how does that work, exactly? I was keen to know.
It turns out that about half a million followers across Instagram and Tiktok is all you need to make a very decent living.
No need for blog posts, YouTube, or an email list.
As someone who makes virtually zero from Instagram and doesn’t even have a TikTok account, I had questions.
I learned that TikTok only pays for videos that are over a minute long.
But the attention span of a TikTok user is closer to a millisecond than a minute, so that’s just not practical.
And Instagram pays pretty much nothing too.
Hmm.
They make all of their money from brand deals.
They mix those in with organic content that shows what they get up to in their lives – so as not to annoy the audience with too many sponsored posts.
This made me think about my Facebook strategy.
So many people are caught up with focusing on the Bonus programme, (or Content Monetisation program).
But the truth is, social networks themselves pay a pittance.
Facebook pays me $1,000 to $2,000 per month, which is fine.
But that’s nowhere near as much as what I pay out to Facebook!
I don’t pay for reach, but I do use ads to grow my email list, for ad arbitrage campaigns and as part of sponsored campaigns for brands.
And I pay for that silly blue tick.
(I refused to pay for the tick on X and they then gave it me for free – so if you have a following and pay, you may wish to test not paying, haha)
My main strategy is to drive a lot of traffic from Facebook to my blog and I monetise that with display ads.
But who’s paying for those display ads?
It’s brands.
So the conclusion is – if you’re relying on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok or even YouTube to get paid, you’re leaving a LOT on the table.
The big bucks will always come from the brands whose products you are influencing people to buy.
And how do you do that?
Simple. By being a real person with real opinions.
That’s how you can make the connection between the brand and the consumer to drive sales.
That’s so valuable.
Because brands are not people.
But you’re a person – and so they need you.
The channel you choose is largely irrelevant.
All you have to do is pick the one where your ideal people hang out, be yourself there and create good content.
‘Good’ could mean entertaining, it could mean educational.
Ideally, it’s both,
Yes, yes you can post AI memes and make a few dollars for each.
But, you’d be leaving a lot on the table.
That’s all I have to share right now.
Pool time.
See you soon.
NSL
P.S. I just found a setting in Instagram that will auto-post your top IG reels to Facebook over the next 30 days in one click…
So if you already do well on IG but haven’t been focussing on FB much, that’s a super quick win for you!
In IG, just go to ‘Creator tools and controls’ then ‘Share past reels to Facebook’.
You’re welcome!