Congratulations! You’re an influencer and here is what you can expect to earn

You’ve managed to cultivate a substantial following on social media, and even gotten the attention of a brand that’s willing to sponsor some posts. So, how much money will you actually earn?

Guest post by Bobby Owsinski of Music 3.0

There are 2 steps to becoming an “influencer” on any platform – you need a substantial following and you need a brand to sponsor your posts. Assuming that you’ve reached those two levels, you’re probably wondering how much a typical post makes. Many influencers fake what they’re doing and how much they’re making, but a new study gives us some more concrete data to work with.

First of all, influencers can get paid in either product or cash. 69.5% prefer a combination, while 24.8% want just cash. Only 5.7% of influencers will settle for only product. That’s a good place to start, but let’s see how much an influencer in each of the most popular platforms can expect to make.

We’re going to break it into 3 categories – a low number of followers, medium number, and high number. The high number is actually pretty reachable for the average influencer (except for maybe YouTube and TikTok) and not in the Kardashian or pop star range.

Instagram

• 10,000 followers – $273
• 50,000 followers – $744
• 90,000+ followers – $1,221

Facebook

• 5,000 followers – $184
• 15,000 followers -$203
• 25,000+ followers – $266

Twitter

• 5,000 followers – $65
• 15,000 followers -$88
• 25,000+ followers – $126

YouTube

• 50,000 followers – $1,000
• 500,000 followers -$1,250
• 1,000,000+ followers – $3,667

TikTok

• 1,000,000 followers – $2,658
• 3,000,000 followers -$3,093
• 5,000,000+ followers – $4,372

It should be noted that the video platforms (TikTok and YouTube) have two subcategories – Peer/Authoritative and Aspirational. Peer/Authoritative pays about 1/5th as much as Aspirational. Peer/Authoritative influencers are regular creators who are not celebrities, while Aspirational stars have a higher profile and may have transcended to become web celebrity creators.

As you can see, it’s easier to become an influencer on Twitter and Facebook on the basis of lower follower numbers. The video channels, especially TikTok, require pretty large numbers to just get in the game.

Follower numbers alone are not enough to make you an influencer however. They have to be very active and engaged in order for you to take that next step. It’s also been shown that even a low number of followers (below the numbers stated above) can still be attractive to brands if the audience is highly engaged.

Finally, the numbers above are only averages based on the info gathered from around 1,200 influencers. Just like so much else on the Internet, the results depend so much on the demographic that you cater to.