So you want to make money on social media, right? You see your favourites growing in numbers and as they grow, you assume their bank account does too. No shame here! I say the word “assume”, because you can’t really tell any person’s situation. This is all an assumption that social media can be a full time job. Here’s the truth, it can be but you have to work for it. By “work,” I mean being consistent. In order to do that you need motivation. And the motivation to be consistent needs to come from your passion. People will be able to tell if you are not passionate about being online. This passion will drive you towards creativity which will show people who you are as a person.
What are you known for?
Some people are “known” for things. For example we have TIK TOKers that are known to make you laugh. Or YouTubers who are known to teach you the latest make-up looks. You also have Instagrammers who give you outfit or lifestyle inspiration or Facebooker’s who give you the motivation in whatever you’re interested in. I know you know what I am talking about. The trick is to find out what you want to be known for.
You want to make money on social media, you say?
Find out what interests you! What makes you happy? What do you like to share? Or what you are knowledgeable on? Whether it’s playing games and finding hacks or cooking or art or fashion or beauty or lifestyle or comedy, there’s actually no limit to finding what gives you that passion that fills you up with inspiration.
Because guess what?
That’s what it takes to get to a place where you’re comfortable enough to make social media your full-time job. Now I’m not promising anything. For others the road there is long but for some people it is short and they go viral in seconds. This is why you need your passion and motivation to carry you along.
Imagine…
Now, I want you to close your eyes and imagine yourself. Imagine starting from 0, even if you really aren’t. That can be 0 followers, subscribers, likes, comments, it can be anything. Now imagine sharing content that you are passionate about on any platform of your choice. Imagine being consistent and having 100 or more posts. THEN all of a sudden you wake up one day to a bunch of notifications. Guess what? Your post has gone viral and you’ve attracted many more followers, subscribers, likers, and commenters.
What if I told you…
That the only reason why these people chose to follow you is not because of your viral post but because of your other posts! Your viral post is what brought them to your page and because of your passion and authenticity and consistency, they know and are expecting this content from you.
Now if your only goal is to make money, at this point you wouldn’t have the passion to continue making content.
– Lateefa, The Influence Journal Podcast
For example…
In the Netflix series 100 Humans, there was an episode that stood out to me. And this episode was about happiness. The hosts of the show put together a control group with a reward to get paid for the highest standing structure made from spaghetti and a marshmallows. The other group was just for fun and they were not getting any rewards. I think you already know where I am going here but the paid control group was so narrowly focused on getting money that there were high levels of competition and less creativity. The unpaid group had a high level of creativity and most importantly they had fun!! Guess which group ended up with the highest structure?! Yes, you got it right! It was the unpaid group!
The main keywords are authenticity, consistency and passion. No these are not buzzwords but this is what people will be looking for when they decide to follow you or not. Also follower count does not equal your bank account number and even people with low follow counts can get paid doing what they love online. This will be addressed in a blog post or YouTube video episode.
I just wanted to make these points clear before we move on to other topics. It’s okay to work and do your passion on the side, the best part of it is watching your growth throughout the whole process. Which is what we are here for, enjoy the beauty of it all, learn from your mistakes earlier on so you’ll know how to deal with them later.
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