Which Social Media Platform Pays the Most in 2022?

More and more people are using social media every day from all over the world - and the number is growing exponentially. This year alone, social media channels are expected to have upwards of 3.96 billion users as device mobility has provided us with valuable tools (apps and search engines) for everyday use.

What’s more, is that everyday content creators are also using social media not just to scroll but to generate an income. As of right now, Facebook is the leading social media platform as it has amassed over three billion users while Instagram has two million and counting and Twitter has around 300 million. Each social media platform allows you to earn, but which one pays out the most to its creators and influencers?

Let’s dive in.

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How Does Social Media Help Influencers Earn Money?

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Before we talk about which platforms have the most earning potential, let’s talk about how they are leveraged for users turned creators to earn.

There are two ways social media allows you to earn money:

The first is through content creation and branding. When it comes to social media and content creation, the creator or influencer is the product being ‘sold’. The various social media platforms out there don’t actually pay the influencers and content creators directly. It’s the media companies and other brands that leverage these creators and influencers to promote their products and services to their own following.

Essentially, it’s a way to reach more of a company’s target audience, and they either pay the influencer or creator based on generated sales from their promotions or simply per promotional post and audience engagement. It all depends on the deal made between the company and the individual influencer.

The other way social media allows you to earn money - whether you’re an influencer or not - is through directly selling products. You can use social media platforms as an extension of your online marketplace or affiliation program, or you can partner directly with brands to sell their products.

It should be noted that earning money through social media isn’t as clear-cut and simple as it seems. Influencers, content creators, and independent eCommerce entrepreneurs alike must put in the time and effort to establish their niche, brand identity, and their following - not to mention putting out consistent content that’s valuable in some way to their followers. However, over time, social media can become incredibly profitable. For example, an established influencer that has between 10,000 and 500,000 followers can make anywhere between $60,000 and $100,00 per year.

Of course, how much you make depends entirely on which platform (or platforms) you use and the type of content you create. Eventually, you’ll have to land on a specific niche to streamline your earnings and the types of brands you attract for business, which also takes some time and trial and error.

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Which Social Media Platforms Pay the Most?

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One thing that’s important to keep in mind is that the various social media platforms tend to have multiple avenues of earning money. For example, there are sponsored campaigns, self-promotions for your own businesses, affiliate marketing, and allowing brands to place ads in your video content.

Since social media earning potential depends on several different variables, the question isn’t necessarily which platform “pays the most” but which has the most earning potential. Here’s the breakdown:

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YouTube

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YouTube was the first social media channel that implemented a monetization system. All you had to do to get started was be of legal age, have a minimum one one thousand followers, four thousand hours of video views, and refrain from publishing anything deemed inappropriate by the company’s standards.

From there you can earn money in two ways - through paid advertisements and channel memberships. Paid advertisements are arguably the most popular way to earn and payment amounts vary by country, niche, demand, views, number of ads, and so on. Most YouTubers earn around $18 per 1,000 ad views - but there’s always potential to make more.

Channel memberships allow you to earn a set amount per month as long as you have people interested in paying for a subscription for exclusive content and other special benefits.

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Facebook

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Facebook now has an option called Facebook Creators, although the platform was monetizable before this implementation. However, Facebook Creators is a community of which you can become a part as long as you have a substantial page with a minimum of ten thousand followers and 30 thousand video views of at least three minutes.

There’s also paid advertising (the ‘old way’) where you can earn anywhere from $0.50 to $3 per one thousand views. Of course, individual rates depend entirely on the advertiser’s demand.

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