Have you heard this advice
before: “Follow your passions!” “Do what you love!”?
And have you thought, what if my
passions are my hobbies? Things that I could never be paid for?
For some, the advice to “do what
you love” seems possible only if you have a passion for things like finance or
accounting or coding. Well, I’ve been happy to find that it’s possible to
follow your passions into a career, no matter what those passions may be. With
social media, you now have a platform to do what you love and to make a career
out of it.
I found 15 amazing entrepreneurs
who built their entire businesses and careers around social media, many earning
$100,000 or more.
I’d love to share their stories
with you and how you can follow their lead to turn your passions into a career,
through social media.
How to Earn an Income Doing What
You Love on Social Media
It sounds far-fetched, doesn’t
it?
Posting photographs or tweets a
few times each day to launch a lucrative career doing what you love.
And you might be wondering how
these social media entrepreneurs make money. Because after all, a career
requires an income.
I’ll get into the specific
stories of 15 entrepreneurs below. First, I thought I’d share the many number
of ways—the specific avenues and channels—that they use to make money on social
media.
1. Sponsorships
Sponsorships are responsible for
a lot of the money earned through social media, especially for those just
starting off. Brittany Furlan, Caitlin Turner andShaun McBride all started with
sponsorships.
Sponsorships occur when brands
pay to be associated with you. When a tourism board pays Instagrammer Lauren
Bath to work with them and feature their location, they are sponsoring Lauren.
Podcasts are usually funded
through sponsorships as well. The sponsor will pay to be featured on the
podcast at some point during the episode.
2. Advertisements
Advertisements are another
popular method of monetizing social media. YouTubers like Liz Meghan use ads to
make a living through their social media accounts.
Advertisements differ from
sponsorships in that there’s usually not a long term relationship with the
entrepreneur.
3. Selling products
If you have a product based
business like an eCommerce store, this is perfect for you.
Social media can be a great place
to sell your products – or, at the least, build up a following and redirect
those followers to your website to buy your products.
4. Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing allows you to
work with brands to help them sell their products, earning you a commission
each time somebody buys through your affiliate link.
Many social media channels allow
affiliate links to be placed within a post, and when the follower clicks on the
link and makes a purchase through it, the poster gets a portion of that sale.
5. Promoting services
If a service-based business is
more up your alley, you don’t want to look past social media as a marketing
channel.
From hair stylists who post their
work on Instagram to coaches who use Facebook as a platform to engage with
potential clients, there is a lot of opportunity on social media to promote
your services.
6. Boosting your
visibility as an artist
If you’re an artist, writer, or
creative entrepreneur, social media can be an amazing tool to boost your
visibility.
Artists like Us the Duo, Grace
Ciao, and writer Jeff Goins all have used their social media channels as
methods of boosting their visibility to book gigs and sell their art.
Why Social Media Works
Creating social media content
every day. Scheduling it at the right times.Analyzing what followers respond to
and what they ignore. The time it takes to manage a social media marketing
strategy can be significant.
Here are two reasons why the time
is well worth it, especially for those looking to build a new career.
1. Social Media Expands Your Reach by 1,000x
How many people visit your website
each day?
200? 1,000?
Those aren’t bad numbers. And it
may make sense for you to spend time on your own website rather than social
media because your website is like your online home.
But think about it:
Instagram has 100 million active
users
Twitter has over 135 million
active users
Youtube sees over 1 billion
active users each month
Even if only 0.1% of the people
on those channels are interested in what you’re doing, you’ve still amplified
your reach by over 1,000 times by using social media to spread your message and
share your passion.
2. Social Media Establishes Your Expertise
The lifeblood of social media is
content.
Even if you’re posting a 6-second
video on Vine or a photo on Instagram, you’re posting content.
When you’re consistently posting
content about a specific topic, you establish yourself as an expert.
Take, for example, two
mathematicians who love numbers. Who establishes herself as an expert?
Mathematician A, who loves her
work but avoids social media, or
Mathematician B, who teaches
others how to do math on Youtube and has 200,000 followers?
They’re both experts, but
Mathematician B has established herself as an expert. She has built an
audience, and provides value to others by demonstrating her knowledge on social
media.
15 Entrepreneurs Who
Built New Careers Through Social Media
1. Brandon Stanton
The creator of Humans
of New York
In 2010, after losing his job,
Brandon Stanton began to take candid photographs of people on the streets of
New York and post them to Facebook.
Self-taught, Brandon took photos
that reflected his passion, and these photos quickly began to gain traction on
Facebook.
Humans of New York now has over
12 million Facebook likes, and it has launched a speaking, photography,
philanthropic and media career for Brandon.The revenue generated by HONY prints
sold goes directly to charity, and Brandon makes a living from the royalties of
books sales and new freelancing opportunities. He went into a bit more detail
about the specifics in a Reddit AMA:
How are you able to pay for your
daily needs? Does HONY support you financially?
I’ve said publicly that I don’t
want to “cash out” or “monetize” HONY. I like to say it publicly because I want
my audience to keep me on mission. HONY print sales have raised nearly $500,000
for charity in the past six months. I want to further monetize the site for
non-profit ventures. I honestly want to “give” HONY to New York in some way.
Freelancing and book royalties
are keeping me afloat now. I get money for collaborations, occasional magazine
pieces, occasional speeches, etc. And I signed two book deals which pay the
rent. Also, I live cheaply.
2. Jeff Goins
Author and Blogger behind Goins, Writerabout-book@2x
Two years ago, Jeff Goins quit
his day job to pursue his passion for writing full-time.
He now has built a tribe of over
100,000 people, and has just launched his fourth book, The Art of Work.
This is all made possible by
social media.
Jeff began writing on his blog,
Goinswriter.com, and continued to work in his day job. He then began to earn
more on his blog doing what he loved part-timethan he was in his full-time job.
My blog (which accounted for less
than 10 hours per week) was now contributing more income than my full-time job
(which took up at least 40 hours per week).
His first product—a $2.99
ebook—earned $1,500 in its first week, convincing Jeff that his hobby could be
a business.
His blog gave him a platform to
follow his passion and do what he loves.
3. Grace Ciao
Fashion Designer and Artist grace ciao
Grace Ciao is the ultimate
accidental social media entrepreneur.
Since she was a little girl,
Grace has had a passion for fashion design, and one day, she noticed a flower a
boy had given her was dying. So Grace created a fashion illustration out of the
petals of the flower.
She took a photo of her
illustration and posted it on Instagram, which quickly became popular.
Grace earns a living as a
full-time illustrator, and has used her platform to book engagements for
events.
4. Michael and Carissa Alvarado
Husband and Wife Singers, Us The Duo
Michael and Carissa Alvarado were
making music before they began posting 6-second videos on Vine, but nothing has
sky rocketed their careers more than Vine has.
The couple was already trying to
gain more traction on Youtube when they decided to put snippets of their covers
on Vine, which served them well.
They now have 4.6 million Vine
followers, and signed a record deal with Republic Records in 2014, allowing
them to follow their passion by getting their start on social media.
5. Rosanna Pansino
Nerd and Baker at Nerdy Nummies
If you’ve ever thought the only
way to pursue your passion for baking is by opening a bakery or through feeding
your family, think again.
Rosanna Pansino built a career on
social media centered around her love of baking when she was egged on by
friends (pun intended) to start a Youtube channel.
Rosanna’s Youtube Channel, Nerdy
Nummies has over 3.6 million subscribers.
6. Justin Halpern
Comedian from Sh!t My Dad Says
Let me guess.
It seems as if every time you
open Twitter, you’re instantly barraged with links to mediocre blog posts,
pictures of people’s lattes and announcements of what the newest member of
oversharers-anonymous is having for lunch that day.
You could never imagine Twitter
as a platform to build a career, right?
Well, Justin Halpern did just
that.
He took his comedy writing career
to the next level by starting the popular Twitter account Sh!t My Dad Says,
where he began to Tweet snippets of conversations with his father.
The Twitter account quickly
gained traction and morphed into a television series and book.
7. Lain Ehmann
Scrapbooker and Blogger from Layout a Day
If you’ve ever felt as if your
interests or hobbies were impossible to build a career from, you may be
inspired by Lain Ehmann, who built her career from a blog about scrapbooking.
Yes, you read that right.
She’s built a six figure business
around a niche that is traditionally a hobby niche, teaching others how to
scrapbook and holding live online events through her blog.
The power of the internet allows
us to connect with people who are interested in the things that we’re
interested in, and if we can provide enough value to those people, Lain proves
that lucrative careers can be built.
8. Shaun McBride
Artist and Snapchatter
Shaun McBride learned how to draw
by looking at other artists’ drawings and trying his hand out at the craft.
After Snapchatting his
drawing/photo mashups, he was featured on some popular websites, which boosted
his career.
He now can make tens of thousands
of dollars from one advertising deal with a brand through his Snapchat account,
according to Forbes, and “several thousand dollars per image”.
9. Shawn Stevenson
Health Enthusiast of The Model Health Show cover
If text or images doesn’t
interest you when it comes to building a career on social media, maybe audio
does.
Shawn Stevenson runs the #1
health podcast on iTunes, the Model Health Show, allowing him to follow his
passion for fitness and health through a different medium.
Instead of taking the traditional
route of personal training, Shawn interviews guests on his podcast, creating
content and giving listeners the tools to live healthy lives.
10. Lauren Bath
Traveller and Professional Instagrammer
Lauren Bath has arguably the best
job in the world. Not only is she paid to Instagram, but she also gets paid to
travel.
Lauren was the “first
professional Instagrammer” of Australia, and quit her job as a chef to pursue
her passions for photography and travel.
Lauren works with tourism boards
and brands to provide exposure through her huge Instagram account to make a living.
While she doesn’t reveal her
rates in interviews, she tells Successful Bloggingthat she works with brands
such as Nikon and Tourism Boards to offer them sponsorships:
Well I can’t talk for others but
for me I charge a base rate to travel away from home and that rate includes
posting whatever images I like with all content available to the client.
11. Joey Korneman
Animator and Teacher from School of Motion
Joey Korneman is the founder
of School of Motion, where he teaches
his students through online courses to animate using the principles of motion
design.
Most of Joey’s traffic comes from
Vimeo, as he tells Pat Flynn’s mastermind group in a recent episode of the
Smart Passive Income Podcast.
He has 5,000 followers on Vimeo,
which is high for that social media channel, and, as he tells Pat’s mastermind
group, “Vimeo is very high-quality traffic for motion design”.
Joey makes a living teaching
motion design by directing his Vimeo followers to his website, where he sells
courses.
12. Mignon Fogarty
Grammarian and Podcaster at Grammar Girl
Passions come in all shapes and
sizes, and Mignon Fogarty’s passion is unique.
Mignon has a passion for grammar,
and works full time in the field by teaching grammar principles to her rabid
fans of her Grammar Girl podcast.
Through social media, she has
been able to build an amazing career around grammar, as she blogs as well.
13. Caitlin Turner
Yogi and Instagrammer GypsetGoddess
Caitlin’s passion for yoga has
provided her with the unique opportunity to build an entire career from it – on
Instagram.
Catlin’s Instagram account is
still relatively new – about three years old – but she still has earned over
220,000 followers.
Caitlin told Yoganonymous that
“Instagram has definitely been a huge career chance for me. It’s connected me
professionally to different brands and people I wouldn’t have found before
because I had no reason to. This is my career now.”
14. Brittany Furlan
Actress and Vine Comedian
Social media has helped people
like Brittany Furlan launch comedic and acting careers in a way that was never
possible before.
Brittany used Vine to launch her
career in comedy and acting and now has 8.9 million followers on Vine.
Brittany told The Wrap that she
makes a comfortable living through her Vines.
Those videos — which include a
repertoire of outlandish characters (“Ghetto Dora De Explora“),
quick-to-the-punchline sketches or pranks on the unsuspecting public — are
worth between $7,000 and $20,000 to brands targeting Furlan’s massive audience.
She’s now gone on to partner with
Seth Green to create a sketch show.
15. Liz Meghan
Youtuber and Makeup Artist
With over 672,000 subscribers on
her Youtube channel, Liz makes a living doing what she loves through makeup
tutorials and sharing what she’s learned about makeup over the years.
Liz tells the Huffington Post
that she makes a living off of her Youtube channel because Youtube pays her to
put ads on her videos.
There’s no better time than now
to do what you love
As these inspiring entrepreneurs
demonstrate, by building a following online using social media, you can:
Get paid to do what you love
Establish yourself as an expert
and
Grow a following around your
passions.
There’s no excuse to not get out
there, pick a social media channel, and start posting.
Have you found success in
building a career or a following on social media? Are you inspired by others
who have taken this route to follow their dreams? I’d love to hear more about
what you’ve experienced and learned in the comments.
This story originally appeared on
Buffer
Image sources: Pablo, Unsplash,
IconFinder, Humansofnewyork.com, Art of Work Book, Ryanseacrest.com,
Newmediarockstars.com, Shonduras.com, iTunes, Laurenbath.com,
Vimeo, Gypsetgoddess.com, Thewrap.com, Youtube.co
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