"How can you make a living on social media?" - I (and most people) DON'T!

People frequently ask me how they can “get more followers” or “make a living” on social media. Most people will not like what I have to say about this subject.

People frequently ask me how they can “get more followers” or “make a living” on social media.

Most people will not like what I have to say about this subject.

First, if you are doing it to “get more followers” or are worried about numbers, you are already doing it wrong.

Yes, I do pay attention to the growth of my page, and I do hope it keeps trending in the upward direction, but unless it goes backward or has some major numeric anomaly, I don’t pay much attention to the number of followers I have.

I believe good leaders are servants - or in servant leadership.

The servant leadership style is based on the idea that leaders prioritize serving the greater good. Leaders with this style serve their team and organization first. They don’t prioritize their own objectives.

It comes off as selfish if you’re constantly asking for followers or only worried about your growth (even if that’s not how you mean to come off to people).

Nobody is entitled to a social media following and having one is both a gift and a privilege - that comes with a lot of responsibility (because the bigger your platform grows the more easily it can unintentionally cause harm).

You have to earn your readership, and it will only happen if you put aside selfish reasons for wanting to grow and start nurturing your community (without wondering what they can do for you).

Servant leaders don’t do good because they hope to be recognized and rewarded for their good deeds. They do good because it needs to be done and because it will help the people they serve.

As a servant leader, you have to be willing to do for your community - regardless if they can repay the favor for you or not.

Don’t worry about how many followers you have.

Don’t waste time and energy trying to “get more followers.” Your energy is better spent on creating quality content that adds value to people’s day.

People won’t follow you because you want them to follow you (and people don’t “owe” you a follow - you have to earn it).

If people follow you they will follow you because they find value in the content you put out into the world.

If you consistently create great, quality resources that add value to people’s day, followers will come organically (because of the value following you brings them).

Do NOT share low quality content.

A few, thoughtful, well put together posts are always better than a ton of low-quality content (that can cause social media algorithms to down rank your over all relevance, preventing your content from being distributed to people).

If you regularly share “low quality content” lots of external links to items outside of the platforms you are sharing on, ESPECIALLY fundraisers and crowd funding links (social media HATES THSOE) your page will NOT grow.

Additionally, sharing politically charged information can cause you to be down-ranked, depending on the platform. Some platforms are more left leaning (Instagram, Threads, Youtube, Substack) and some are more right leaning (Twitter, Facebook).

If you’re sharing pro-trans content on one of the right leaning platforms, for example, it may be down ranked and your page’s over-all relevance may suffer for it (especially on Twitter).

Sometimes you may decide it is worth it - if these things are central to the content you create. I share content that I know I will be “hand slapped” for anyway (despite knowing that it hurts my reach). If I stopped doing this my page would do better, but I would be sacrificing my authentic voice.

Controversial posts also often get better reach but I don’t recommend seeking out controversial opinions and drama as your primary source of content (because if you post controversial topics all the time so you can get more views, people will pick up on that pattern of manipulation).

Shock value gets old and depends on outrage. Do you REALLY want your entire platform to be built on outrage?

If your content is highly quality, helpful, and adds to the person’s quality of life, they will likely follow you for more great content.

The other important thing that will help retain your social media readers and viewers is having a consistent posting schedule - whatever that looks like for you.

Maybe you are posting once a day, maybe you post once a week, twice a month, or maybe just once a month.

Regardless of how often you post, posting consistently on a schedule that your readers can count on (and algorithms seem to love) is crucial.

A Red and white neon sign that is a :like: heart with the number on a dark wall

If you are thinking about starting a social media platform and growth and reach are important to you, then you need to do three things:

1. Create high-quality content that adds value to the readers’ day/makes their life better somehow.

2. Set a schedule that is realistic to you and stick to it.

3. Be authentic. Don’t be fake.

Authenticity is key because if you are fake, people will pick up on it, turning them away from you.

People gravitate toward real people they can relate to. People will sense if something is “off” or “inauthentic” even without being able to name exactly what feels “off” to them - because it plays into the Uncanny Valley Effect (which tends to unease people).

Everything else is just luck. You may go viral in your first year or two, or you may never go viral.

Don’t expect to go viral. Most people won’t.

My blog didn’t even break even (financially) for the first five years I had it.

For the first four years of my blog, my blog was something I put money into (from my full-time job) to pay for costs like web hosting, social media scheduling tools, transcription software, and other items that helped me create the content I was putting out into the world.

The blog didn’t pay for itself (until recently). My job paid for the blog.

My Blog (NeuroDivergent Rebel) was my only hobby for those early years, and I spent countless hours building it, not knowing if it would ever pay off monetarily (because that was never the goal of my blog).

The goal was to help people; ironically, focusing on helping NOT followers has helped my page to grow more reach.

Don’t expect to live off of what you make on social media.

People don’t understand that I don’t “make a living off social media.” Social media is NOT my main source of income - nor do I count on it as such.

Every now and then, a nice bonus will come to me for the occasional viral post. (I made $300 once for a video with a million views as an example, but most of my videos only make a few cents up to a dollar or two a month if I am lucky.)

I make content because I am inspired to create and because I hope what I create can help people. I don’t do it for the views or the money. It is a labor of love that occasionally will gift me with a small check for that labor.

These bonuses are a nice surprise but are not enough to live off of.

I don’t believe “making a living” off social media is possible for most people. Making a living on social media shouldn't be the goal because most people who try to “make a living” off social media fail.

Many who do make a living on social media do so because of brands sponsorships and helping to influence people into buying products from different companies.

I could have taken on brand sponsorships and partnerships, but turn most of them down.

There are many brands who come to my inbox, asking me to pedal their products and run ads on my page, they offer me thousands of dollars sometimes per add but the products are often expensive luxury items or things that I don’t believe my audience would find relevant or useful to them.

Instead of selling out, I turn 98% of these brand deals (that if I were to accept them could easily land me at six figures each year) down.

Personally, unless I feel an item will make the lives of my readers better, I am morally opposed to recommending it (even though most offer me $3k-$5k per add).

Selling out to brands is one way (probably the easiest way) to make a living on social media. I just don’t feel it is authentic or honest to do so.

If you see an item on my page, it means I use it and it makes my life better - but since I am a minimalist (with few possessions) I don’t have many products that actually I use.

A very small percentage of people will be lucky enough to be viral enough to live entirely off social media funds.

Unless you are one of the very few social media “influencers” (I hate that word) with over one million followers, who also is getting millions of reach or more on most posts they make (because some large pages have poor engagement despite their larger page size) you likely won’t make enough to survive on social media posts and views alone.

What social media CAN do for you is it CAN be the marketing arm for other projects you are working on that you use to support yourself.

People fail to realize that I, in addition to all the time I spend online creating free educational resources, also have a full-time day job as an independent educator and business consultant.

I am NOT making a living off of social media. I still have MANY projects in addition to social media, that I DO use my social media presence to help promote.