Life of a social media creator: Rewarding but not in Earnings



Being an online creator is really cool. You have the chance to be able to share what you love to the world and create a space where you can express yourself. You share funky fashion looks, short comedy reels, memes, sing songs, show-off your choreography, or post your art.


Whatever it may be, your personal style lets loose online but being a social media creator is no easy feat for sure.


Hours of work, usually in your free time to help build content, focus on each tiny detail to make sure it’s alright before it gets uploaded and after that, hope that it gets noticed. From the perfect caption to what hashtags to use, you learn slowly by trial and error and eventually, brands begin to notice you.  Then comes sponsorships, potential partnerships, collaborations, and other kinds of branded content on your social media profiles. Your hard work begins to reap some benefits, yay!


The key question though is: With the pace in which you’re growing, are you creating enough monetary value equal to the amount of effort you put in?



The answer to that is usually yes and no.  Yes, they do earn something but generally, social media creators have a day job to support them. 


Two reasons to attest to this. Firstly, the notion of earning just from social media is hard and understandably so. Being a social media creator means that you have to fight to stay relevant and constantly make sure you’re being noticed by newer people so they follow you.  Another reason is the big one: a lockdown caused by a global pandemic. The pandemic has affected so many businesses that sponsorships and other partnerships have become negligible! Its a strange irony where you see that you’re gaining followers but because of fewer brand opportunities, the avenues to earn despite having more clout is lesser. 


But, there is still hope. Content creators adapt and have understood to think ‘outside the social media box’  We see influencers experimenting with different platforms that give them a chance to create and earn by realising how they have an existing online community who enjoy their content. By establishing their own personally owned platforms, they develop a self app/website to showcase premium content, exclusive behind-the-scenes, feature merchandise, and thereby build a personalised relationship with their loyal fans on their own platform, on their own terms.



The life of a social media creator is rocky, sure. But they are the ones who have the boldness to pursue their passion project, whatever the challenges may be. It is a mix of fun, tough, unpredictability but can be far more economically rewarding by realising how they themselves are a brand whose content has value who can succeed no matter what.


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