A new report has revealed the yearly salary of the average social media influencer, and it turns out the glamorous career isn’t as lucrative as it appears.
Linktree’s latest Creator Report surveyed and summarised everything that happens in a single minute on social media in 2023.
According to the report, half of social media creators earned money from their content in the last year, but the amounts they made varied wildly.
The vast majority (72 per cent) of influencers made less than $775 (US$500) from their social media gigs in the past 12 months.
Another 17 per cent of creators made between $775 and $7750 (US$500 – $5000). Five per cent made between $7750 and $15,500 (US$5000 – $10,000), and four per cent made between $15,500 and $77,000 (US$10,000 – $50,000).
Just two per cent of creators made more than $77,000 (US$50,000) in the past year, which is what Linktree said constituted a “liveable wage”.
Linktree, which is a popular “link in bio” tool for influencers, said the generally low pay was due to a hugely oversaturated market.
In one “internet minute”, 60 million minutes of content are streamed, 167 million TikTok videos are watched and 65,000 photos are uploaded to Instagram, Linktree explained.
Further, the human attention span is one-third what it was in 2004, meaning “creators are vying for limited attention”.
Making matters worse, there are a staggering 200 million creators trying to break through.
“Turning your side hustle into a successful career is harder than ever but necessary for long-term financial stability,” Linktree warned.
Linktree said the most financially savvy creators made it easy for their followers to fund their work, such as through affiliate links on which they make a commission for each product sold.
“Creators are finding success by making it easy for their audience to support them, including tips, requests, and sales through storefront links. Links to (shopping) platforms like Shopify and Spring increased in 2022, driving millions of clicks,” Linktree said.
Most creators tried to diversify their successes via a few different income streams. Social media users had, on average, seven social media profiles.
“Getting likes is more fun when you can turn them into cold hard cash,” Linktree said.
“Once you’ve garnered the right attention, the next phase is turning your side hustle into a legit career. After all, success in the attention economy is only valuable when it translates to stable, reliable income.”
Get in touch — chloe.whelan@news.com.au