Most people in Nigeria see social media as a means to relax after a long day at work, boring school lectures, or any of their free time.
According to a report by Statista, internet users worldwide spend an average of 2-3 hours daily on social media. Did you know you can put your social media adventure into good use?
The tech age has made things so easy for us, including getting paid and making money from just being online. Social media is a lucrative way of making money in Nigeria. You don't have to sell anything to make money off it, but if you want to sell, that's cool too.
In this article, we'll be discussing ways to make money online via social media in Nigeria. Ready? Let's get started!
Choosing Your Social Media Platform
Of course, you already have different social media platforms you engage with daily in this digital age. For example, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, YouTube, etc.
You already know these platforms are free to use, so you don't need to pay to build your page or to start making money online.
Furthermore, to start and build your brand or business, you must choose the best platform that suits your brand or niche. You must know what you want to promote online to know the platform that complements it better.
When you're specific with the platform you're using, it will help you channel your effort into it to get maximum results. However, this doesn't mean you shouldn't be active on other social media platforms. You must channel your effort to a particular one to get optimal results.
Also, the platform you want to use to earn online depends on your niche and what you want to achieve with it. For example, if you want to go into fashion or food, you might want to use Instagram.
If you want to give your audience a detailed representation of how to solve problems, you might opt for blog posts or YouTube.
Here are a few things you should consider when choosing a social media platform:
- Make a list of different social platforms and research them
- Know your target audience, i.e. who your brand is for
- The services you want to offer
- Define your goals
Different platforms perform different functions, and they are all used by people in different ways. We'll show you how you can make money from some of these platforms. With this, you can choose the one that works best for your business.
Building your brand or business from scratch requires a free space that allows everyone to grow. This is what an Instagram account will help you achieve.
It doesn't matter the number of people doing what you're about to start. There's room for overtaking. You must consistently build your page to win people over with your content.
This is one of the platforms with over 1 billion users. This is good for building a customer base for a pre-existing business. You might want to avoid Facebook if you want to launch a new business.
One of the best ways to promote and raise awareness for your brand is by using Twitter. All you need to do is to use popular hashtags relating to what you're promoting. Engaging in popular conversation on Twitter can help as well.
Big business companies scout for brands on Twitter to work with. Just one tweet can do it for you.
YouTube
If you feel you can't engage your audience enough with just pictures, captions, and short videos, you can use the video-making option.
For instance, as a fashion designer, pictures and captions or short videos might not be enough since you want to take your audience on the step-by-step methods of making a particular style. With YouTube, you'll be able to achieve this.
If you're looking for a place to start as a small business owner, WhatsApp is the best place to start. You can run ads with "WhatsApp TVs" to gain more audience to promote your brand.
Here's an article on understanding the privatisation of public media.
Choosing Your Niche
To thrive on social media, you must have a particular thing you want to be known for. You don't want to show your audience how to sew and cook with the same brand. You'll be doing an excellent job at confusing them, and that's the last thing you want to do.
Peradventure, if you want to combine two things, they must align with each other. You can share something like fashion designing and styling. They are two different things but within the same niche.
Choosing a niche should be about your interests, what you're good at, and how you want to solve people's problems. There are lots of brands out there already. If you want to be noticed online, you should share unique content that can solve people's problems.
Take your time to explore your options before choosing what to go for.
Furthermore, choosing your niche is essential in making an income online. It also helps you determine the type of content to create, who to work or partner with, and the audience you want to attract to your page.
Every niche can generate money, but you should focus on specific parts of your niche that can pool more income for you. You don't want to waste your time by going for a niche that is already congested. You can tweak your content a bit to make your brand unique.
Here are major niches on social media you can explore and make money from in Nigeria:
- Food
- Fashion
- Tech
- Travel
- Fitness and health
- Personal development
- Lifestyle
Here's how money circulates in the Nigerian media!
Become an Influencer
Now that you've chosen your platform and niche, the next thing you want to do is to get people on your side. Becoming relevant in social media requires consistently showing up for your audience.
If you're finding it difficult to post consistently, you should create a content calendar. This will help you know when and what to post daily or weekly.
Also, defining the audience you want to attract to your page is essential. You must know those you want your content and posts to attract. For example, teens, adults, males, females, nursing mothers, people with anxiety, etc.
To rank and meet up with existing influencers, you need to get involved with social media analytics. This will help you collect and analyse data from your followers online to improve your brand or content strategy. It's also a good tool for online and affiliate marketing.
To make things easy, analytic tools have been designed for online users to keep a tab on how well they are doing as a brand. Some include Twitter analytics, Facebook analytics, Instagram analytical, Buffer, Hootsuite, etc.
Social media analytics can help you with your audience's gender, location, and more! It will help you know if you're reaching the right followers or not. This will enable you to re-strategise your content if necessary.
Also, if you know your competition and the audience you want to attract, you can lure in more followers by focusing on essential things other influencers are leaving out.
For instance, a fashion designer starting a blog or YouTube account shouldn't focus on sewing alone. You can include the financial side of fashion designing or how to set up sewing machines, tighten a loose screw, etc. Just anything outside the regular content will do.
As an influencer, you must be able to create both written and video content. If you're camera-shy, you should learn how to get comfortable with the camera.
No matter how much you've prepared, there are days you'll run out of content to share with your followers. In cases like this, you should try questions and answers. This way, you'll be able to know their pain points and how you can solve them with your knowledge, products, or services.
To earn online in Nigeria then, you must earn the trust of your followers. You should know that you're now accountable to them since they are your prospects.
In addition, you must wonder why some influencers with a large following and good engagement begin to lose followers. It's probably because of inconsistency. Online followers have a short attention span. They will look somewhere else for similar content and posts.
To avoid this, you must show up consistently. If there's a need to get off social media, you might need to inform them and let them know how long you'll be gone. With this, they will understand that you're considering them in your decision-making.
Here's how the media is funded in Nigeria and worldwide.
Sell Products and Services Online
You can earn money from online marketing, either personal or affiliate, after making your followers comfortable with you. Getting customers for products and services is one of the ways to earn and generate income as an influencer.
You must have developed a cordial relationship with your followers before they can buy your products or the products you're affiliating for.
When selling your product or services, ensure you deliver them to your customers satisfactorily. You don't want anything that will make you lose credibility and waste the time you've used to build your brand.
If you want to partner with other brands or companies relating to your niche to sell their products or services (affiliate marketing), you should research those brands before working with them.
Your goal is to influence your followers to buy the product or service, and then you should ensure the brands are trustworthy before promoting them to your audience. It's okay to reject brands that you don't feel good about.
It won't affect you, as you'll only be saving yourself and your audience from an unwanted situation.
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