20 Best Ways to Make Money on Social Media 2025

Can you really make money from social media platforms? The primary purpose for which these platforms and websites were originally created is to enable people to connect with one another. They achieve this by breaking down the barriers of long distances and reducing the costs of traditional communication methods.

With the continuous advancement in technology across various fields, people can now communicate through writing, voice, or voice messages. Later, communication evolved to include voice and video interaction through video or live streaming technologies.

Today, many social media platforms and applications have gone beyond these basic features, allowing their users to engage in other activities such as sharing information, staying updated with news, publishing posts, and sharing parts of their lives with others.

Most importantly (and what interests us here), several social media websites and applications now provide opportunities to earn and generate money in various ways.

In this discussion, we aim to outline several methods that suit different individuals depending on their skills, work, and resources. Based on our knowledge and research, we have identified twenty (20) ways to make money from social media networks and platforms.

How To Make Money on Social Media?

The methods described below are divided into direct and indirect earning strategies. Indirect methods can help you increase your income on separate or related platforms connected to social media.

1. A large number of followers for the account or page

Having a large number of followers or fans on your account or page is not a way to earn money on its own. However, it can directly or indirectly lead to generating significant to substantial profits.

Expanding and growing your audience base will enable you to earn money through various methods. You will have a distinct advantage when using methods 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, and 19 mentioned below. But don’t worry if you don’t have a large following; you can still earn through these methods, albeit at a smaller scale compared to those with a larger audience.

However, some of these methods allow you to start earning even if you’ve just created your account.

2. Sponsorship

Sponsorship, in essence, involves a company or entity (usually a business) sponsoring your account or page on a social media platform. This means that you would occasionally promote their products or services by showcasing their logo, using or wearing their products, or talking about them.

This also implies a partnership between you and the company, where you agree on several terms, including the payment you will receive in return for this sponsorship. The company is obligated to pay you the agreed-upon amount, whether monthly or annually.

As far as I know, many social media influencers are sponsored by various companies. For example, global brands like Nike, Adidas, and others often sponsor famous football players, actors, and other celebrities.

However, this is not a fixed rule. The key factor is having a good number of followers or fans. Many social media influencers, even with just a few thousand followers, can secure sponsorship deals.

On the other hand, increasing your follower count isn’t impossible—it’s something almost anyone can achieve.

Ralated: How to Increase Instagram Followers.

3. Paid posts and promotion of other accounts

The larger your following, the greater your chances of earning through this method, as having more followers than others makes you more appealing to potential sponsors.

What you’ll do here is simple: in a post or video, you mention or feature a person, page, account, or channel and include their name or link somewhere in your content.

Naturally, the person or entity requesting this will compensate you based on your agreement—either with money or by promoting you in return. This method is often used to increase the follower or fan base of social media accounts. For example, if you have a significant following, your mention of me could help me gain additional followers, which, in turn, would enable me to earn more in the long run, even if I initially invest some money.

4. Managing other accounts and pages

Let’s assume I own a business, project, website, or blog, or engage in some type of work. Having an active presence on social media platforms (maintaining active accounts) allows me to reach a broader audience and engage with them. This brings various benefits, especially if my work relies on reaching as many people as possible or building awareness for my brand.

On the flip side, I may not have the time to focus on creating accounts on various social media platforms and posting regularly. This is a common issue faced by many individuals and businesses.

This is where the service of social media account management comes into play. If you can manage social media pages like Facebook and have a good understanding of this process, you can start offering this service and earning money from it.

To get started, you’ll need a platform to showcase this service to others, such as Fiverr, or similar freelancing websites. If someone likes your service, they will pay you to manage their account for a specified period.

5. Providing services

You might have expertise or knowledge in something related to social media—or even something unrelated, like marketing on platforms, design, or other fields.

You can create a profile (or account) and publish content about your field there or offer your services on freelancing platforms.

6. Profit from ads (ads in your content)

There are many social media platforms that have introduced features allowing users to earn from the content they create, such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube (which can be considered a social platform to some extent).

The type of content you can monetize here includes blogging or writing, videos, and live streaming. We’ll explain more about this method in the following paragraphs.

7. Profit from blogging or writing and publishing

If you have a website or blog (created using platforms like Blogger, WordPress, or others), you can earn from blogging through ads displayed on your content, which can be monetized via Google AdSense or similar programs.

In the past, Facebook introduced a feature called Instant Articles that allows users to earn from ads displayed within their instant articles. Your earnings depend on the number of visitors and readers who view your articles.

8. Profit from videos

It’s well-known that you can earn by publishing your videos on YouTube, thanks to the ads displayed after being accepted into the AdSense program. Similarly, some social media platforms have similar programs that let you earn from ads displayed on your content. Examples include Ad Breaks on Facebook and Amplify Pre-roll and Amplify Sponsorships on Twitter.

These programs on these platforms (and possibly others that have similar initiatives) allow you to earn by creating and sharing visual content, specifically videos. This is particularly beneficial if you enjoy creating and sharing videos on social media.

9. Profit from live streams

Some social platforms also allow you to earn money by hosting live streams. Twitch is one of the most popular platforms in this category. Once you meet certain conditions, you’ll be able to earn from ads displayed during your live streams.

10. Promote products and services (for free)

Some of these social media platforms are used by a vast number of users, sometimes numbering in the hundreds of millions.

If you are a business owner involved in selling services, products, e-commerce, affiliate marketing, dropshipping, or other ventures, you can leverage this massive user base and the platform’s strong presence on search engines to promote your products or services for free. For example, you can advertise on Pinterest or other similar platforms.

11. Promote products and services (paid marketing)

Building on the previous method, you can also market your products or services (through paid methods) by launching advertising campaigns on social media applications. This is one of the best marketing strategies used by digital marketing professionals to attract customers, boost profits, and achieve other goals.

You can advertise on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and others.

12. Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular and appealing ways to earn money online. It is based on driving people to a specific website (and having them perform the required action) through your affiliate link or even your coupon code.

Affiliate marketing is simple: you create an account on a website (or sign up as an affiliate marketer). You are then provided with a unique affiliate link (different from others’ links). If someone clicks on your link and completes the required action (like making a purchase), you earn a commission (a set amount of money, usually) from that action.

Here, you can take advantage of the large user base of social media platforms to market your affiliate link, either for free or through paid campaigns, to maximize your earnings.

13. Referral links

Referral earning is somewhat similar to affiliate marketing and works as follows: referral involves referring (or directing) someone to a specific location (usually a website). When you register on a site that supports referral links, you’ll receive your unique referral link. If someone visits the website using your link, you earn a portion of money.

Sounds similar to affiliate marketing, doesn’t it? (Although I personally prefer affiliate marketing over referrals—just my opinion, and each person can choose what suits them best.)

14. Selling on websites or the marketplace of those websites

Some platforms have a marketplace feature where you can sell products.

For example, Facebook Marketplace allows you to take a picture of a product you no longer need, post it on the platform, and provide its details and price. Once a potential buyer contacts you, you can negotiate the price, payment method, and delivery terms.

15. Increase your website’s profits and visitors

If you’re a blogger or website owner, you can leverage social media platforms to drive additional traffic (visitors) to your site, which can help increase your revenue. You can create a page or account under your website’s name, add your website link in the bio, or share articles with their links, among other strategies.

You can also promote your articles using ad campaigns and earn from the visitors who come to your website. This method is known as AdSense arbitrage, provided you’ve been approved for an advertising service like Google AdSense.

How does this work? Since your website or blog displays ads, which are your primary source of income, your earnings depend on visitors engaging with those ads. Therefore, the more visitors you attract, the higher your revenue. Social media can be used to promote your site’s content and bring in more traffic.

16. Increasing profits and views of videos on other platforms

Using the same method described for blogs, if you create visual content like videos, you can leverage the activity of social media users to boost your earnings. You can use social media features or run ad campaigns to reach a larger audience.

For example, on YouTube, Google AdSense ads are one of the most popular ways to earn money. As mentioned earlier, your earnings increase as you gain more visitors (or views, in this case).

17. Instant games

I’m not sure if this method exists on many platforms, but I do know it is available on Facebook. And chances are, you may have played one of the games on the Facebook platform before.

You might also know that it’s possible to earn money by developing games and applications. If you know how to create games, you can develop one and upload it to the Instant Games section on Facebook.

18. Increase your fame on other social apps

In many cases, a person may use more than one social media platform.

If someone is famous (or somewhat well-known) on one social platform, this can help them gain an audience on another social network.

This allows you to use some of the methods mentioned here across multiple social platforms to maximize your earnings.

19. Contests and gifs

Creating and organizing contests or giveaways is not inherently a way to make money (at least based on the information I have, though I could be wrong). However, they can be considered an effective means of gaining other benefits that can eventually help you make money.

The first way is by attempting to increase your follower count. By doing so, you can attract a significant number of people to follow you, especially if you regularly host giveaways or provide free gifts at specified intervals. While you may lose some money in this process (or just a little), think of how much you’ll gain once you have a good number of engaged followers.

The second way is through potential collaborations with local entities, companies, websites, or platforms that host contests or offer free products to promote their brand. You can reach out to them and offer to host their contests or giveaways for your audience. This would direct your followers (through your account) to the contest location, and you can earn a commission or fee for this service.

It’s also possible that a sponsor might back you to give free products to your audience, or you could gain discounts on popular platform products to award to the winners of your contest (which might be considered affiliate marketing).

This is adapted from a previous article about earning through Twitter.

20. Selling accounts

There’s another way to monetize your social media accounts or pages: selling them. The amount you can earn depends on several factors. However, if you know how to create an account or page, organize its information, and grow its audience base, you can profit from this method. (Additionally, there are multiple websites online where you can sell these accounts.)

Before doing so, make sure this method won’t cause you any issues—such as ensuring it doesn’t violate the policies of the platform in question.

Conclusion:

These were the twenty (20) ways we know and have discovered. You can choose the method or methods that suit you best, learn more about them, and then start preparing to earn from them.

However, as is often the case, there may be other methods we have overlooked—there are many ways to earn money online.