Which social media platform pays the most money for views? One influencer has brought us closer to the answer by revealing exactly how mucy she is getting paid by Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Facebook.
Erika Kullberg, a lawyer with more than 17 million followers, shares her money-saving hacks and investement advice and is known for 'reading the fine print so you don't have to'. Better known as Money Lawyer Erika, the influencer has more than 9 million TikTok followers, 4.1m on Instagram, 3.3m on Facebook and 755,000 subscribers on her YouTube channel. But which one does she make the most money from?
In a video posted to her TikTok page last week, Erika, who is also the founder of legal tech startup Plug and Law, shared exactly how much income she gets from the various social media platforms.
"In case you're curious, here is how much every social media platform has paid me with 17m followers," she starts the video by saying.
Here is a look at how she broke down the figures.
TikTok
Erika explains that she started creating content on TikTok exactly one year ago - and now has a "lifetime total" of 452m views on the platform.
"And you can see that I'm making a few dollars each day," she continued, while showing that she was being pain i small increments ranging from just $2.23 to a much larger $24.88.
"That brings my total earnings on TikTok to $3,255," Kullberg revealed, before adding: "BUT, wait until you compare that to YouTube."
TikTok creators are paid through the site's Creator Fund, where funds "are worked out by a combination of factors; including the number of views and the authenticity of those views, the level of engagement on the content, as well as making sure content is in line with our Community Guidelines and Terms of Service".
There are some rules to be eligible for the Creator Fund, as a TikTok creator must be based in the US, UK, France, Germany, Spain or Italy, be at least 18, have at least 10,000 followers and have at least 100,000 video views in the last 30 days.
Next up it's Facebook, which Erika first starting posting on three months ago and now has 3.3 million followers.
According to the influencer, she has received three payouts from Facebook, with the first for $447 and the second for $895.
She then revealed that her biggest payout from Facebook came in September, when she earned $1,729 from the social networking platform.
Erika explains: "The cool thing is the videos I post on Facebook are the same ones I already made for TikTok soo there's no extra work besides hitting upload."
YouTube
There are some differences with YouTube, as Erika claims how much she is paid varies depending on whether it is a short or a long video.
Erika, who has 753,000 subscribers and has posted 188 videos to date, shared on screen a short 29-second video on a credit card trick which she had uploaded.
Despite being viewed 1.8m times, she only made $3 from the video, but it was a very different story for a longer 12-minute video she posted.
The longer video on qutting her job, which was viewed 2.3m times, got a payout from YouTube of a whopping $35,000.
“For my grand total earnings from YouTube, and remember this is all BEFORE taxes, $196,000," Kullberg revealed.
Similarly to TikTok, YouTube has a Partner Program, which gives creators greater access to YouTube resources and monetisation features.
To make money from your YouTube videos they need to have more than 4,000 valid public watch hours in the last 12 months and you need more than 1,000 subscribers.
Finally it's Instagram, where Erika has 41.m followers and has received a whopping 262m views.
She says: "Instagram pays some creators but not if you have over 1m followers."
This means that the influencer is actually too big to make money from Instagram so hasn't received a penny from them.
The way to generate cash on the Gram is to do deals, sponsored content and partnerships with brands and advertisers, so the money doesn't actually come from the site itself.
Many people took to the comment section of Erika's TikTok to praise her for being so transparent with how much she makes.
which she said means that she has made zero dollars from the social media platform. While influencers can make a significant amount from Instagram posts, the revenue does not come from the platform directly, but rather from brands and advertisers.
"Not a lot of people would show this. That’s so cool and transparent. Congrats btw," wrote on person. Another added: "I'm always so curious how much creators make. Thanks for sharing the info!"
"35 THOUSAND DOLLARS??!!!! I need to make a YouTube account," wrote a third, while a fourth said: "Long story short, Youtube and Facebook are the only ones paying"
