There’s something compelling about the life of an influencer. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, we’ve all daydreamed at least once about quitting our day jobs and trying our luck at being paid for posting funny TikToks and pretty Instagram pictures.
But how much do influencers really make? According to a new study commissioned by Vista, Australian social media content creators are earning on average $53,000 a year – a bit of a surprise as most influencers look as if they earn a lot more…
Of course, this figure is just an average. The study also revealed that forty-two per cent of influencers earned well over $70,000 in the last twelve months.
To no one’s surprise, influencers who primarily use and create content for TikTok earn the most – roughly $71,000 – with YouTube and Snapchat influencers coming in second and third – they earn about $67,000 and $65,000 respectively.
To put these figures into perspective, the average salary for Australians is just under $91,000; meaning Australian content creators make less than the average Australian. And despite what most people think, creating content is harder than it looks…
Vista’s study showed that more than eighty-three per cent of influencers paid someone to help with content creation and eighty-one per cent hired four or more people – which would have cut significantly into that less-than-Aussie-average salary…
Plus, just under half – forty-seven per cent – felt that they weren’t taken seriously by the business community and felt frustrated by the lack of recognition of the tremendous time and effort content creation takes.
Alyce Tran, Co-Founder of Roundhouse & Brand Strategist for rewardStyle, said,
“I think people underestimate what goes into making a piece of content, from brand collaboration, conceptualisation to production and publishing. It really upsets me to [see] sensationalised headlines about content creators.
There is a segment of society that doesn’t respect content creation as a career choice, however, the skills and talent that goes into creating content and cultivating a loyal following is impressive. And Vista’s research puts a worthy spotlight on this.”
Alyce Tran
Perhaps, we wouldn’t mock influencers with ‘sensationalised headlines’ if they didn’t make shameless ‘couscous for comment’ requests or took risque photos on sacred grounds…
No, but seriously, we know these types of influencers make up the minority of content creators – we respect the hustle, especially now we know how much (or little) influencers make.
Read Next