While it’s not necessarily known as a place for creators to get paid, Instagram hit a big milestone recently regarding content creators finding income on the platform.
Since expanding access to the Instagram Subscriptions program earlier this year to more people, an announcement on the Meta blog said that there are now more than 1 million active paid subscriptions on the site. That’s admittedly a small number given that the service has over 2.35 billion monthly active users, but it’s a nice mark given that subscriptions only launched about a year and a half ago.
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To help creators grow their subscriber base, the company said, new promotional tools are being rolled out. For starters, a “Subscribe” button will pop up when followers (who aren’t paid subscribers) see content from a creator that has subscriptions enabled. It’s also now easier for creators to welcome new subscribers via direct message and stories, with the personal interaction hopefully encouraging more engagement.
Instagram announced that milestone at the same time it introduced a new holiday bonus program for creators. The program, which is invitation only, is open to the US, South Korea, and Japan, and rewards creators for producing both reels and photo content. Under the bonus program, creators will be paid based on how many reel plays and photo views their content gets during this time, provided the content meets the normal monetization policy.
Facebook, owned by Meta as well, also announced changes to the subscriber program. Access to Facebook subscriptions is being rolled out to millions more creators over the coming months, Meta said, and there will soon be more ways for viewers to subscribe, including through Reels and Stories. More control over pricing is being introduced, letting creators change the price of their subscription over time, and creators are also being given the option to gift a free 30-day subscription to fans.
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In addition, both creators on Instagram and Facebook are getting help finding brand partners to work with. Starting soon, if a creator enrolled in the monetization program selects “Allow brand partners to boost,” they’ll actually be prompted about any errors in their content that would prohibit it from being monetized — before it’s ever posted.
Overall, these changes won’t make much of an impact on the normal user just scrolling content. But for creators, it means more (and easier) opportunities to earn a little income off of their content. And while the vast majority of Facebook and Instagram’s income is through ads, it’s clear they’re trying to open up the subscription market a little more.
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