How young people use social media to make money

Austine Adhu, 25, explains how the youth can make money on social media. [Source: Shanki Austine}

There are four major ways a young person can make money while using social media, an influencer has told The Standard.

Austine Adhu, popularly known as Shanki Austine on Twitter, boasts of nearly 190, 000 followers on the micro-blogging app as well as a high tweet engagement.

He narrates to The Standard how he let go of his dream of becoming a journalist, and shifted focus to using his Social Media platforms to make money.

In an exclusive interview on Sunday afternoon, Shanki disclosed that there are four main ways social media users can make money while using their accounts.

“The young people, especially students in tertiary institutions can make as low as Sh500 by just tweeting. That is the least amount they can be asked to pay. Normally, it starts from about Sh700,” he said.

According to the artist turned Twitter influencer, a user can make money by pushing agendas (mostly business and political), taking part in video challenges, pushing organic content and by registering on wowzi.

Wowzi is a platform designed to help brands automate influencer marketing workflows and programs. It connects brands and social media influencers.

“The most common way to make money is by pushing agendas. This is the way that works for beginners and students who just need a few coins to survive,” he said.

Then went on, “All a brand needs to do is to find like 50 users then pay them a range of between Sh500 to Sh1, 000. For a student, this is enough to survive,”

According to the Maseno University graduate, artists, hire influencers to create video challenges that will help market their work.

Similarly, a company can pay a person with a large following on social media to post videos, pictures or texts incorporating the product.

Shanki says that he had initially opened his account to sell his music and artwork but took it seriously when it started generating income and sustaining him on campus.

“I first joined Twitter in 2014 but became active sometime in 2019. At the time, I was just joining to fit in. But with time I realised how powerful it was and decided to take it seriously,” Shanki revealed.

He has also narrated how he was active on all platforms until one day he shared an idea on all platforms (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram).

Days later he started seeing his tweet being shared on other people’s WhatsApp statuses. He did not know it went viral.

“I saw my post making rounds online and decided to log in to Twitter and check it. I found the post had over 5, 000 likes and many other shares. It had gone viral. That is how I decided to take it seriously,”

From the post, his audience grew from 1500 followers to 10, 000, then to 40, 000 and it kept growing each day.

When he was at 40, 000 followers, the 25-year-old opted to quit his 8-5 job at a local firm and focus on social media, which was at the time, bringing him more income.

“I quit my 8-5 job which was paying me Sh700 in a day. I got 100, 000 followers in April 2021 and that is where I got serious contracts of up to a year. I could make ends meet,’ he added.

Shanki advises youth interested in influencing to create unique visibility online. A trait that will make them get noticed over the other thousands of influencers.

“Since I hit 100, 000 followers, I got more jobs. I even forgot my dreams of becoming a radio or TV Host. My focus shifted entirely to influencing,” he concludes.