Whether it’s a blog, Instagram account, YouTube channel, or other online platform, there are lots of people making money creating content online! Many people make some side cash, or even a living, by running ads and/or creating sponsored content.

Influencer marketing has become a HUGE marketing tactic in the last decade. People tend to trust those that they follow online. They see them as friends, and when a friend recommends a product, you’re more likely to want to buy it!

We follow bloggers and influencers because we care about what they create – whether that’s beautiful photos/videos, insightful captions, funny stories, or something else.

And if we want them to continue to be able to create more and better content, we have to support them so they can charge more and have the money to pay for things like products, props, photographers, and the like. Not to mention that they more money an influencer makes, the less they have to work, and the more time they’ll have to create!

There are some obvious ways to support creators monetarily:

• Buy their products – purchase any physical or digital products or services they provide (things like t-shirts, e-books, photo presets, coaching calls, etc.)
• Buy the products they post about – if someone posts a sponsored post about a product and you purchase it from that post, it shows the company that their advertising was worth it.
• Use their affiliate links – affiliate links can be inserted into blog posts, newsletters, instagram links or story swipe-ups, etc. and when you purchase through them, the person receives a commission of the sale.
• Use their discount codes – these also often give the person a commission of the sale and show the company that the person is influencing people.

These strategies are incredibly helpful for creators, because even if they are getting small commissions, they all add up! Especially if you were planning to buy something anyway, buying it through a person’s link or using their discount code is a nice way to support them.

However, there are also so many free ways that you can support creators:

Free Ways To Support Online Creators

1. Follow/subscribe to them on all platforms

Online creators often have many social media platforms. Bloggers may have Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, etc. accounts that they promote their work on. Similarly, someone whose main platform is YouTube may also have an Instagram account, an Instagrammer may also post to a Facebook page, etc.

Follow your favorite creators on all of their accounts, not just their main platform! This way you can support them on all possible channels and you’re less likely to miss content because it will pop up on multiple feeds.

Additionally, the more followers a creator has across platforms, the more money they can charge for campaigns.

Having followers across platforms shows brands that a creator isn’t a one trick pony – not only can they create beautiful Instagram photos, but also captivating YouTube videos, entertaining tweets, and appealing pins.

Additionally, subscribe to creators’ newsletters or e-mail lists, if they have them!

2. Engage with their content

I cannot stress this one enough!

Upon first glance, it might seem like someones “follower” or “subscriber” count would dictate how much they can charge from a brand, but there’s actually a more important number and it’s called: engagement rate.

Someone’s “follower” number means very little if their engagement rate doesn’t match it. Someone with a million followers but a low engagement rate arguably has less influence than someone with a thousand followers and a high engagement rate!

See: you can have a ton of followers (and that’s great and all), but if they aren’t engaging with your content, it means that they don’t care about it. And if they don’t care about it, they sure as heck aren’t going to buy anything you’re selling!

These days, it’s also not uncommon for people to buy followers – which basically means you pay a price and see your follower count increase, but it’s bots and fake accounts who aren’t going to engage with your posts. So DON’T buy followers – rather, work to get the followers you already have to engage more with your posts to boost your engagement rate!

What is engagement?

Engagement is basically interaction with a specific piece of content. The main forms of this are likes and comments, but shares, saves, clicks, etc. also fall in this category.

The main types of engagement are:

• Likes – likes are the most simple way to gauge how popular a piece of content is.

• Comments – comments are great because they help foster community and form relationships. They also show increased interest in a piece of content – it takes longer to type out a comment that simply hit “like,” so it means someone liked your post enough to take that time.

• Shares – shares are SUPER helpful for getting your content in front of more eyeballs. Think about it – if you have 500 followers and someone shares your photo and they have 500 different followers, you’ve now DOUBLED the number of people seeing your photo (and therefore the number of people who can like it, comment on it, etc.).

• Saves – saves show that a piece of content was super valuable – the photo or caption caught someone’s attention and was so inspiring/educational/entertaining that they wanted to save it for future use.

How to Find Your Engagement Rate

You can calculate your engagement rate by adding likes and comments, then dividing that number by your follower number, then multiplying that number by 100 to get the percentage. In simple terms:

Likes + comments = X

X ÷ follower number = Y

Y x 100 = engagement rate

Why does engagement matter?

Engagement shows interest in a piece of content.

Brands look at engagement rates to determine an how much an audience cares about a creator’s content. They figure that the more people care, the more likely they’ll be to see any sponsored posts you make and then hopefully purchase the promoted product.

Additionally, posts that perform well in terms of engagement are more likely to be shown on the “explore” tab of Instagram and featured in the “top” section of hashtags. Both of these things get more eyes on a post, and therefore can lead to more engagement!

3. Share the creator with friends/ followers

This can be done by sharing their content, as discussed above, or just namedropping them to friends! If there’s a creator you really enjoy, tell your friends about them. Share links to their content with them.

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Now let’s get into some specifics about how to support people on different platforms:

How to Support Instagrammers

• Follow them so you see their posts (see more tips on how to make sure you see a person’s posts below)
• Engage with their posts in the ways listed
• Watch their stories, engage with them (by reacting to them, answering questions/polls/sliders or DMing them)
  • For maximum engagement, make sure to watch the stories in full until the end (otherwise they’ll get pushed back)

So you want to support your favorite Instagram influencer, but you’re never seeing their content! There are a few ways to ensure that someone’s content will pop up high on your feed…

Beat The Instagram Algorithm

Here are a few ways to show the Instagram algorithm what you are interested in seeing:

• “Like” or save a person’s last 6-9 posts
• Add person as a “close friend” – on their profile, click on the arrow on the “following button” then “add to close friends list”
• Turn on a person’s post notifications – on their profile, click on the arrow on the “following button” then “notifications” and you can choose to turn on post, story, and/or IGTV notifications.

How to Support YouTubers

• Subscribe and (optional) turn on post notifications – just hit the bell shaped button next to the subscribe button!
• Engage with videos
• Watch whole videos (don’t skip) – it shows more interest in a video, which can lead to it showing up higher in searches

How to Support Bloggers

• Read their whole posts – the amount of time spent on a post/page helps show interest in it
• Share blog posts – if a post really resonates, share it with friends! You can e-mail/text it to someone, put a link to it on Facebook, etc.
• Comment on blog posts – comments help build relationships and show interest in a post
• Follow on social media – stay up-to-date on everything you favorite bloggers are doing
• Subscribe to e-mail list/newsletter – if all social media went away tomorrow, how would you stay up to date on your favorite bloggers’ content? There’s a saying in the blogging word – “the only thing you own is your e-mail list.” Make sure you’re on it!

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I hope you have a lot of great ideas about how to support your favorite online creators. Make sure to show your favorite creators some extra love today using these tips!