With 2021 wrapping up, creators on Instagram are looking back on how lucrative Reels has been as a medium for content making, and are looking forward to how 2022 will play out.
Reels is Instagram’s answer to TikTok’s steady, if not exponential, rise in popularity and usage. With the platform gaining such success in a much shorter time-frame when compared to Meta’s other social media sites, many other companies have also attempted to emulate its success. The results have honestly not been that bad, despite early reception to all of them not being the best. Snapchat launched Spotlight Snaps, YouTube launched Shorts, and Instagram introduced the now-popular Reels format. While Reels had a bumpy start, looking to find its identity in a sea of short-form video content, it’s now one of Instagram’s most popular and conventional form of posts. Naturally, with Instagram being incredibly happy with the new format’s success, it decided to double down and help creators dedicate more of their time and effort to making content.
This mainly manifested in the form of the Reels Play bonus program, an avenue via which creators were paid on the basis of how well their videos performed. Users can register and earn up to USD $35,000 a month, and the program’s popularity even led to it being extended to cover Facebook profiles. Reels has been firmly established on Instagram, is settling in well on Facebook, and is providing worthy competition to TikTok. It helps that Insta’s target audience, much like TikTok’s, is comprised of a younger generation of individuals that aren’t all too out of touch with the currently relevant trends and fads. They don’t have to hide behind writing tech based articles that take a journalistic swipe at whatever’s new and fancy, in an attempt to try and maintain relevancy in a hopelessly fast-paced online world.
Whoops, that was maybe a bit much. Back to the creators I go.
Instagram users Jackson Weimer, the content owner of a meme page with 114,000 followers, got a notification from Instagram itself, asking the user to make Reels with monetary gain as motivation. Figuring he could make approximately USD $8,000 off of the deal with his following, Weimer got to work and raked in a cool USD$ 6,827.01 for his efforts throughout the month of November. Following the month’s conclusion, he got yet another notification, asking him to sign up for December. Now, Weimer’s looking to create more Reels, supplementing income from his full-time job while also paying off his student loans, because America won’t give any of its citizens a break. Except for the ultra-rich ones, let’s not forget that.
Read next: What Are Some Of The Social Media Platform Trends We Can Look Forward To In 2022?
Reels is Instagram’s answer to TikTok’s steady, if not exponential, rise in popularity and usage. With the platform gaining such success in a much shorter time-frame when compared to Meta’s other social media sites, many other companies have also attempted to emulate its success. The results have honestly not been that bad, despite early reception to all of them not being the best. Snapchat launched Spotlight Snaps, YouTube launched Shorts, and Instagram introduced the now-popular Reels format. While Reels had a bumpy start, looking to find its identity in a sea of short-form video content, it’s now one of Instagram’s most popular and conventional form of posts. Naturally, with Instagram being incredibly happy with the new format’s success, it decided to double down and help creators dedicate more of their time and effort to making content.
This mainly manifested in the form of the Reels Play bonus program, an avenue via which creators were paid on the basis of how well their videos performed. Users can register and earn up to USD $35,000 a month, and the program’s popularity even led to it being extended to cover Facebook profiles. Reels has been firmly established on Instagram, is settling in well on Facebook, and is providing worthy competition to TikTok. It helps that Insta’s target audience, much like TikTok’s, is comprised of a younger generation of individuals that aren’t all too out of touch with the currently relevant trends and fads. They don’t have to hide behind writing tech based articles that take a journalistic swipe at whatever’s new and fancy, in an attempt to try and maintain relevancy in a hopelessly fast-paced online world.
Whoops, that was maybe a bit much. Back to the creators I go.
Instagram users Jackson Weimer, the content owner of a meme page with 114,000 followers, got a notification from Instagram itself, asking the user to make Reels with monetary gain as motivation. Figuring he could make approximately USD $8,000 off of the deal with his following, Weimer got to work and raked in a cool USD$ 6,827.01 for his efforts throughout the month of November. Following the month’s conclusion, he got yet another notification, asking him to sign up for December. Now, Weimer’s looking to create more Reels, supplementing income from his full-time job while also paying off his student loans, because America won’t give any of its citizens a break. Except for the ultra-rich ones, let’s not forget that.
Update, for the month of November I made $6,800.
— Jackson Weimer (@jweimermedia) December 22, 2021
In December, I've been slacking and have made $2,000 or so. Have a week left. Didnt try as much tbh.
Still, this is more than any job has ever paid me per month.
I should be a meme maker fulltime? Terrible idea. https://t.co/WiCc2tu33O pic.twitter.com/9Ht7IH8nLH
Read next: What Are Some Of The Social Media Platform Trends We Can Look Forward To In 2022?