Erika Kullberg, an attorney with more than 21 million followers on social media, wants everyone to know how much social media sites really pay.
Kullberg regularly creates personal finance content for YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok and helps get people what they’re owed, like $1,000 if they’re bumped from a flight. One of Kullberg’s videos addresses how she paid off more than $225,000 in student loans in less than two years. Another is about her decision to quit a $250,000 job in corporate law.
“YouTube is by far the highest paying social media platform for me,” Kullberg told Entrepreneur.
In a video posted to her accounts on Thursday, and earlier on her website, Kullberg disclosed that she has two million subscribers on YouTube and her videos on the platform have received around 273 million views.
Erika Kullberg
A 48-second YouTube video Kullberg uploaded in December 2022 that received 4.1 million views made her $106.85. A longer 12-minute YouTube video with fewer views (3.8 million) posted three years ago gave her a more substantial payout of $45,000 — for just one video.
Most of the money — $44,900 out of $45,000 — came from watch page ads.
Kullberg’s total earnings from YouTube for the last five years (before taxes and not including brand sponsorships) was more than $353,000.
@erikakullberg How much I get paid from social media ? The amounts are just what platforms pay and don’t include sponsorships, which is another way creators get paid! @Creators Agency ♬ original sound – Money Lawyer Erika
Other platforms pay less. The bulk of Kullberg’s following comes from TikTok, where she has 9.2 million followers and 542 million views. There, she has made $5,756 since she began posting two years ago.
Facebook has paid Kullberg nearly four times as much in the same time frame. She has a following of 4.5 million on the platform and made $20,251 over about two years.
“It’s actually not much extra work to monetize on different platforms,” Kullberg told Entrepreneur. “I’m using the same short videos and posting them across TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Instagram, and Facebook.”
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Kullberg has 5.3 million followers on Instagram but makes $0 from the platform because Instagram doesn’t pay creators directly anymore.
Though Kullberg has now amassed a following, she shared that it took her about three months of posting one YouTube video per week to get monetized. Being a social media influencer is the dream job for Gen Z, with 57% stating in a recent report that they would be an influencer if given the chance.
Other generations want the fame and fortune that social media fame can bring, too — 41% of adults across all age groups said they wanted to be an “influencer” in the same report.
Related: Gen Z’s Main Career Aspiration Is to Be an Influencer, According to a New Report
A HypeAuditor income survey found that the average annual income for an influencer was $35,640.