Influencer with 21M followers’ earnings on YouTube, Facebook, TikTok

Erika Kullberg, an attorney with over 21 million social media followers, aims to demystify social media earnings.

Primarily active on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, Kullberg’s content revolves around personal finance, aiding followers in claiming owed compensation, such as $1,000 for flight disruptions. Her videos document diverse financial milestones, including paying off $225,000 in student loans and leaving a lucrative corporate law position.

“YouTube is by far the highest paying social media platform for me,” Kullberg told Entrepreneur.

Disclosing her YouTube metrics, Kullberg shared having 2 million subscribers and 273 million views across her videos. Notably, a 48-second video garnered $106.85, while a 12-minute video from three years ago yielded $45,000, primarily from watch page ads. Over five years, her YouTube earnings exceeded $353,000 before taxes and sponsorships.

On TikTok, with 9.2 million followers and 542 million views, Kullberg’s earnings since starting two years ago total $5,756. Facebook, boasting 4.5 million followers, has paid her $20,251 in the same period.

Despite varied earnings, Kullberg finds it feasible to monetize across platforms with minimal additional effort. “I’m using the same short videos and posting them across TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Instagram, and Facebook,” she explained.

With 5.3 million Instagram followers, Kullberg doesn’t earn directly due to the platform’s lack of creator payments.

Monetization wasn’t immediate for Kullberg. It took around three months of weekly YouTube uploads to achieve monetization. While being a social media influencer is appealing to Gen Z, attracting 57% of them, 41% of adults from all age groups express similar aspirations, reflecting the broader appeal of social media fame and fortune.

In a landscape where platforms differ in compensation structures and prerequisites for monetization, Kullberg’s transparency sheds light on the financial realities of social media influence. Beyond the allure of fame, her journey underscores the commitment and persistence required to thrive in the digital content sphere.

Re-reported from the article originally published in Entrepreneur.