How to earn $63,000 on Instagram

According to the NYT, this is how one social media marketing agency (Social Stance) does it:

• They find a popular influencer on Instagram
• They offer that influencer $5000 to give away to their followers
• To enter the giveaway, followers are instructed to follow ~70 other Instagram accounts
• Social Stance charges $900 for a slot on the follow list

For that particular campaign, Social Stance spent $5000 and earned about $63,000 🤑

Pretty genius in a way, since nobody seems to lose out: the influencer looks generous, one of their followers gets $5k, those 70 accounts get lots of exposure, and Social Stance makes a very nice profit.

But the NYT also reports that Facebook (ie. Instagram’s daddy) may put a stop to this kind of thing soon:

A Facebook company spokesperson said that many cash giveaways could be in violation of the company’s community guidelines. “This isn’t the kind of experience we want to create on Instagram,” the spokesperson said by email. Additionally, according to Robert Freund, an attorney who offers a legal training course for influencers, many of these cash giveaways could violate state sweepstakes laws.