There are many social media sites that we
can use and engage with right now. For example, I used Linkedin for
professional purposes, mainly to share active jobs and anything to do with work
and career on my timeline. I used Facebook for sharing mostly personal
interests. And since I enjoy and do some photography in my free time, I just
discovered that Instagram is a better medium to share photos and so I have been
spending a bit more time on Instagram lately.
What I discovered is general knowledge to
many by now but I was truly intrigued with the fact that Instagram has become
the platform for some people to earn their income so much so that they can
afford to quit their full time day job. And we are not talking about
Celebrities or some famous people here. These are ordinary people and the
following are a few of them.
Amanda Lee is a personal trainer and Pilates instructor by trade
and also majored in modern dance. But it is neither her dancing nor
her Pilates classes that is responsible for Lee's success. Instead, it is
her social media presence – her Instagram account allows Lee to generate as
much as $5,000 per post.
Ali Maffuci quit her job in corporate America in 2013 and now
makes a living off Instagram. It all started when Ali has to make healthy meals
for her mom, who has type 1 diabetes. Ali discovered the spiralizer, a tool
that cuts raw veggies into noodles.
“I was so blown away by it, I started making dishes and posting
them on Instagram. At first it was just for fun, but soon strangers started to
follow me. When someone tagged #inspiralized, I’d comment on their post, and
they’d follow me,” she said in an interview with Elle. Ali is now making a
living off Instagram.
Shirley Braha worked with New York Noise and MTV, and she owns a dog. Shirley
has quit her job and now on Instagram full time. And she makes more money than
her previous full-time job by simply posting pictures of her dog, Marnie, on
Insta. Marie has a massive following of 2 million people.
And then we have a photographer by the name
of Eelco Roos, aka @Croyable on Instagram. He quit his
comfortable day job as an IBM Engineer to take on Instagramming full time.
His feed is filled with beautiful
landscape and lifestyle photography in and around Amsterdam and eventually
caught the eye of Instagram themselves who then added him to their Suggest User
list. His following has well surpassed 100,000.
And if you like traveling like Lauren Bath
that resides in Australia, the job as a full time Instagrammer is a dream come
true. From her website: Lauren Bath is a chef turned photographer turned social
media influencer. It was in early 2013 when she saw the potential with her
200,000+ followers. She quit her Chef job and become Australia’s first
professional Instagrammer. Since then, she continues to grow her skills set and
now specializes in putting together her own instagram campaigns, drawing on her
extensive knowledge of influencers and marketing.
In a nutshell, Instagram has helped
many to an “insta-career”. To tell people you can have a full time job by
sharing a couple of pictures via social media is almost unheard of in the past
but now it has open up to new revenue stream and full time career opportunities. Of course, not everyone can
easily quit their current job and choose this path. One of the qualified
criteria is that you must have a great following, so it is not something that
everyone can hop on anytime.
Note: If you are on Instagram, you are welcome to check my feed.
I have two handles, @sinseeho if you enjoy travel photography
(landscape and street) and @next.bite if you like food. Unfortunately, I don’t
enjoy a great following at present, so I gather I won’t be having a new career
anytime soon. :)
