• "Nano" influencers are generally defined as having fewer than 10,000 followers on Instagram.
  • And some have turned their social-media hobbies into part-time jobs or side hustles.
  • Here's how several creators earn money as nano influencers on Instagram and other platforms.
  • See more stories on Insider's business page.

"Nano" influencers may only have a few thousand followers, but that's not keeping them from turning a social-media hobby into a paying side hustle.

Take Jen Lauren as an example. 

Lauren is a part-time lifestyle influencer who now has about 4,000 Instagram followers and 6,000 YouTube subscribers (nearly double the following she had when first interviewed by Insider in 2020). She makes money as a creator on Instagram and YouTube through brand sponsorships, affiliate links, and YouTube's Partner Program.

For one sponsored Instagram post, Lauren will charge about $350, she told Insider in November 2020, when she had just under 3,000 followers.

In 2021, Lauren made over $2,000 from YouTube AdSense earnings.

A 2021 report from HypeAuditor that surveyed 1,865 influencers outlined just how much nano influencers like Lauren charge per Instagram post and earn, on average, each month. (Read our full breakdown of the report including nano, micro, and macro influencer earnings.)

A more recent report by influencer marketing platform Izea broke down how much influencers with various size followings earn across Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.

Nano influencers have become increasingly important to brands and influencer-marketing agencies because of their niche content and highly engaged audiences. They also typically have lower rates than influencers with hundreds of thousands or millions of followers.

That's in part why brands and sponsors are eyeing college athletes with thousands of followers after the NCAA lifted its NIL restrictions last July.

"You don't have to have 40,000 followers or even 10,000, 5,000 followers to take advantage of these [NIL] rules," Christopher Aumueller, the CEO of the athlete-marketing and brand development upstart FanWord, told Insider.

Read more: How student-athletes with small social-media followings are cashing in on the NIL gold rush

And platforms specialized in helping nano influencers connect with brands, like Heartbeat, have already established themselves in the industry.

While reaching 10,000 followers on Instagram is a major milestone for aspiring influencers — getting on more brands' radars, building a bigger audience, unlocking access to specific monetization tools — some nano influencers are making money in spite of their smaller follower counts. 

One even booked $10,000 in brand deals in a single month.

And now, any influencer can add links to their stories after Instagram released the feature more broadly in October 2021, which could help nano influencers earn. 

We spoke with half a dozen nano influencers about how they make money.

Here's a comprehensive list of Insider's coverage of how nano influencers are building businesses:

How much money 6 nano influencers charge for brand deals on Instagram:

Examples of real media kits and DMs that 5 nano influencers use to pitch brands:

Read the original article on Business Insider