Calling all content creators . . . you can earn up to $500 on Instagram right now!!!! Run because it probably won't last.  There is an incentive program that Instagram is doing to have content creators use badges and go live!

Badges are a way for your viewers to send you love via money.  They can send you a heart "badge" that is .99, $1.99, or $4.99.  This is a great way to thank a content creator for what they share.  It does take a lot of work for content creators to share on social media, it takes photography skills, time to post on stories, going live, etc. of whatever they are sharing.  I know I have benefited from the information, recipes, sales, coupon deals, DIY projects, organization tips that many content creators have shared, so sending them a .99 cent badge is an easy way to say thank you!

As you know video content is everywhere, from Instagram Live, Instagram Reels, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook Live, pretty much every social media platform has a video option.  Instagram recently announced @mosseri "Instagram is no longer just a square photo sharing app..." They want you to upload and view video content.  

Right now there is a Badges Bonus Incentive Program.  When you reach specific milestones you can earn up to $500.  You do have to have a business or creator account on Instagram. 

Milestone #1 - Go live using badges for at least 15 minutes and you will receive $100.

Milestone #2 - Go live with another account for at least 30 minutes and you will receive $150.

Milestone #3 - Go live at least four times, once a week, in four consecutive weeks for 15 minutes each and you will receive $250. 

You have to turn badges on when you go live.  To go live press the + icon, as if you would to post in a Story or IG Reel, and select Live on the bottom.  Once you are in the live option, you will see three icons on the left, the icon to add a title and info about your live, then an icon to have people donate to a non-profit, and then last the badges icon, turn on before you start. 

How to find badges? On my account, when I click settings, then click Business, then click Badges, it shows I am eligible and shows the milestone to reach.  Below I will share some screen shots of what I see on my page. 

Once I completed my first milestone, which I had to go live by a certain date, 7 days after setting up my badges.  After I went live, my second milestone shows and I have 30 days to go live to reach the second milestone, so there is a deadline to reach with each milestone. 

In order to get paid from badges you receive, you will need to set up a payout account, I linked mine to my PayPal account, it was an easy step by step set up process. Upon going live I immediately see the $100 and 0.69 from a badge I was sent. 

Instagram shared they are trying to build new experiences in these four areas: Creators, Video, Shopping and Messaging. I am excited to see what Instagram will be bringing to social media.  There is one thing I know for certain and that is Social Media and technology is constantly changing and social media is not going away.  As long as whichever platform you are talking about continues to morph, and improve, it will be here to stay.  

While I do not always like the changes that happen immediately, it took me time to embrace TikTok, it took me some time to embrace Reels on Instagram, I do get frustrated with the algorithm and constant changes.  I rarely go live on Instagram, but bring on some incentives and I will learn how to embrace it.  I am grateful to be part of the TikTok Creator Fund, but I will say a HUGE thank you to Instagram for this AMAZING incentive program, because I have not YET earned $500 through the TikTok Creator Fund, so shout out to Instagram for doing this for creators, thank you!

Going live can be a little scary, I was definitely uncertain if I was doing it right, but I will encourage you, go do it! Throw out the expectations for it to be perfect and just be YOU! I am not always the most articulate, but guess what you have to get started.  I will say make sure you have a good connection, you do not want your live to be interrupted because of a bad connection.  If you can record when it is daylight, that is the best, lighting is everything and then just go! After I went live it gave me the option to share my live to IGTV so I did, you can click the image below and view that live.  I rambled and repeated because, when going live you have new people hopping on and hopping off, so rambling will happen and that is okay.  I was surprised I ended up staying live for 29 minutes.  I did have another topic in mind "menu planning", because I was not sure if I could fill an entire 15 minutes talking just about badges.  So that is a tip, have a couple of topics in mind, so if you have to fill time, you have something else to talk about.  

If you know a content creator, share this post or send them my Instagram live video talking about this incentive program, so they too can earn some cash on Instagram.  Thank you for reading, liking, following and sharing, I appreciate all YOUR support!