What You Should Know About Meta’s New Creators Monetization Tools
Meta is celebrating Creator Week, and in addition to various showcase events and panels, Meta has announced some new features for creators, including expanded monetization opportunities and new tools to facilitate the creation and sale of NFTs.
To begin with, Instagram’s decision to make fan subscriptions available to all eligible creators in the United States will allow many more people to monetize their Instagram audiences through direct, ongoing support from their communities.
Instagram first introduced fan subscriptions with select creators in January as part of its growing suite of creator monetization tools aimed at keeping top talent on the app.
Subscriptions allow creators (with over 10,000 followers) to charge a monthly fee ranging from $0.99 to $99.99, which grants paying members access to subscribers-only live streams, subscribers-only posts and Stories, and badges in comment streams to assist creators in identifying their supporters.
At this time, Instagram does not take a cut of subscriber revenue, but any fees paid are subject to Google and Apple’s 30% in-app purchase fees. Outside of that, any money raised is yours, providing another way for creators to monetize their IG content.
Meta is also introducing new gifts in Instagram Reels, allowing viewers to send virtual Gifts to Reels creators, who will then donate the cost of the gift.
And it’s similar to Facebook Stars, but different, with these more illustrative, animated gift types potentially attracting more attention and engagement.
Meta is initially testing gifts on Reels in the United States before considering broader expansion.
Speaking of Stars, more creators will now be able to use Facebook’s fan donation feature, which allows your supporters to donate money to you during videos and live streams.
Automatic Stars Onboarding
Meta is also testing automatic Stars onboarding for creators, which means the ability to receive Stars will appear on their content automatically, as well as making Stars available on photo and text posts, in addition to videos, live streams, and Reels (Facebook added Stars for Reels back in August).
Additionally, the “Stars Party on Reels” is a celebratory moment that occurs when a spike of Stars is sent from your fans on live or reels. When the spike occurs, a countdown overlay with progress toward a goal will appear on the screen, encouraging fans to send Stars and meet the Stars goal.”
Finally, Meta intends to expand its focus on NFTs and digital art through a new process that will allow users to create and sell NFTs within Instagram.
Meta, Creators, and the NFT
According to Meta, creators will have access to an “end-to-end toolkit” to facilitate NFT trading, with fans and collectors able to buy digital collectibles directly from Instagram.
In addition to the blockchains and wallets that it already supports, Meta is testing video digital collectibles on Instagram and adding support for the Solana blockchain and Phantom wallet.
NFTs will now be enhanced with additional OpenSea metadata to provide additional context.
At the same time, Meta is looking to expand the use case for the underlying NFT process by trading virtual items and digital goods that could theoretically be used and displayed within the metaverse.
If, as Meta predicts, the metaverse becomes a thing, then buying and selling digital items will become much more important. With that in mind, integrating NFT processes and engagement around digital goods could be another step toward the next stage of online interaction.
These are some intriguing additions that contribute to Meta’s larger strategy of improving monetization opportunities for creators to keep them posting and developing their apps.
Meta is also aware that it requires creators to lead the metaverse shift. The metaverse, as Meta envisions it, will open up entirely new opportunities for all types of creators to create entirely new experiences – and it’s those new, one-of-a-kind activations that will entice more people to invest in VR and follow these creators through to the next stage.