The job is lucrative and he has no plans to quit anytime soon, he said.
“I was completely financially unprepared for retirement,” she said. Besides saving for her old age, Ms Tan said she also paid for her mortgage and her young children’s college tuition.
Tan’s success is the exception rather than the rule. Still, there are opportunities for older brand representatives as fewer creators can compete in that age category, co-CEO Kevin Crucy said. upfluencemaintains a repository of 4.5 million social media creators that advertisers can search to find partners. As of mid-April, he said, the list had only about 2,700 entries over the age of 60, of which only 174 had TikTok accounts. The group was also overwhelmingly female and white, “suggesting that other groups may be underrepresented overall,” he said.
Brands often look for creators with around 5,000 followers. The reason is that so-called nano-influencers are more likely to engage with people in the comments section and give the account an authentic feel, Crucy said. These accounts can also be a cheap marketing tool, as creators may showcase their products simply because they received a free sample. About half of the partnerships formed on Upfluence offer free products as rewards, but no rewards.
Paid creators can earn hundreds to tens of thousands of dollars by producing content that promotes their brand. The reward rate is based on several factors, including how much effort it takes to create a post, how many times the post is made on which platform, whether the image can be used elsewhere by the company, and how many followers the creator has. It depends on factors.
But that income is not enough to live on for most people, regardless of the creator’s age. Clousey said the average payout for a sponsored post on Upfluence was $348, up 44% from the average payout in the final quarter of 2022.
Krupa’s grandson, who manages the TikTok account, said the money Krupa made from a few sponsored videos included only “fun” items such as plants, lottery tickets and clothing. Krupa declined to be interviewed.