Meta has added more ways for creators to make money on Instagram and Facebook and is expanding its existing monetisation tools to more people.

Its main addition is a Creator Marketplace on Instagram. Creator Marketplace is where creators can go to be discovered by brands for potential partnership opportunities.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook

“We’re testing a set place on Instagram where creators can get discovered and paid, and where brands can share new partnership opportunities.”

Within the marketplace, creators can list their interests and the types of content they’re willing to create – which will help brands find the perfect match for the campaigns they want to launch.

Once a brand has found a partner creator, they can share project details with them – this includes information about payment and agreed deliverables. There will also be a messaging folder specifically for partnerships within Insta DMs, which will help marketers keep those all-important messages in one place.

Streamline partnerships

For marketers, this will help cut through the chaff and help them find serious players faster and help get campaigns off the ground quicker than before. All in all, it should turn out to be a win-win for creators and brands.

Similar, but different to, Brands Collabs Manager

Meta does already run a Brands Collabs Manager, which is broadly the same as Creator Marketplace. However, one crucial difference is that Creator Marketplace is more focused on Instagram and gives Insta creators the chance to find new partnership opportunities. Brand Collabs Manager does the same, but for Facebook.

Oddly, Meta’s existing Brand Collabs Manager was actually extended to Instagram at the end of 2019.

Instagram Business Team, December 2019

“That’s why we’re opening up Facebook’s Brand Collabs Manager – a marketplace tool previously only available to Facebook creators – for a selected group of Instagram creators. They’ll now be able to share insights and engagement with brands and find partners that will resonate with their audience.

Creators in Brand Collabs Manager can also search for like-minded brands looking to partner on content creation. They can source new deals, manage partnerships and automatically share insights with them (before this, many creators could only send brands screenshots of their analytics).”

One can only imagine that perhaps Meta wanted something more Instagrammy to catalyse its burgeoning suite of Branded Content tools on Instagram.

Given how lightly Collabs Manager appears to be used, it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that it could be folded into the sparkly new Instagram version in time.

Although since Meta appears determined to confound, confuse and annoy social media managers on the daily, maybe they’ll just leave everything as is, change the navigation every two weeks and introduce loads of bugs instead.

The possibilities are endless.

But the same as TikTok’s

By this point, you’re probably wondering if you’ve heard all this before?

And to that, you’d be right. TikTok has a Creator Marketplace which lets brands discover TikTok creators for their campaigns, so by and large, this is a copycat idea. Meta seems to be doing a lot of that lately…

Aside from the standard TikTok copycat features, Zuckerberg also announced several influencer features. Here they are.

Interoperable subscriptions

Interoperable subscriptions let creators give paying subscribers access to locked Facebook Groups. The move is interesting because it allows fans to pay for access on one platform and access exclusive Facebook features.

Facebook Stars

The Stars program is being expanded to all eligible creators, letting all personalities earn money from Reels, Live or VOD videos.

If you have at least 1,000 followers over the last 60 days, you will now be eligible for Stars. A word of warning, your account must meet monetisation policies. Stars can be purchased in bundles and allocated to creators via streams and is a way for fans to tip their favourite creators.

Monetising Reels

Reels will be further monetised by opening up the Reels Play Bonus program to more creators on Facebook, while creators will be able to cross-post Insta Reels to Facebook and monetise them on both platforms. Creators can apply for the Reels Play bonus program if they have made more than five Reels and have 100,000 views in the last 30 days. They must be U.S. based.

Digital Collectibles

Crypto and NFTs are coming to the Instagram creator space. It was initially tested in May, and now a small group of US creators will be able to use NFT display on Facebook. Essentially, creators will be able to display their NFTs on Instagram, with Ethereum and Polygon the supported blockchains.

No revenue share for now

Facebook and Instagram will not take their cut of your revenue until 2024.

That includes paid online events, Badges, Subscriptions and Bulletin. That’s a pretty compelling reason to focus on Meta.