There is a dark side to having a perfect Instagram profile, it can create a large amount of debt. Trying to present the perfect life on the social media platform made Lissette Calveiro go into $10,000 in debt.
She had moved to New York and wanted to portray her life as luxuriously as Sec and the City.
Perfect Instagram Profile
Calveiro says that trying to show off on Instagram is what got her to become so in debt. She moved from Miami to New York in 2013 and she wasn't able to control her spending. Calveiro moved to New York for an internship and that ate away her savings.
Eventually, she ran out of savings but managed to get a full-time job as a publicist. This, however, didn't stop her from going $10,000 into debt. Calveiro was able to get into debt by spending $200 on clothes each month. She went shopping so much to avoid being seen in the same outfit twice.
She also spent money buying designer handbags and traveling to new places to show off for her Instagram. Calveiro told the New York Post that her traveling was for her Instagram profile. Calveiro was able to eventually pay down the debt in 14 months by limiting her finances. Now she has a following of more than 25,000 followers on Instagram.
Influencer Earnings
Becoming an influencer on a social media platform can be a lucrative business. Despite having to maintain appearances like Calveiro, sponsored posts can be a huge source of income for those with large followings on Instagram.
To be able to monetize Instagram profiles, influencers will need to have more than 3,000 followers. The current rate for a post by an influencer with a following of between 3,000 to 10,000 followers is $75-$150, this can jump to more than $500 per post for those with more than 100,000 followers on Instagram.
For companies, the ability to spend money on advertising that is directly targeted towards consumers that feel that they have a connection to a celebrity can be worth a lot of money. Advertisers spent $570 million just on Instagram influencers in 2016 with plans to increase influencers budgets for 2017.
Research showed that the best way that the money was spent was to buy posts from influencers with less than 3 million followers but more than 850,000 followers. Spending money on influencers of this caliber allows companies to get a better return on their investment.
