NFTs as a New Potential Source of Revenue for Influencers

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If you’re an active internet user, there is the possibility that you’ve come across the term, “NFT.” Then you begin to wonder how it suddenly became social media feeds staple despite not being widely known in the past. Events in influencer marketing over the last decade have shown how anything that goes viral can come with financial benefits, and NFT offers similar compensation.

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It may interest you to know that influencers are beginning to get attracted to NFTs owing to their potential to create a new stream of revenue for them. In fact, we saw top influencers such as Jay-Z and Messi get into the NFT space to inform their followers and others who were hitherto unfamiliar with the technology.

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Therefore, if influencers serve as the drive behind the popularity of NFTs, why shouldn’t they benefit from what many brands are beginning to see as a new marketing tool, just as social media is being used? In this article, we will discuss NFTs and ways through which influencers can tap into its potentials, especially as they open up an entirely new revenue stream for them.

What is NFT?

​NFT represents non-fungible tokens and is typically a non-interchangeable piece of digital data that is stored on blockchain technology. It could be anything from pictures to gifs, videos, memes, animations, audio, tweets, and even game collectibles. Its inability to be authentically reproduced contributes to their uniqueness.

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Irrespective of whatever forms they appear – whether collectible cards, weapons, or virtual artworks – there is a value prescribed to NFTs. They have been sold for exorbitant prices. A good example is Beeple’s Everydays: The first 5000 Days, which sold for a whopping $69.3 million in crypto in 2021, making it the third most expensive sold artwork by a living person.

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The ability of holders of an NFT asset to transfer it between themselves offers an added value. This motivates creators to continue to establish more personal relationships with their customers, either by creating new services or functionalities.

NFTs and Influencer Marketing

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But what have NFTs got to do with influencer marketing? After all, the major use case of blockchain technology on which they are built is in the decentralization of the mainstream banking system. While this is true, it has since being adopted by other industries in their marketing efforts.

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Think of it this way. While anyone can own an artwork, say painting or music, only one person or an entity can own the original work that has been created. It is at this point that we find the value inherent in NFT creations.

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Also, people who create NFTs – artists, musicians, etc. – often promote them through social media. Thus, they leverage the social following of influencers. As a result, a new opportunity is offered to influencers, who affect the worth of cryptocurrencies with their opinions and recommendations.

NFTs and Influencer Marketing

Remember we mentioned earlier that NFTs are anything that can be created into a digital file. This means that content creators can turn any piece of content – YouTube, tweets, Instagram feeds, etc. – into NFTs and sell them to their followers, who gain the pride of having the original content created by a particular influencer.

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Imagine having popular posts or YouTube videos that you can turn into your own NFT and distribute for your exclusive benefits. Content creators and influencers that fall in this category include social media tycoon and well-known inventor Gary Vaynerchuk(also known as Gary Vee), who created Veefriends, an NFT project that allows users to hold valuable tokens that grant them access to an online community, YouTube personality and boxer Logan Paul, who sold a series of NFTs and made a whopping $3.5 million in a day, and a host of others.

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Also, influencers can earn royalties through announcements and elevations of creations from other artists on social platforms, thus benefitting greatly from non-fungible token exchanges. Some top NFT influencers include Gary Vaynerchuk, Kenn Bosak, and Anthony Pampliano.

Other ways influencers can ride the NFT wave

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As influencers, you can leverage the potential of NFTs in many ways to unlock value for yourself. Since NFTs allow creators and influencers to deliver in a more transparent and timely manner, they create a great boom for you. Apart from selling the NFT of that viral content that catapulted you into limelight, you can also do the following.

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1. Mint your time as an NFT

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Do you know that NFTs allow you to deliver additional value by selling your time? It is simple than you think. Assuming you want to have a form of an interactive session with your followers, you may provide rewards to them in the form of event access. At the same time, NFTs allow you to provide specialty services to them.

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This is one of the ways creators such as Gary Vaynerchuck are providing value to holders of their tokens. For instance, his NFTs provide his token holders with up to three years of instant access to his mega-conference if they possess the pass. Followers and customers value anything that is offered to them on personal level.

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2. Grow brands with NFT

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Even though we are in the age of technology, it is often challenging to grow a brand. However, NFTs seem to offer a simpler way to achieve brand awareness and growth. For instance, you can reward followers who attend a particular event organized by a brand with a collectible NFT. Such a community of beneficiaries will often display and communicate their holdings (assets) to others. This process will have a positive impact on influencers or brands whose NFT they hold.

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3. Leverage NFT’s transparent nature

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NFTs help to establish trust and transparency with even the greatest strangers. The reason is simple. No one can change the ownership records or imitate a new NFT. Anyone that buys an NFT is provided a blockchain-protected certificate that shows they own the asset. Thus, consumers will be able to purchase an NFT with the confidence that they know the seller, worth, and cost of the asset.

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4. Get more brand collaborations

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Rather than threaten collaborations between brands and influencers, NFTs provide a new avenue for – as well as strengthen – partnerships with both existing and new brands that are leveraging the emerging technology. Recently, we’ve seen an increased wave of brands collaborating with content creators to create unique, exclusive NFT tokens that can be monetized.

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With this, brands will be able to provide certain benefits that are exclusive to holders of their tokens alone rather than the general consumers. Also, it offers a new template that may take over future campaigns. For instance, a business that seeks to launch a major campaign with an influencer may create a sponsored NFT with the influencer.

What the future holds for NFT influencer marketing

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What is the probability that NFT influencer marketing will stand the test of time? Where will it go from here? Is it just a current fad or a passing trend that will soon go into oblivion very soon? These are questions that are begging for great answers.

Though it is often difficult to take a peep into the future, especially when one holds no celestial powers, the present perks and opportunities of NFT influencer marketing are enough to speculate that its future is bright.

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Consider it this way. We now live in a world where there is increasing adoption of blockchain technology in almost every sector. Not only that, but people are also beginning to live with the reality of attaching real-world value to digital assets. Therefore, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone if the trend continues.

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In other words, if the trend of attributing values to digital assets continues, influencer marketing of NFT will outlive its inventors and present creators. Thus, we could say that NFTs have a significant role to play in the future of influencer marketing if they keep trending and are able to maintain their value-driven position.

Conclusion

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Marketing trends have evolved over the years with NFT influencer marketing bringing new features and strategies to the table. It has completely opened up a new revenue stream for not only influencers but also creators. This is as events have revealed the willingness of people to pay huge amounts of money to acquire NFTs owing to their unique value and the possibility of tracking them to their owners or original creators.

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Before NFTs became a trend, influencers were unable to determine how much money brands are making from collaborating with them to use their image. However, with NFTs, influencers could track these amounts and, at the same time, earn copyright royalties.

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As an influencer, if you are not considering leveraging NFTs at the moment based, you are greatly missing out. At Vling, we will continue to provide you with insights obtained from trends as well as serve as a connecting platform with the right opportunities for your brand, product, or service.

We hope that you enjoyed reading this article about NFTs and have got new insights into the emerging technology, especially how you can tap into the new way of monetizing your creative content as an influencer.

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