Britain's social media stars making £2,000 a second

Britain's social media stars making £2,000 a second

Twitter’s video platform Vine has been an unexpected money spinner for these Britons who gave up their jobs to make a living from their smartphone.

For 21-year-old Ben Phillips a £12,000 windfall is less than a minute away six seconds, to be precise.

All he needs to do is upload a clip filmed on his smartphone to the social media platform Vine. If he mentions a product or brand, that company will pay him thousands of pounds.

Now the Cardiff local gets paid up to £2,000 for each second of promoted video he uploads.

Mr Phillips’ comedy clips include playing pranks and acting sketches with his friends not high budget television ads which have earned him the ear of advertisers.

But it’s not his homemade videos that brands are interested in. They are queuing up to get a mention in the hope that his 1.2 million followers will buy their products.

From shoe shop to shooting videos

Mr Phillips is one of a growing group of young British "Viners" a small clique of smartphone users who upload six-second home videos for anyone to watch.

His newfound internet stardom is a far cry from his job in a shoe shop in South Wales, when last July he was working and began uploading Vines in his spare time.

“I saw some lads in America were getting loads of interest on this website, so I began with some comedy scenes,” he said.

He said he had no idea that a chance encounter with the website would turn into a lucrative business.

“I was working at my mum’s shop and hadn’t a clue what Vine would turn into, no one was on it in the UK.”

Mr Phillips began by filming spots with his then-girlfriend’s three-year-old son, Harley. He began a “Dr Harley” series in which the toddler would give spoof medical advice. One instalment - If you’ve got a boo boo, wash it, kiss it and plaster it! has been watched by more than six million people.

A clip of the pair mooing while seated in the back of a car received two million views (“loops,” Mr Phillips calls them, explaining the Vine lingo).

A video of Harley tidying his room to the riff of the White Stripes’ Seven Nation Army also surpassed the two million loop mark.

Ben Phillips: 'We don't have celebrity status'

Mr Phillips said the pair’s popularity rocketed over night. “About two months after I started doing Vines with my ex’s little boy Harley, we got around one million followers.”

At that point, advertisers began knocking on his door. Car makers, clothing brands, mobile networks, and food and drink producers were all keen to get a mention in his videos.

“I had companies saying ‘we want to pay you to promote our product’ and management teams contacting me out of the blue.”

Mr Phillips said he preferred to go it alone, and began picking which brands to promote. “I’d only really promote products that I would use. But it works when I do because we don’t have that ‘celebrity’ status we’re just ordinary people.”

Ben Phillips and friend in Two strangers at an ATM (2 million views)

He said he would continue to create videos on Vine but to make people laugh, not to make cash. “The money side of it doesn’t really phase me because my sole intention is to show people skills and cheer them up.

“Six seconds is enough to make someone smile. People at work, if they’re really bored, can watch a couple of videos and then get back on with the day.”

Mr Phillips recently returned from a trip to Venice. “Just yesterday I was recording on my phone from a gondola I’m trying to upload videos from landmarks across the world.”

His product coverage is eclectic, ranging from covering up graffiti on his white car with Tipp-Ex (complete with hashtag #TipexThursdays) to creating a promotional video for Nokia.

£2,000 a second: how?

For each video, Mr Phillips says that advertisers will pay around £6,000 to £12,000 per vine.

A rate of £2,000 a second is hefty even for large advertisers but Mr Phillips says it offers good value. “I can guarantee a company one to seven million loops within 24 hours. What magazine could offer that? I’m giving people phenomenal marketing.”

The key to getting an advertising deal is simple: get more followers.

This is a market where individuals can be picked up and dropped instantly. Rob Fishman, founder of social media company Niche, said: “Whatever the media platform, anyone with a few thousand followers is valuable to companies.”

But as soon as their popularity wanes, advertisers will look towards the next big fad.

Lon Safko, author of the Social Media Bible, said: “It’s all about the eyes. As a sponsor that’s all I care about."

Mr Safko said the platform might not be lasting. “Someone might be hot now, but a year from now, people will be bored and move on to the next shiny object.

“It’s a fad that changes often,” he said.

Daz Black: ‘One day they’ll get bored’

East Sussex builder Daz Black recently abandoned construction to concentrate on Vine full-time once he reached the one million follower mark.

Mr Black, 29, said he was careful about advertising products he wouldn’t buy himself. “I’ve got offers coming in from all directions, but if I promote something that’s a con it will come back to haunt me,” he said.

“If you blatantly advertise that gets really annoying, but if you play it down people can enjoy the videos and not notice the advertising is there.”

Mr Black, whose recent video, How guys asked the father to marry their daughter, received 3.5m views, began using Vine by “playing around and making stupid faces."

He said: “Ideas just come to me most just randomly - I'm not sure if it’s talent or something I should be worried about!”

Mr Black, from Staplecross, said he was pursuing a career in comedy TV in case Vine lost popularity. "Vine’s getting bigger and bigger but advertising may have a potential to kill it off.

“I know how the internet is I’m only going to get older - maybe one day they’ll get bored of me.”

Black in ' Classic mum sayings ' (3.2 million views). He hopes to be a TV comedy actor.

How to cash in on social media popularity

As a ballpark, Mr Safko said that anyone with a few hundred thousand followers could get cash for promoting a product in their videos.

He said: "You have to accumulate a staggering amount of followers to make your video have any impact and be worth anything to a sponsor."

Companies approach popular posters, but wannabe social media 'stars' can be proactive by joining a go-between like Niche.co or GrapeStory.

But Darren Barefoot, co-author of A Social Media Marketing Handbook, said there was no guarantee that Vine would stick around as a popular medium. "Right now it appeals to 18 to 25 year-olds, which is a user base that's valuable to advertisers but is also very volatile," he said.

Mr Barefoot said that, for now, the down-to-earth humour of Vine users kept them popular. "These people have a raw and honest sense of humour that they can get across in six seconds. It's enough time for one good joke."

But not everybody can amass millions of followers over night. "All of the people who are making money now didn't set it up to make an income - it was an accident," Mr Barefoot said.

Free trip to NYC...

However, even people with a few thousand followers get attention from brands - with freebies and trips up for grabs for those who are followed.

Holly Graham, a compliance officer from Edinburgh, uses Vine in her spare time and has amassed 17,600 followers from her spoof Game of Thrones videos.

She said that although she would not rule out making a career out of her "Lady Holly" account, she was happy to keep it a hobby.

"I can go two months without making a vine and then spend a night making 5 in a row," she said.

Ms Graham has been offered various freebies from brands including concert tickets and a free trip to New York. She said: "I’ve been contacted by a few companies to advertise certain things in my Vine, mainly apps, but I haven’t done so yet as I haven't found one that I’m particularly interested in."

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