Make Reels for Facebook, Get $35K

Meta is offering new tools for creators on Facebook to monetize their work and track their audience growth.

According to the company blog and a variety of published reports this week, the platform’s new professional mode lets creators access the bonus program offered in Reels.

Reels is the short-term video feature offered by Instagram — Facebook’s sister platform — which became available on Facebook this summer. The bonus program lets creators earn up to $35,000 each month, depending on how much traffic their videos get.

But don’t think you can just start filming your pets and start raking in cash. The program is invite-only for the moment, and open only to creators who comply with Meta’s partner monetization regulations.

Meanwhile, Facebook is developing advanced editing features for Reels, tools that will make it easier to compile of Reel made up of several clips, along with the ability to save videos as drafts as you edit. Facebook could also join Instagram in supporting minute-long Reels, instead of the 30-second limit it now imposes.

Professional mode — available just in the U.S. for now but due to arrive in other countries in the next few months — also lets creators track activity on their profile. Creators can review things like the number of shares, reactions and comments their content receives, and how their follower count may have changed.

Creators who enable professional mode will make all of their content public and allow anyone to see their profile and follow them, although they can retain the ability to make certain posts friends-only.

Read more: Instagram Adds Ads to Its Reels Feature

Instagram launched Reels in 2020, allowing users to put together short video clips. In the past year, the platform has launched Shopping and ad features to Reels in a bid to compete with the popular video-based social media company TikTok.