Everyone has been influenced by and influencer. A simple statement that rings true, but between the Pretty Little Thing and Nando’s sauce posts I’ve always been fascinated as to why people can have so much power to make people buy things. From Love Island to YouTube to your next-door neighbour and influencer can come out of nowhere and build a life on promoting products and services like their life depends on it (Well, it kind of does, doesn’t it?)
It’s no surprise that influencers were also affected when COVID-19 hit, along with everyone else, but influencing has still been able to run in some capacity. For platforms, they’ve had the opportunity to fly- once again TikTok has gone from a young audience, to a cross-generational platform for all to enjoy lip synching and viral challenges.
While platforms have thrived, certain types of content have decreased, for example the beauty community has seen a decline in engagements through-out the past few months, but it hasn’t stopped its creators. They’ve adapted like others to the climate, switched up their content and have carried on uploading to their thousands of followers. Along with adapting their content, we’ve also seen influencers doing some good- letting their followers know about government guidelines, ‘promoting’ coronavirus safety; we know how important it was that people stick to these, and so having influencers take the torch in some of this stuff is nice to see- especially for those with young audiences.
But can the ease of businesses working with influencers go back to the way it used to be? Do influencers still have the same power as before? In the coming month we will really get to see just how influencer marketing will adapt, just like its creators…
For Fashion Influencers, there’s definitely been some changes for them to follow. Due to the fact we’ve been stuck inside, fancy photoshoots with quirky backgrounds have gone out the window and now, there very own houses are being primed ready for an in-house photoshoot for an in-house brand.
This simple change has meant that it’s not been the worst time for these influencers- Influencer Joey Zauzig explains that “If you are solely fashion, I can guarantee you aren’t working as much as a beauty or fitness influencer, it’s just the way it is right now… I will continue to test the waters during this time, because it’s the perfect time to switch things up.”
This commitment from influencers to still share content like this throughout the pandemic helps brands- it is telling their audience that they’re there for you during this time; especially when it seemed like the whole of the UK was spending lockdown online shopping (myself included.)
But it’s not just fashion/ beauty influencers who have had to adapt to the situation. Travel influencers have been affective massively, because, well, they haven’t been able to travel. These people make their money travelling the world and therefore they’ve been cut off from their source. They’ve spent the last 4 months in uncertainty and hopefully now, with places opening up again they can get back to what they enjoy.
Travel influencers spend their time taking photographs and so it makes sense for them to post old photos from their travels; however, some influencers have been critiqued for posting these photos without mentioning the pandemic at all- not a good look for them. While these influencers only want to post about them traveling, using their platform to talk about why they can’t travel, and why it’s important they don’t travel could’ve really shown another side to the people who know and love them.
Some influences who had taken on this roll is Yaya Onalaja-Aliu and Lloyd Griffiths of Hand Luggage Only. They explain that “We're thinking outside of the box and further introducing our personalities into our content. It's allowed us to really engage with our audience on several platforms which has been great.”
While influencers might’ve had a ‘rough time’ of it throughout COVID-19, I still believe that influencer marketing is still as strong as it was at the start of the year, it could even become stronger than usual. I’ve seen influencer reinvent themselves in ways I’ve never seen, and this crisis has also shown how some influencers really don’t care about the people who are following them.
Because influencing is an online ‘job’ it’s simple for brands to get promotion out there, and having influencers think about outside the box makes them think about the brand they’re working with. With so much time on their hands and having to think creatively to get posts out into the world; influencers could really start to post about brands they like and are passionate about, instead of posting about products they’ve never used because of the price tag it comes with.
I hope this is what is happening; and I hope it carries on. Influencer marketing is smart, people want to talk to people- not brands and so using influencers to promote their products makes sense, influencers are people selling to people. But, as we’ve seen in the past, sometimes, the zeros on the end of a check are worth more than being transparent.
I could be wrong, but I hope that the reinvention of influencer marketing is happening; and the people we trust to tell us the truth on products and services are adapting their content to do just that.
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