How Influencers React to COVID-19: A Survival Guide

Many countries have been on the brink of a recession since the outbreak of the Coronavirus. Efforts at trying to stay afloat during the crisis have ultimately resulted in some pretty unpleasant statistics. It has led to employees being either furloughed or let go, world economics are plummeting, and 52% of executives worldwide have said their sales are doing significantly worse since the start of the pandemic.

Following the drop of business economics, this has led to cuts in advertising budgets. In total, this has affected 70% of brands pushing them to decrease marketing and ad budgets. Businesses are learning to evolve, whether it’s a gym offering virtual workout classes or restaurants selling needed groceries to customers, adapting to the current situation is needed in order to stay alive.

As for the digital world, COVID-19 has had a huge effect. Social media marketers, known as influencers, who use their platforms in collaboration with brands to promote products have been struggling. Influencers had been relying on different forms of collaborative marketing for at least 35% of their income, which has now been cut down to 4%. With the Coronavirus and influencer marketing now dwindling, influencers need to adapt and innovate, finding other ways to support their career before it’s too late.

Influencers Coping with the Pandemic

Solution-based content has taken the rise since the start of the pandemic. This type of content is an approach of using fact-based data from analytics that deciphers between past assumptions of industry trends and if they are validated or disproved. Influencers, in particular, can use this strategy by researching what their intended audience wants or gravitate towards, before creating and delivering that correlated content to them. Using this strategy will help businesses and influencers create more successful content in terms of generating revenue as well as align them with the changing needs.

Travel and Event Influencers

While there have been many industry impacts as a result of COViD-19, travel restrictions can be accountable for a large part of the recent influencer downfall. Brands have been forced into shutting down events and sponsorships due to current health concerns, with travel and event influencers being particularly badly affected by these changes. Influencers need to evolve with the times and be aware that there is a global pandemic that has caused a great deal of damage when creating new content.

Influencer and blogger, Emma Rose has 500,000 followers on Instagram attracted to her lifestyle, fashion, and beauty content who is a great example of an influencer using solution-based content. Travel, once a huge part of brand collaborations for the blogger, Rose had to now readjust her content accordingly due to international restrictions. Rose’s reaction to current events created a new strategy which was to pivot and incorporate home decor and interior design into her platforms. By turning to these new topics and incorporating her own style into them, Rose was about to relate and produce content to her audience who were also staying at home like her.

Collab Houses

Collab Houses are homes where a group of influencers can physically reside with the purpose of contributing to other accounts and allowing more creativity between individuals. Influencers residing in a space where they all can feel comfortable will give this group a safe place for creative ideas.

Commonly used by Tiktokers, unfortunately, the use of these homes has come to an abrupt stop. Quarantine currently has houses shutting down to reduce the spread of the virus. Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty TikTok House has temporarily closed to keep her housed workers safe with a statement going out that her team would resume the account safely by working remotely.

With people increasing their screen time during quarantine, TikTok comes out on top with the highest social media engagement rates per post when compared to any other app. Popular around the world, the video streaming app has 800 million active users universally. This can potentially be a great app used during the pandemic for influencers to grow their audience and fully display their creativity and ingenuity.

Increased Engagement

Even with increased engagement on digital platforms, influencers should still be aware that this does not mean sponsored content opportunities will pop up right away for them. Businesses are trying to be as cost-effective as possible during the pandemic, so if that means cutting back on advertising expenses, then they will have to reduce the spend in relation to influencer marketing.

However, user engagement has actually soared recently through live streaming. Twitch, the biggest live streaming platform, has seen a total of 1.645 billion hours watched per month since the pandemic began. Different ways of using streaming have surfaced with Tomorrowland’s virtual EDM festival already in the works. Users will be able to purchase a ticket to virtually attend the festival featuring over 60 artists, including Steve Aoki and David Guetta. Similarly on Billboard, Billy Joel is also offering free streaming to his fans with a live performance, “Life From the Porch” on his Facebook Page, along with a full list of other artists performing over the next couple months.

Influencers in general, need to find ways to resonate with their audiences to at least keep their active followers interested. At this point in time, it’s important for influencers to avidly post content despite the possibility of reduced revenue regarding their posts. Now, in today’s climate, the focus needs to be on survival more than anything else.

Influencers in general, need to find ways to resonate with their audiences to at least keep their active followers interested. At this point in time, it’s important for influencers to avidly post content despite the possibility of reduced revenue regarding their posts. Now, in today’s climate, the focus needs to be on survival more than anything else.

A Survival Guide

● Be Empathetic: Be aware and understanding of the situation at hand. There is currently a global pandemic going on, posting content that is irrelevant can come across as insensitive during the crisis.

● Evolve: The Coronavirus has been hitting travel bloggers hard and these influencers will need to adapt to stay relevant in their industry. Think of new relevant content that followers can relate to during quarantine.

● Stay Current: Influencers posting about how they are staying safe and protecting others during these times will gain trust with their audience. Everyone should be respecting the precautions governed by countries, and influencers abiding by the same rules will help them relate to their audience. Advertisers are likely to be more willing to initiate collaborations with an influencer with a trusted following based on the increased likelihood of future conversions.

● Maintain Content Flow: It is important during these times to stay relevant. Chances are, influencers are breaking even, if not losing income this year because of the virus. Keeping a steady flow of traffic will allow influencers to stay on peoples’ radars and at least hold their ground until time improves.

● Be Creative: Think of new ways to interact with your audience! Whether it’s starting a podcast, creating new recipes for your blog, or finding ways to collaborate with other brands from home, keep ideas fresh and exciting. The Coronavirus is changing the influencer market, so think outside of the box to stay ahead of your competitors. With lockdowns starting to ease in parts of the world, this will give content creators more flexibility and experiences to share.

Businesses, brands and influencers need to remember to still have hope despite global economies being hit hard at the moment. Data shows that by 2022 the industry market will approximately reach $15 billion. If content creators stay proactive during these rough times, it’ll surely be worth it when economies start to build up again.