Trust in Social Media Influencers Soared during the Lockdown

Numerous headlines rushed to ring the dawn of influencer marketing while the world was on lockdown. Others pushed this niche market as the sole solution to brands’ problems. Yet the truth is somewhere in the middle and we have the numbers to highlight it.

In its quest to sift through the information overload and retrieve the exact status quo of the influencer marketing industry, Matter Communications has carried out a survey on 1,000 consumers across the U.S in May. Their findings were eye-opening.

Consumers had more time to get to know their favorite social accounts

It turns out that putting a stop on social activities due to compulsory isolation does increase the screen time. While spending more time at home, users have heavily relied on social media to fill in all of the additional spare time.

No matter the reason (whether it’s content consumption, live-stream viewership, or content creation), more than half of social media users have been spending more time on social channels than they used to.

Now that we’ve established that social platforms have been buzzing with activity, let’s turn to the influencer-brand relationship.

Friends, family, and influencers remain the foundation of trust

Who do consumers trust? Even on the brink of a health catastrophe, when brands and users’ interests shared only one common ground, that of proactively helping the community prevail over the COVID-19 infectious disease, consumers haven’t changed their behavior one bit.

Just as before, consumers are considering brands last when it comes to placing their trust in sources of information. More exactly, at least 60% of respondents age 18 to 60 are willing to act on what their friends, family members, and influencers share on their social profiles.

However, users are very particular when picking their favorite social accounts. Let’s see what markers are gaining their trust:

• 60%-70% of users follow social media accounts they can relate to;
• 50%-58% of users follow experts and what they stand for on social media;
• 17%-22% of users follow celebrities and public figures.

In other words, those social accounts that hit home or have reached success in their industry may be amassing more followers. On the other hand, when it comes to picking sides and putting their trust in someone, the public are picking experts and relatable individuals. This leaves the reasoning behind the audience’s fascination with celebrities just for the sake of entertainment.

As for the fear that influencers failed to remain relevant in a time of crisis, the public believes otherwise. Only 19% of correspondents felt that content creators across social channels were unhelpful in a time when all discourses are expected to touch on sensitive topics. The other 81% of consumers received the answers they needed from their trusted leaders.

In the meantime, brands didn’t manage to flinch public trust in their favor, even at a time when they contributed COVID-19 relief funds. On the other hand, influencers’ input has been greatly beneficial for brands.

Brands can tap that extra boost of consumer trust through influencers

In their search for products that fit their lifestyle and standards, 82% of consumers have taken into account the opinion of their friends, family, or favorite influencers. They’ve either researched, purchased, or considered a new product based on the social posts of those they trusted most.

By contrast, brands require a lot more work effort to persuade people of the validity of their communication. More exactly, 62% of consumers need other types of reassurance than those brands usually commit to in order to take their word for it.

Especially in times of uncertainty, brands are struggling to keep their tone of voice authentic when addressing their audience. By turning to influencer marketing as a communication tool with the capability of approaching consumers in a sympathetic and relatable way, brands have the opportunity to engage at a different level with their audience.

The truth is always in the middle

The public knows that brands have to do what they need to in order to push their merchandise and services forward. But that doesn’t mean that the two worlds can’t engage in a dialogue, one that helps both sides.

In the past 20 years, the world of marketing has changed the way it perceives the public. Commercials, ads, campaigns are no longer telling people what to buy. Instead, they are presenting products the way the public wants.

By adding human traits (Apple is elegance, Volvo is reliability, Amazon is innovation and sincerity, etc.) and symbolism (Coca-Cola’s Santa Claus, the Oreo rainbow cookie, Starbucks’ Red Cup, etc.) into the mix, companies managed to make themselves relatable on their own.

However, we can’t deny the fact that what takes months for companies to achieve, influencers are obtaining in a few posts. They proved how quickly they can accelerate brands’ humanization during the worst crisis the entire world has faced in centuries.

People trust influencers, and they’re counting on their daily input to maintain their lifestyles. In the meantime, brands cannot afford anymore to take a new step without consulting their PR and marketing strategists. So while companies are logging thousands of hours to build creative messages without loopholes for public scandals, influencers can cut in and quickly shape the same message in a way that their community is sure to embrace.