Here’s How The Pandemic Is Changing Influencer Marketing

Imagine this. While doing your grocery shopping for the week, your hand lifts up to scratch an unbearable itch. But the arm suddenly freezes mid-air sending a painful signal to the brain. Then you realize that touching your face has become a gesture that spreads fear in your body.

Coronavirus is already changing us from the inside. It doesn’t even have to infect us in doing so. This health crisis made us do inconceivable things. Block ourselves indoors while letting the economy quickly slip into a blackout.

But this has also marked a moment in our history when solidarity overcame our luxury agenda. Individuals who used to lead independent and liberal lifestyles are now placing the higher good as their number one priority. Coronavirus managed to flip individualism upside down, where the community becomes the North.

So it’s going to be lasting repercussions after we get out of our isolation. Outside our confinement awaits a new order. If this virus was dangerous enough to keep people indoors for weeks, its influence will be strong enough to change societal layers for good.

Like it or not, influencers’ social accounts have come to encapsulate the features of their community. The way they will emerge from this affliction is going to reflect the evolution of the society itself.

But the future is not something you can smuggle into the present. So the following are just observations based on current events to make the dreaded unknown more familiar.

Science Gets Credibility Restored

When the general good of a population reaches a satisfactory level, people have a tendency to expand their concerns sideways. Eventually, their day-to-day sympathies and worries become dangerously niche.

Science hasn’t been able to keep up with current talking points. It takes time to reach scientific evidence which is not something an impatient community appreciates.

By the time the latest muscle gaining routine gets endorsed or not by a scientific quorum, the fitness industry has already taken it mainstream.

But people might not be in such a hurry to return to their former methods of selecting information that shapes their lifestyles once the quarantine lifts. On the contrary, if there’s one thing the world educated themselves during these critical weeks, it must be verifying where the news is coming from.

This behavioral change will gain visibility across social media platforms as well. Users are going to pay more attention to where their favorite accounts are taking their information from.

Therefore, rushed conclusions might become a substantial reason to stop following certain accounts. Influencers won’t be able to go back to empty words anymore. On the contrary, any recommendation will have to be based on solid evidence to have an ample effect.

Experts Take the Stage

In the days prior to the coronavirus outbreak, social media users offered their loyalty to influencers who had a way with words. Their reassuring manner made people comfortable which is something not many academics can or have the time to do.

Yet the looming presence of the pandemic shifted popularity benchmarks from charismatic account owners to people well-known in their fields. Scott Gottlieb MD and Anna Podolanczuk are two healthcare professionals who have seen their following counts spiking these few weeks.

Two outcomes can emerge from this. First, people may choose to hold on to their new practice of following authoritative voices. The public might not continue their interests in virologists or pulmonologists. Yet they might just as well take an interest in other fields of science while treating self-proclaimed experts with skepticism.

Second, we might witness the birth of a new genre of influencers. Experts are starting to see what a difference their presence on social media can make. There might be something good coming out of this crisis and that will be a robust pool of intellectual influencers.

A Cyborg Kind of Freedom

One foot into real life while the other anchored into the online. As the body is forced to stay within four walls, our digital avatars are doing all the outdoor activities.

The online is now attending conferences, commuting daily to work, shopping, meeting friends instead of us. The longer the quarantine gets, the more tools and platforms people master that can substitute their physical presence in the real world.

“Alone but together” may outlive the global phenomenon that created it, the self-isolation. People might just as well continue to cut down on their errands thanks to technology.

Trendsetters are already growing confident in their tech abilities. Therefore, their innate curiosity and passion won’t stop exploring their digital options.

Zoom business meetings, electronic voting, remote consultations — social media influencers will fall deeper in love with digital services. Why shouldn’t it happen? After all, technological advancements are here to shrink the time we spend on duties and widen our spare time for our passions and hobbies.

Positive News

The industry of media has always taken advantage of the fearmongering effect. It’s in our nature to respond more exuberantly to negative events. On the other hand, it takes extra effort to comprehend the extent of happy news which we are all practicing right now.

We disregarded the good news so as not to allow the bad ones to take us off guard. In the end, we were right. In the midst of a global crisis, our darkest predictions have come into being. Is this supposed to make us happier?

According to the latest developments in social media, the answer is “no.” Influencers have started redirecting their followers’ focus towards positive occurrences that are happening while our eyes are glued to the updates on the latest pandemic numbers.

This new interest might catch on beyond the dark period we are now traversing. Even though the world will resume its productive course at some point, social media influencers might find their communities more absorbed in the good side of events than ever before.

A Sagacious Hunger for Entertainment

Once they feel safe again to go outside, people will be more than ready to greet the fun part of being alive. Escaping restrictions is something that draws people closer to adventure and develops an exacerbated taste for entertainment.

While worldwide trends were starting to tilt towards minimalism and the elegance of simple designs, coronavirus will most likely hijack the taste for an undemanding life. In its place, people are going to crave the extravagance.

However, with all the disasters we’ve been going through, we’ve learned our lessons. This time, self-indulgence will likely inherit some responsibilities. Fashion and entertainment will learn to tolerate the oversight of high environmental and medical standards.

In their capacity of social media hosts, influencers won’t let this rediscovered euphoria go without accommodating it. Chefs, fashionistas, travelers will continue to be the promoters of the latest trends in their field. But this time, they will start filtering their recommendations through the directions they get from authoritative sources.

For instance, the hospitality industry will surely hurry to prepare new kinds of activities to quickly turn the coronavirus era into a grim memory of the past. Travel vloggers will want to be the first to test these adventures. Yet not without underscoring the importance of committing to the health guidelines while traveling that will surely arise after the quarantine is lifted.

Influencer Marketing Will Transform

How will influencer campaigns look like after quarantine? A more carefully researched discourse, expert partners, integrated technology solutions, new environmental and medical standards — this is where the industry might be heading.