What have influencers been doing during the pandemic?

While much of the business world has felt many challenges over the last year, influencer marketing has actually grown as most industries increased spending according to Takumi. 

To understand how the continued growth occurred during a pandemic we need to look at how the influencer market changed. The following trends helped influencers and brands. 

• One of the latest trends I have seen is influencers changing their approach. With all the restrictions, many influencers create “at home” video and photoshoots. They centered their content around being home. For example, rather than big event fashion or holiday fashion, they focused on casual or comfortable clothes. If they were cooks or chefs, they focused on making family dinners or cooking at home. 
• I've read all about the uptick on TikTok. The social media platform reached the two billion level for app downloads in the second quarter of this year. This allowed more influencers, which leads to new opportunities for deals with brands. Brands have found that regular TikTok users can actually impact companies. This is because, unlike other social media platforms, regular users have been able to go viral on TikTok. 
• Our team has also seen influencers shift from sales-related messaging to current events and activism. In Takumi’s report it said that about 25% of people are more likely to get news form influencers than actual news outlets. This has pushed government entities to use influencers and has also allowed influencers to push their own social agendas, such as battling COVID-19. This has led to some questioning the influencers reason for backing various social causes as seen in The Guardian. 

While the last year has been tumultuous to say the list, it appears to have been quite successful for influencers.