Imagine you’re an influencer. Showcasing your wonderful life (or at least, the appearance of it) on social media platforms is your bread and butter. Your feeds include lavish photo shoots, travel to enticing locales, dining at the hottest restaurants….
But in our current pandemic-stricken world, a lot of those actvities are no longer possible, and the ones that are may not be something most followers will connect with anymore. So what to do?
An interesting longform article explores how the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced influencers.
In March and April, their earnings suffered dramatic drops. For instance, one study found that sponsored posts on Instagram used to represent 35% of the average influencer’s income, but by mid-April, that was only 4%.
Still, many other industries and professions are adapting to the new normal, and the same goes for influencers and their sponsors. And it turns out that creating content from home, as well as promoting things like workouts and houseplants (there is, apparently, an entire genre of influencers known as “plantfluencer”), have become even more lucrative for many content creators.
However you feel about social media and influencers, the article paints a fascinating portrait in general of businesses trying to change and recover in a changed world.
Read on to learn more about how influencers’ roles and sources of income in the time of coronavirus.
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