Social Media has become the primary medium for both communication and entertainment. When the pandemic broke and countries went into lockdown around March of last year, social platforms and other digital mediums have helped people keep diverted and refresh their minds. Since people were prompted to stay within doors, people had no choice other than to surf through their mobile phones. This had led to the staggering rise in social media consumption. According to a statistic from Smart Insights, the time people spend on mobile applications has increased by 36% since the pandemic. In this article, I’m going to show you how influencers rose to fame during the pandemic.
The Growth of Influencers During COVID’19 Outbreak:
People are primarily fond of content from influencers on social platforms. An influencer is playing an essential role in making a person stay with a social channel. This shows how much people love influencers and their content. Since the Corona outbreak, the rate at which influencers use to gain new followers has increased. People spent more time on mobile applications and explored new content. Influencers also made use of this opportunity and acted swiftly to drive new followers. They used to put more effort than usual to increase the engagement of their posts. This helped in reaping the benefit of gaining new followers. Some influencers went a step further and offered giveaways and coupons to their viewers. Some influencers used services like Trollishly to boost their video reach.
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Color Me Courtney:
Color Me Courtney is a famous fashion influencer on Instagram. Her Instagram pages used to be filled with colorful posts where she used to flaunt new collections from renowned brands. The color combination of her posts gives comfort feel to the viewers. Youngsters of ages 18-25 usually have an interest in decorating their wardrobe with new apparels. These age groups follow such fashion influencers to know the current trend and know about the latest launches.
Nike, a famous outfit brand with stores across countries, promoted its quarantine outfits through Color Me Courtney. On her Instagram handle, you can find posts in which you can see flaunting Nike’s quarantine outfits. She also promoted the quarantine outfits from other brands as well. Eventually, people started going to her Instagram page to check for new quarantine outfits. Subsequently, she witnessed a good rise in her follower base as many people began to follow her for the same purpose.
Nehal Karkera:
Nehal Karkera is a famous chef based in Mumbai, India. He used to showcase his culinary skills on his Instagram handle. During the lockdown, he came up with easy-to-do food recipes that garnered many new followers. Someone who hasn’t been to the kitchen for anything other than picking food can also easily prepare the dishes presented by him. Since there are people who had good leisure time during the lockdown and many worked from home, they tried these new dishes. His posts are usually in reels. He used to add pleasing music in the background. Such factors will amplify the quality and make people stay glued to the video. The timely move by Nehal Karkera to come up with easily and instantly preparable dishes had driven many new followers to him.
Barkha Dutt:
Barkha Dutt, a well-known journalist from India, has her own YouTube channel and Instagram handle. The independent journalist’s videos garnered massive reach during the lockdown. She brought to light many hardships undergone by people during those tough times. Her YouTube video with the title ‘He stepped out to buy vegetables for his children. He says he was thrashed by police instead’ garnered around 2.5 million views on YouTube. Thus, her videos shredded light on the hurdles people underwent due to the unexpected implementation of lockdown. Her videos also sparked debates and became the theme for the television debates. Thus, she got more attention, which resulted in her follower base’s rise on both Instagram and YouTube. Today, she is one of the most viewed independent journalists.
Britney Turner:
Britney Turner, a podcaster and Instagram influencer is also the one who gained massive reach during the pandemic. She organized the many activists and black influencers who voiced against the death of George Floyd. She tried to take the news of George Floyd’s death to as many as possible and sought justice. She played an essential role in making the black lives matter campaign reach the next level by gathering various people who voiced for this incident. The raging posts on her social media handle were shared by many people, which is reflected in the user base of her social media handle. Her name reached many black people around the world, as a result of which her follower count has increased. Today, she voices and creates awareness for many of the injustices that are happening around the world.
How Brands Took Advantage of Influencers?
Influencers have become an important marketing medium considering their follower base. Brands feel that through influencers, they could reach as many people as possible. Marketers are anticipating that the influencer marketing industry will be worth at $15 billion by 2022.
Wrapping Up:
Even when all the industries had tough times during pandemic, influencers did not lose their importance. This shows the potential of influencer marketing. The pandemic led to a rise in internet usage as people started exploring new content, tried out new mobile applications. Eventually, this has paved the way for the influencers to gain new followers. Influencers have also turned into a major relaxation for many people. People kept checking their phones to know whether their favorite influencer had come up with any new content.
On the other hand, influencers also put maximum effort into delivering the best content from their living place. They also took this time to interact with their audience by going live frequently. Many people who aspired to become influencers put their baby steps during the pandemic. They tested the waters by uploading content on social channels. Therefore, the influencer marketing industry had sustainable growth during this pandemic.
