The sudden shutdown of the world in 2020 due to the COVID-19 Pandemic catalyzed change in various aspects of life. The unwavering success and growth in popularity of social media apps such as Tik Tok can, in part, be attributed to the Pandemic and the isolation that came with it. Along with these trends came the rise of a new kind of pandemic-born influencer: the genuinfluencer.
According to Evy Lyons, VP of marketing at influencer-marketing platform Traackr., “Genuinfluencers are less interested in promoting products, and more interested in spreading ideas and truth. Compared to regular influencers, genuinfluencers make a name for themselves by providing honest advice on specific topics.”
A prime example of parties taking advantage of genuinfluencers was at the beginning of the Pandemic in the Spring of 2020. Consumer-goods corporation Procter & Gamble decided to hire Tik Tok sensation Charli D’Amelio to choreograph a dance to encourage her followers to stay home and practice quality health practices.
With the creation of her video, The “#DistanceDance” arose. D’Amelio’s Tik Tok has been viewed over 191 million times. According to PRWeek, “the campaign led to the creation of more than 3.5 million #DistanceDance videos, which have collectively been viewed more than 15.6 billion times.”
@charlidamelio Stay home & do the #distancedance. Tag me & the hashtag in your video. P&G will donate to Feeding America & Matthew 25 for first 3M videos #PGPartner
According to Sara Owen from WGSN, genuinfluencers become widely popularized in 2020:
“By 2020, something started to shift, and it was due to a confluence of reasons, with 10 years of social justice, tech overload, inequalities, burnout and increased mental health awareness,” she shared. “2020 was, all of a sudden, about information and entertainment. There was this new currency we were seeing around knowledge and information, and it almost had its own sense of cultural capital.”
In Indonesia, the government allowed influencers to take the vaccine before the general population to increase trust and promote the idea. In Finland, 1,500 influencers were titled as essential workers to help spread important COVID-19 related information.
Evident through the popularity of the genuinfluencer, audiences are craving authenticity from creators. Influencers using their platforms of good causes sits well with those engaging on social media. Mary Keane-Dawson, CEO of influencer-marketing agency TAKUMI, said it best:
“We can see that the rise of genuinfluencers is symptomatic of a shift across the industry away from purely marketing and towards political and social issues,” she observed. “Content on social media will, in time, feel less like advertising and appear more peer-to-peer driven, with an emphasis on engaging and insightful content.”