Brands have shelved marketing plans and slashed their budgets. Influencers are staying home. No events and product seedings. Minimal social media campaigns. So is influencer marketing still relevant in the age of COVID-19? The answer is yes, if brands and influencers shift their focus to content creation.

These days, brands and agencies are no longer relying on the marketing plans they had in place. Instead, they need to do agile marketing and create relevant content on a day-to-day basis. With most people staying home and spending even more time online, this is actually the time for brands to increase their social media presence. But they should concentrate on solving consumer pain points when they create their content and messaging.

Looking for substance

“If you want to be a content creator, this is the best time to start,” said Ace Gapuz, CEO of influencer marketing company Blogapalooza Inc. “This is the best time for influencers and aspiring content creators to focus on what they’re good at. I think this time is an inflection point to determine the longevity of content creators.”

Gapuz was one of the speakers in the “Social in the Age of Social Distancing” webinar.

“We can’t deny that there are influencers who have a lot of followers because they’re pretty, they’re sexy. But now that we’re all confined to the home setting, people will follow you because of substance. Because of your story,” Gapuz said.

Meanwhile, in his presentation, Jim Guzman, the Network Head of Social Media for Dentsu Aegis Network, shared the COVID-19 online conversations among Filipinos. The D+Gility trends team conducted a social listening scan on global COVID-19 online conversations, zooming in on findings from the Philippines.The team used the social listening tool Talkwalker, with the duration from December 1, 2019 to March 23, 2020.

Out of the 280 million conversations worldwide, 3.7 million were generated within the Philippines. The top themes were confusion, political opinion, support for frontliners, coping, distractions, health and wellness, and food.

For instance, under confusion, Filipinos expressed the need for clear information. These conversations revolved around news updates, fact checking, and unclear directions from the government.

Staying relevant

Guzman stressed the need for constant social listening, for brands to stay relevant as conversations evolve.

“In the next iteration of the report that I shared, there are three emerging themes that were added in the last three to four weeks. That’s normalizing changes, triggered social opinion, and resurgence on interests.

“I think brands right now have to be mindful and to be alert on what are these changes and what will be the next normal. And you have to shift gears. Revisit your business model. How do I stay relevant? How do I engage meaningfully? I think those are the critical considerations for any business, big or small, right now. And as interests start to resurge again, find out how you can relaunch, repackage your offerings and services to be relevant in your own niche,” Guzman said.

So, thinking of going into content creation? Start now. The world needs useful and relevant content more than ever.