5 Ways In Which Lockdown Permanently Changed Influencer Content

With COVID-19 and confinement measures reaching their peak in the past quarter, and without a set date to completely end any time soon, you’ve probably noticed that the content shared on social media has seen a big shift. The truth is that living through a lockdown has fundamentally changed how we behave in the offline world and, of course, those changes have translated to social media as well. 

With influencers, it’s no different. The adjustments they have had to make in their daily lives as a result of the pandemic have deeply affected the content they produce - and therefore the content that we consume. So, let’s take a look at the new social media habits that the “new normal” has created for influencers and consumers.

1 - Aspirational Content

As we all know, social media thrives on aspirational content - and by aspirational content, we simply mean the hope or ambition to achieve something. The fact that this type of content is very present on social media hasn’t changed. What has changed as a result of lockdowns was actually what aspirational content really entails. Before, aspirational content meant beautiful travel destinations, popular and hyped shows, festivals, and events, or simply the possibility of going outside to take a nice photo. 

What happened was that during quarantines, nobody was able to post any of that, at least nothing new, so a big chunk of the “old-style” aspirational content was less frequent and much more #tbt-based. And while this content is definitely starting to appear again with lockdowns being slowly relaxed, the confinement periods have broadened the possibilities of aspirational.

Suddenly, indoor environments became really important, so beautiful spots in the house and well-decorated rooms are also being aspired by many. Skincare products, mental health & morning meditation routines and organized WFH stations are some of the examples that have now been included in people’s goals as well.

2 - “From-Home” Essentials

After the Coronavirus outbreak, digitalization turned into a must-have in many aspects, and across different areas. Brands suddenly needed to properly address the shift on purchasing behavior from offline to online, employers needed digital to sustain businesses and keep employees working from home, and influencers needed to completely adapt their content to the pandemic’s creative restraints and audiences’ expectations and needs.

Even though the pandemic will (hopefully soon) come to an end, the flexibility of being able to do everything from home isn’t going anywhere. Many of us are already considering adopting work-from-home permanently, or at least more frequently than before, and it’s no different with the other activities in our daily routines.

So, content that is related to tips and tricks on how to work, study, and workout better and more effectively from home, or even cooking recipes, DIYs, home kids entertainment, is still going to be popular on social media, and therefore among the focus of influencers, even after this situation is over.

3 - Light-hearted & Fun

As we all know, people stuck at home, feeling sad and anxious about the situation, needed something to help them relieve their stress. Enter TikTok! The short-video entertainment-focused platform saw its adoption explode through the roof during quarantines, and in great part, this increase was due to humor. 

The fun and light-hearted content shared on TikTok has really captivated influencers and their audiences, who are very excited and engage a lot with the videos. Users are even taking the content to other social platforms, which in turn are creating their own features that offer more creative possibilities for users to maximize this type of content.

4 - Real Content

Sharing more real pictures and videos instead of overly curated and “perfect” content has been a growing trend for a while now, which has been accelerated by COVID-19. With lockdowns, audiences started to expect more attainable content, as it gives them a much-needed sense of relatability and empathy, especially regarding the limitations on resources and travel access. 

The increasing popularity of real and authentic content also explains TikTok’s success and the peak in subscribers Youtube has seen across multiple channels, revealing that audiences are valuing video content much more, which is a type of content that enables influencers to share much more of themselves and their personalities, also reinforcing the idea that real and relatable content is here to stay.

5 - Challenges

Last but not least, we’ve seen that lockdowns turbo-boosted the content that is easy to recreate at home - the so-called challenges! Brands and influencers have seen their content go viral and be massively picked up by audiences, by simply sharing anything that can be easily copied by others. 

It can be anything from accessible dance routines, or Cameron Diaz’s #WineChallenge, to stay-at-home Games, as long as it’s fun and can be easily recreated.

With TikTok’s increasing growth, and with the arrival of other similar platforms, this type of content is definitely not going anywhere.

All in all, even though lockdowns won’t last forever, they brought us permanent changes in the content shared by influencers and what we ourselves share. It will be interesting to see how content will keep adapting and evolving as our culture changes and the online landscape matures.

Interested in how we can tap into these types of content in your creative strategy?