BFTP | Can Influencers Remain Relevant?

Can Influencers Remain Relevant?

Companies employ influencers for marketing and awareness purposes. Increasing numbers of social media users seek to become ‘influencers’ – rightly or wrongly. Influencer marketing is a prolific marketing strategy. But, is it the type of strategy that can be applied to any situation? Business as usual, sure; Pandemic, maybe; Natural disaster, not really. 

Given the pandemic, society is finding creative ways to get everyone to stay inside, socially distance; maybe it’s a smart strategy to use social influencers to urge others as people tend to listen to those they follow. Others may find this strategy obnoxious as influencers can be disconnected and are often telling others to stay inside from the comfort of their privilege, while their follower may not have such opportunity.

Some companies, organisations, or people may be using this strategy out of real concern for their audience’s well-being, or maybe they are just concerned about being perceived as un-caring and ill-prepared. 

Is using influencers appropriate in telling people to stay inside?

What do you think? 

Read “The hottest campus job is ‘COVID influencer’” to learn about the new way universities are employing the influencer marketing strategy.

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The hottest campus job is ‘COVID influencer’

Reminding other students to wear masks? Your school might pay you for it.

It’s a rough time to be in college PR.

For schools that have returned to in-person classes, every day seems to bring new headlines about COVID-19 outbreaks.

Colleges are terrified of a reputational nosedive. So some — like Temple University, the University of Missouri, and the University of Maryland — are paying or have plans to pay student influencers to encourage safety protocols on social media.

Influencers want to reach everyone

One Mizzou influencer, Caleb Poorman, reminds other students to use hand sanitizer and wear a mask on Instagram.

Other influencers are more focused on future applicants.

The popular Insta twins Brooklyn and Bailey have for years had a paid partnership with Baylor University to make the school look “cool” to high school students.

When the twins contracted the virus, they emphasized that Baylor has “taken every precaution, including mandating masks, requiring students to test negative before coming back to school, and many, many more precautions.”

But influencing for your college isn’t going to pay your tuition

At the University of Maryland, which plans to hire student influencers soon, one social post will be worth the equivalent of 15-30 minutes of work at the school’s hourly wage — meaning, probably, just a few dollars.

Other influencing salaries might be a notch higher. The University of Missouri gave an influencer marketing firm $10.3k to hire 6 students.

It’s not clear how much cash each student is getting, but it probably can’t top room-and-board charges.

Article link:

https://thehustle.co/09292020-covid-influencer/