While the number of followers – whether as a gross number or in demographic slices —  was once the main barometer by which  social media influencers were measured, in a post-COVID-19 world of scrutinized marketing budgets and heightened ROI requirements, qualities such as  a targeted talent, knowledge and expertise are likely to be increasingly sought-after.

To be sure, stricter evaluation of influencers was well underway pre-coronavirus. But it will likely accelerate in a post-pandemic world.

“Brands are going to need to demonstrate results, and influencers who sold cachet and general popularity now have to show a real ability to influence an audience,” says Gil Eyal, CEO at analytics firm HYPR Brands. “This is challenging, because it reduces the amount of relationships that influencers are a good fit for. Brands need to demonstrate a return, so there’s no room for activities that focus on plain visibility.”

Overnight Change
Overnight, the shift in influencers’ priorities and agendas has almost become a requirement. Many have switched to delivering public service announcements – U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams took to ABC’s Good Morning America last month to urge them to tell followers of the seriousness of the pandemic – and supplying informational content rather than the more typical banter. For example, when TikTok star Charli D’Amelio introduced a social distancing dance with a stay-at-home message on March 30, the video had 95,000 views in 10 minutes and 6 million within 10 hours.

So the terms of engagement are shifting. “With the majority of the world now engaged in social distancing and amidst economic uncertainty, looking to brands and influencers for recommendations on what to buy is not currently at the forefront of the average shoppers agenda,” says a report by Influencer Intelligence. “Consumers tend to invest in low-price luxuries or feel-good purchases during an economic crisis as a means for distraction” and they, along with brands, are increasingly looking for a new set of qualifiers.

The increase in more rigorous evaluations of influencers will be accompanied by technology that allows companies to attribute sales and conversations to specific social posts and online activities in manner similar to other digital channels, says Eyal, making “buying fake followers or engagement no longer effective.”

Question Remains
An overarching question is whether the influencer marketplace is looking at fundamental change, rather than a temporary phase. “The content that does best [now] is that which unites, comforts and entertains us. That will be something that influencers have to keep in mind moving forward, because many of these changes may be permanent,” says one licensing agent who handles TikTok and Instagram influencers.

“Right now, everything is cause-related,” not aimed at generating revenue, he continues. When the business switches to a more normal footing at some point in the future, it will happen gradually, “in waves, not all at once, which is something that has to be planned for.”

Those who succeed will be the ones who understand how things have change