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Why influencers are best placed to promote COVID-19 safety

Why influencers are best placed to promote COVID-19 safety

This is a guest post written by Aaron Brooks. Brooks is the co-founder of influencer marketing platform, Vamp.

With 44 per cent of internet users spending longer on social media because of the coronavirus, it’s more important than ever that these platforms contain helpful advice, approved by experts.

With their wide audiences and influential positions, a group well-placed to spread accurate information and advice during this pandemic is influencers.

One of the ways they have been helping is by teaming up with the World Health Organisation. In a pro bono campaign through influencer platform, Vamp, influencers around the world have swapped shots of far-flung destinations and their #outfitoftheday, for videos of themselves washing their hands.

Correct hand-washing has become one of the key pieces of advice from WHO, so the #SafeHands campaign is helping to spread this message. Following their step-by-step guide, influencers are emphasising how important these simple practices are to keep themselves and others safe.

Working together to stay apart

As global governments have been stressing the importance of social distancing and self-isolation, the #stayhome hashtag has clocked up over 7m uses on Instagram. Its a team effort.

We all need to stay home to keep ourselves and each other safe.
SaltyLuxe

The platform has even created a sticker and Story highlight with the same name. Influencers have been using their platforms to show their compliance with this and encourage their followers to do the same.

“Self-isolating will, of course, be hard, but being sick or making others sick would be harder,” said Saltyluxe, a travel influencer who cut her overseas trip short to head back home to Australia. She is currently in quarantine and advised her followers in the same position.

“Its a team effort. We all need to stay home to keep ourselves and each other safe”.

Teegly is another creator in the middle for her 14-day self-quarantine. She has been sharing tips on how to stay connected with friends and feel less isolated through group video chats.

Meanwhile, Lovechloejane has created a Story Highlight, for her followers titled ‘Isolation’, where she provides daily ideas to beat boredom. From writing online reviews for small businesses to cleaning out parts of the house or painting, even if you’re terrible at it.

Others, like Dubai-based iddavanmunster have been devising creative challenges, like her #LockDownPhotoChallange2020, highlighting how the “slow life” is giving us an opportunity to have “time, space and energy for the things that matter most to us in life”.

Image: @iddavanmunster/Instagram

Spikes in Instagram engagement

As we self isolate, much has been written about the impact on small businesses, but digital content creators’ income has also been affected by the pandemic. Those that still have collaborations to post are balancing fulfilling obligations with sensitivity around the situation.

“It feels wrong to be posting ads and I know people will have things to say about it, but I also can’t afford to stop working,” said Livblankson.

“Especially with everything being canceled or put on hold for the foreseeable future. The ads I am posting had already been agreed upon”.

Lifestyle influencer Lawstore has also continued to post sponsored content and says she’s seen a spike in engagement over the past few weeks, as more people have practised social distancing.

“The number of people viewing my Stories daily has almost doubled and there is an increase in likes on posts that are particularly relevant to COVID-19 circumstances,” she said.

“I'm so thankful to have this daily interaction to keep me sane. It's the DMs, stories, posts, captions and comments that keep me going. I think it's critical for us to leverage the internet and social media. It's basically all we've got in these isolated times.”

PocketGamer.biz regularly posts content from a variety of guest writers across the games industry. These encompass a wide range of topics and people from different backgrounds and diversities, sharing their opinion on the hottest trending topics, undiscovered gems and what the future of the business holds.