Can influencers in the wild survive the pandemic?

For the past decade, social media influencers have enjoyed a meteoric rise in the marketing world. But now, as the coronavirus crisis continues to sweep the globe, influencers are scrambling to consolidate their corner of the internet amid a pandemic.

Whilst they tend to be sneered upon in the mainstream media, influencing is a legitimate, and often lucrative, form of income for thousands of Australians. In this new economic era, many influencers have lost all of their paid work. So can the influencer marketing model survive?

Mamamiaspoke to three Australian influencers about how coronavirus has affected their work. And for all them, their businesses are struggling.

"I’ve always wondered whether the 'influencer industry' could last, but I never thought the travel industry was at risk," Laura McWhinnie, who runs @thisislandlife, tellsMamamia. "As a travel content creator, all my content is based around the trips I take, so to be grounded has been really hard. I’ve spent 10 years growing my blog and social channels, and now it’s on hold indefinitely which is quite unsettling."

Laura adds: "Since the travel bans came into place in March, I’ve had zero paid work.

"I’ve had quite a few brands wanting me to work for free or contra (in exchange for product). It’s difficult because I understand their position in the current economic climate, but at the same time, my business is struggling too... As much as I wish they did, free bikinis and fake tan aren’t going to pay the bills."

Fellow travel influencer Christina Macpherson, who has nearly 150,000 followers, has also lost work.

"We explained to our clients that if they had to cancel contracts because there was no more budget, then that was fine, we understood. With that being said, we have been asked a lot to work for free. As a business, we work for free when it comes to charity organisations and not-for-profits; but to work for nothing whilst a company makes profit from our work… no, we don't do that," she explained.

For fashion influencers, it’s a similar story.

"Brands definitely leveraged the whole posting for free position and most of the time, I was more than happy to support small businesses," Melbourne influencer Kristy Wu tellsMamamia. "But this was definitely taken advantage of because yes, the brands often brought up the point that they are a small business, but so am I, and I am not making money either, so it’s not a win-win."

Kristy, for one, is considering a career change.

"I was really questioning my career goals, as the lack of certainty in the industry made me consider going back to business school and going down the opposite corporate route, which in hindsight offers more stability in these times," Kristy says.

"I even started a short online course as a tester to see if I would enjoy going to grad school, but I realised that wasn’t something that I want to do."