The elements of health and fitness influencers’ credibility on social media
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School of Business |
Master's thesis
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Authors
Date
2021
Department
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Mcode
Degree programme
Marketing
Language
en
Pages
46+12
Series
Abstract
Nowadays, it seems that everybody is sharing their own advice on health and fitness on social media. During the short history of social media, many social media influencers have built their whole presence around these topics and several of them have started to profit from giving such advice due to selling workout programs, nutrition advice or wellness apps. At the same time, the socially accepted image of beauty and health is becoming increasingly polarized. Some studies also show that teenagers are facing incredible pressure from apps like Instagram. Therefore, who is certified to give health advice on social media and why do consumers believe these individuals? Due to increasing usage of social media, source credibility, parasocial relationships and social media influencers have been largely covered in the recent marketing research. Despite this, the literature on ways in which social media influencers in the health and fitness category are communicating their credibility. The objectives of this thesis are to understand and interpret 1) the different ways these influencers are communicating their credibility through their social media content and 2) how do members of Generation Z perceive their attempts. Instagram as the context, netnography as the primary method and semi-structured interviews as the secondary method, this study was able to find several elements of influencer credibility and fit them into the Source-Credibility model that was modified for this research. The finding of this study are manifold. The different elements of health and fitness influencers were placed in a four field under dimensions of Trustworthiness, Competence, Attractiveness, Information Value. The interviews also showed that unlike interpreted from the netnography, followers appreciate trust and competence instead of attractiveness and physical appearances. This lead to the conclusion that influencers should focus on fostering the parasocial relationships with their followers to increase trust in them. For the managerial implications, this study suggests many directions that can be used for example in planning future influencer marketing actions on the brand side, planning future personal brand and content strategies on the influencer side and lastly, developing social media tools and regulations that prevent the spread of false information on health and fitness which can ultimately lead to teenagers developing eating disorders and distorted body images.Description
Thesis advisor
Gloukhovtsev, AlexeiKeywords
social media influencers, health and fitness, source credibility, parasocial relationship, netnography