The Dicey World of Wellness Influencers
The world of wellness influencers continues to be dicey for healthy brands to navigate. The Washington Post recently published an exposé on the links between wellness influencers and the anti-vaccine movement. Combined with the congressional testimony this week by the Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen about how Facebook’s algorithms prioritize content that foments hatred and spreads misinformation, it should make any brand marketer extremely cautious about how they are utilizing digital platforms and content creators.
Much of the insight in the Post article comes from a study conducted by George Washington University’s Institute for Data, Democracy & Politics. The research showed that posts in anti-vaccine Facebook groups were often cross-linked with wellness groups. In fact, there are a growing number of social media influencers mixing anti-vaccine sentiment with more traditional health and wellness information. While Facebook and other sites can target large groups and organizations spreading misinformation, it is far harder and less common for them to remove this content from “microinfluencer” accounts—those influencers with between 10,000 and 50,000 followers.
“Many influencers still evade scrutiny. Ben Raue is a vegan fitness coach who posts to his 142,000 followers on Instagram as ‘Plant Based Ben.’ Raue used to mostly post photos of tasty-looking vegan meals, clips of his gravity-defying, shirtless outdoor workouts and before-and-after transformation diptychs of himself and his clients. That is, until this summer, when he began posting about pharmaceutical companies’ sinister motives and injustice toward the unvaccinated.”
The challenge for brand marketers is not ensuring that their own content or native advertising is trustworthy and accurate. The real challenge comes from the risk marketers take when they associate their brand with influencers or platforms that may, even unintentionally, position their brand alongside misinformation. While brands and partner agencies may do their best to vet wellness influencers and targeted advertising on digital platforms, the risks of finding their content juxtaposed against anti-vaccine sentiment or pseudoscience wellness advice is still quite high.
So, other than micromanaging third-party digital engagement and hoping for the best, what are marketers of healthy brands to do?
Well, if you know Pulse, then you know the answer already: Focus your outreach, engagement, and educational brand content on sources that can be trusted. For health-conscious consumers, those sources are their own health professionals, whether that be a dietitian, a pediatrician, a nurse, a wellness coach, or a fitness professional.
Marketers have numerous alternatives to the dicey game that is the digital influencer landscape. Why take those risks when more trusted, credible, and effective channels are available?