How fitness influencers game the algorithms to pump up their engagement

Social media and misrepresentation can go hand in hand – and that’s especially the case within the loosely regulated fitness and nutrition industry.

We each have experience with personal training, but from different perspectives.

To improve his fitness regimen, Tim has sought out experienced trainers, while Ashley ran a web-based fitness and nutrition company before getting her doctorate.

She went through all of the hoops to acquire credentials – training as a bodybuilder, obtaining certifications from the National Strength and Conditioning Association and studying nutrition through the National Academy of Sports Medicine. She also used Instagram to grow her business.

And yet each of us realized that individuals with no credentials or expertise were constructing their very own brands on social media – sometimes making extra money than those that were credentialed.

It made us wonder: How is that this possible?

To explore this, we followed 488 fitness and nutrition influencers on Instagram for six months, analyzing over 50,000 posts, 8 million follower comments and 620,000 influencer replies to determine how they used words and pictures to draw and interact with followers.

In our recent article for the Academy of Management Journal, we explain how just establishing a social media presence doesn’t mean a would-be influencer can easily reach clients, because the social media platform’s algorithm determines who sees what posts, and when. And even when influencers do attract large followings, social media users shouldn’t necessarily buy what the influencers are selling.

The rise of the influencer

Social media use has greater than tripled prior to now decadeand plenty of young people now aspire to turn into successful influencers. A Morning Consult poll from 2019 found that 54% of Americans ages 13 to 38 said they’d turn into an influencer if given the possibility.

But what exactly does it mean to be an influencer?

Influencers are individuals who use social media to sell services or products – either their very own or those of one other company or brand. Successful influencers gain higher placement of their followers’ social media feeds, obtain brand endorsementsfacilitate networking opportunities and cultivate other revenue streams.

They do that by getting social media users to have interaction with their accounts – to follow their profiles, like their posts and write comments.

Although the algorithms social media platforms use to make your mind up what users see are shrouded in mystery, it’s generally understood that algorithms will boost accounts which have loads of followers and repeatedly interact with these followers.

Gaming the algorithm

Successful influencers will leverage these different degrees of user engagement to construct and grow their businesses. But they have to be strategic about which images and words they use, since each can influence different parts of the algorithm.

Images generally attract someone’s attention before text, and they’re also processed more quickly than text. So influencers must select their images correctly.

We found that images that reinforce the influencers’ competence – within the case of fitness influencers, photos and videos highlighting their physiques and talent to perform exercises, or “before and after” photos of themselves and their clients – had the biggest effect on their variety of followers.

Our data showed that for each image post signaling their competence, fitness influencers boosted their followers by almost 3%. That’s significant whenever you consider that every additional follower can lead to more revenue from sponsors and sales. According to the music licensing site LickdInstagram users with 5,000 followers can earn about US$350 per sponsored post, and influencers with 100,000 followers can earn double that.

The trick, after all, is attracting sponsors.

But amassing a number of followers isn’t the one path to making sure success on social media. Influencers also need their followers to interact with their posts. This is usually way more time-intensive for users than clicking “follow” and mindlessly scrolling. But this type of engagement can easily sway the algorithm.

Most social media users need to feel they’re constructing a communitynot only spewing their thoughts right into a digital void. So successful influencers can cultivate connection by repeatedly replying to their followers’ comments.

This could be something so simple as “Hey @instagram_girl292, I like that you simply tried our recent product. We are so excited to listen to what you concentrate on the subsequent one!”

We found that influencers who project warmth and reply to comments garner 21% more positive replies from current and recent followers.

Buyer beware

It’s essential to do not forget that influencers can project competence without actually having it – and that regular engagement with followers says little in regards to the quality of the product they’re selling.

In the sample we used for our study, fewer than 20% of the influencers reported having any credentials.

The fitness industry is very susceptible to manipulation. While brick-and-mortar gyms traditionally require their personal trainers to have advanced credentials, resembling certifications in fitness or nutrition, there may be no industry governing body ensuring that folks who call themselves trainers have the essential background and experience. Therefore, anyone can turn into a trainer and sell their services online and thru social media.

In fact, many fitness influencers doctor their imagesgiving themselves unrealistic and unattainable bodies.

Worse, they could not ever follow through on their guarantees.

For example, social media influencer Brittany Dawn was sued by 1000’s of her followers in February 2022 after they claimed she sold them fitness and meal plans she never delivered. Pitching herself as someone who could help people rebuild their relationship with food, Dawn had attracted followers and customers who had struggled with eating disorders. Responding to the criticism, Dawn, whose trial is ready to start on March 6, 2023, said“I jumped into an industry that had no handbook.”

Providing custom meal plans is outside most personal trainers’ scope of experienceunless in addition they occur to be nutritionists. But given the dearth of industry oversight, few customers knew this. Instead, Dawn, like many other social media influencers, lured followers by posting attention-grabbing photos and interacting with customers in ways in which made them feel like that they had a private relationship together with her.

That signifies that it’s as much as everyone to do their homework on what they’re buying – and never be blinded by shapely legs, an alluring smile and six-pack abs.