Social media has risen during the same time as the shift in focus on overall health as a society which raises the question: Does this correlation mean anything?
With popular hashtags on Instagram and Twitter like #cleaneating and #fitness goals boasting 35 million posts combined, it begs the questions is this trend purely a social media trend?
I would argue that Social Media has heightened this trend rather than caused it. Since the early 2000’s the shift to more concern about the food we are eating is a direct reaction from the obesity epidemic as well as increased access to information.
Although adulthood and childhood obesity is still marginally increasing, it is interesting to note that our social media entities are expressing another picture.
On it’s own however, I feel the health trend would not be what it is without social media. Whether it’s a selfie at the gym or avocado toast, social media users today are competing for likes as well as building a social brand.
Over the past 40 years, big box gym such as LA Fitness and Planet Fitness have seen a decline over boutique style gyms such as Crossfit, Orangetheory Fitness, and SoulCycle. A quote from Brandon Mentore, a Functional Medicine Practioner:“When you combine the awareness of not having any direction by engaging in a solitary fitness experience with all of the social media memes, likes and shares; personal training and group training becomes very attractive.”
Also, when it comes to sharing on social media, there is no shortage of food pictures. Ranging between the health and unhealthy, the food pictures we post often say a lot about selves. Because of the increase in interest for healthy food, posts about Sunday Meal Prep and healthy recipes are even more prevalent.
A marketing lesson for companies looking to increase engagement to their site with this social media trend is to focus their brand imaging on a healthy lifestyle using specific hashtags. Although not all segments of the population adhere to this on a personal level with the astonishing number of hashtags and photos, this trend is not going anywhere.
What do you think?
#BeautyCopter 