Pérez-Ordóñez, Cristina y Castro-Martínez, A.
Revista de Comunicación y Salud, 2023, No.13, 23-38.
Editado por Cátedra de Comunicación y Salud
ISSN: 2173-1675
Enviado 02/06/2022
Aprobado 04/07/2022
Publicado 02/01/2023
CREADORES DE CONTENIDO ESPECIALIZADO EN SALUD EN REDES SOCIALES. LOS MICRO INFLUENCERS EN INSTAGRAM
Health Social Media Creators. Micro influencers on Instagram
Cristina Pérez-Ordóñez[1]: Universidad de Málaga. España.
Andrea Castro-Martínez: Universidad de Málaga. España.
Cómo citar el artículo:
Pérez-Ordóñez, Cristina y Castro-Martínez, A. (2023). Creadores de contenido especializado en salud en redes sociales. Los micro influencers en Instagram. Revista de Comunicación y Salud, 13, 23-38. https://doi.org/10.35669/rcys.2023.13.e311
Resumen
Tradicionalmente los programas de salud se enmarcaban en las parrillas de los medios generalistas, especialmente en la televisión, donde no era difícil encontrar expertos de referencia que se convertían en caras conocidas para el gran público. Sin embargo, la llegada de las nuevas tecnologías y su posterior democratización ha hecho que el online se haya convertido para gran parte de la población en un canal prioritario para acceder tanto a la información como al ocio. Por ello son muchos los expertos de diversos campos que han optado por emplear una estrategia digital enfocada a la divulgación para conseguir que sus mensajes alcancen a los receptores de manera más efectiva. Así, los comunicadores sobre salud han encontrado en los blogs y en las redes sociales una vía para dar difusión a sus mensajes y acercar la ciencia a la ciudadanía. Este fenómeno se ha visto incrementado exponencialmente con la llegada en 2020 de la crisis de la covid-19, ya que ante la incertidumbre provocada por la emergencia sanitaria millones de usuarios acudieron a las plataformas sociales para encontrar respuestas a sus dudas y preocupaciones.
Este trabajo se centra en el uso que los creadores de contenidos sobre salud hacen de Instagram para convertirse en líderes de opinión y pone el foco en el análisis del fenómeno de los micro influencers de la comunicación en salud en España. Para ello se estudian 5 cuentas de usuarios con comunidades de menos de 100.000 seguidores a través del análisis de contenido de sus publicaciones. Se identifican las principales temáticas que abordan y se determinan los recursos expresivos y discursivos que emplean.
Los resultados muestran que el uso del vídeo y el aprovechamiento de los recursos visuales es una constante en la producción de los líderes de opinión estudiados. Todos ellos emplean un lenguaje cercano y accesible que huye de tecnicismos innecesarios y que aboga por hacer sus planteamientos comprensibles para el público generalista. Las conclusiones indican que un uso adecuado de estrategias de creación de contenidos de infoentretenimiento que se basen en los recursos visuales y en las herramientas que Instagram ofrece han convertido a estos usuarios en influencers relevantes. Además, la interacción con los usuarios resulta clave para aportar contenidos de valor que conviertan a los expertos en relevantes para su red de contactos.
Palabras clave:
Comunicación, Influencers, Redes Sociales, Salud, Divulgación.
Abstract
Traditionally, health programmes were framed in the general media, especially on television, where it was not difficult to find leading experts who became familiar faces to the general public. However, the arrival of new technologies and their subsequent democratisation has meant that for a large part of the population, online has become a priority channel for accessing both information and leisure. For this reason, many experts in different fields have opted to use a digital strategy focused on dissemination to ensure that their messages reach the recipients more effectively. Thus, health communicators have found in blogs and social networks a way to disseminate their messages and bring science closer to the public. This phenomenon has increased exponentially with the arrival of the covid-19 crisis in 2020, as, faced with the uncertainty caused by the health emergency, millions of users turned to social platforms to find answers to their doubts and concerns.
This study focuses on the use that creators of health content make of Instagram to become opinion leaders and focuses on the analysis of the phenomenon of micro-influencers of health communication in Spain. To this end, 5 user accounts with communities of less than 100,000 followers are studied by analysing the content of their publications. The main topics they address are identified and the expressive and discursive resources they use are determined.
The results show that the use of video and the use of visual resources is a constant in the production of the opinion leaders studied. All of them use an accessible and accessible language that avoids unnecessary technicalities and that advocates making their proposals comprehensible to the general public. The conclusions indicate that an appropriate use of infotainment content creation strategies based on the visual resources and tools offered by Instagram have turned these users into relevant influencers. In addition, interaction with users is key to providing valuable content that makes experts relevant to their network of contacts.
Keywords:
Communication, Influencers, Social Networks, Health, Dissemination
1. INTRODUCTION
Communicative spaces dealing with health-related topics have had a constant presence in the media for decades, both in news and fiction formats (Castro-Martínez and Díaz-Morilla, 2019). Likewise, it was common for the leading experts of each period to have spaces on television programmes and in sections of magazines and the written press through which they embodied messages that reached the general public in a simple and entertaining way. However, in recent years, with the rise of online platforms and social media communities, part of this conversation has shifted to the digital sphere, as it has become a highly relevant channel for a large segment of users.
This paradigm shift has led to the emergence of new communication formulas that deploy their resources on different platforms and media, adapting to the limitations of each tool and the demands of their audiences. This paper explores the practices carried out on Instagram by health-related content creators with communities of less than 100,000 followers.
The expansion of the traditional public sphere that occurred with the incorporation of the digital scenario has led to an increase in citizen participation that was first conveyed through the blogosphere and in recent years has led to the massive use of social platforms and networks (Masip et al., 2019).
This is why experts from different fields have opted to design a digital strategy focused on dissemination that facilitates the amplification of their content (Castillo-Ramírez and Alberich-Pascual, 2017). In this way, they are able to reach their audiences in a more effective and memorable way. This is the case of health communicators, who have found in blogs and social networks a way to disseminate their messages and bring science closer to the public. This phenomenon, which had already occurred in other health crises (Guzmán-do Nascimento, 2018), has increased exponentially with the arrival in 2020 of the COVID-19 crisis, as, faced with the uncertainty caused by the health emergency, millions of users turned to social platforms to find answers to their doubts and concerns.
The impact of the COVID-19 crisis has been such that it has forced the world's population to change their habits and lifestyles (Di Renzo et al., 2020), especially following the World Health Organisation's recommendation that citizens remain at home (Kumar and Dwivedi, 2020) so that by mid-April 2020 almost half of the world's population was quarantined (Sandford, 2020).
Among the multiple consequences of social isolation (Brooks et al., 2020; Zheng et al., 2020) is the loss of relationships, which led to an increase in digital connectedness. Thus, digital channels became a major avenue not only for leisure, but also for relating to others and accessing information (Sheth, 2020; Castro-Martínez et al., 2020). A phenomenon of digital hyperconnectedness (Arana et al., 2020) took place and continued in the months following the strict confinement decrees, as social relations were diminished and those infected were advised to isolate themselves. Consequently, the use of social media (Kantar, 2020), which emerged as a channel for users to actively seek information, increased considerably (Lu & Jin, 2020). However, the proliferation of fake news, unverified or unreliable information in the digital scenario (Alonso, 2020; Victoria-Mas, 2020; Salaverría et al., 2020) facilitated a context of infodemics (Allahverdipour, 2020) in which it was not easy to distinguish verified information from hoaxes.
Nevertheless, social networks have played a key role during the pandemic both to disseminate relevant messages (López-Rico et al., 2020) and to facilitate participation and a sense of community and social support (Castro-Martínez et al., 2021). In this sense, although influencers are traditionally thought of as individuals capable of bringing together huge communities of users, several studies have highlighted the relevance of micro-influencers (Park et al., 2021). This is because, although they accumulate a smaller number of followers, they usually have a significant engagement (Kay et al., 2020).
2. OBJECTIVES
The area of study of this research is limited to the communicative practices in social networks focused on health issues. Specifically, it focuses on the work carried out on Instagram by content creators with small communities, the so-called micro-influencers. Thus, the general objective (GO) is to analyse the phenomenon of micro-influencers of health communication in Spain who use the Instagram platform. The secondary objectives are as follows:
- SO1: describe the practices they develop to become leaders in their communities.
- SO2: to determine the themes they address in their messages.
- SO3: identify the expressive resources through which their publications are conveyed.
3. METHODOLOGY
This work is an exploratory research project that uses a mixed approach to offer a general perspective of the phenomenon it seeks to understand. For this approach to practices on Instagram, we have used a sample of five highly relevant accounts that are characterised by their markedly informative nature - regardless of whether or not they may be linked to traditional media - and which bring together communities of more than 35,000 followers but which do not exceed 100,000 users as of 20 March 2022. These profiles are:
Table 1. Sample
|
User |
Account |
Followers |
|
Alfredo Corell |
@alfredo_corell |
90.000 |
|
Diario de una científica |
@diariodeunacientifica |
42.000 |
|
El blog de Pills |
@elblogdepills |
45.800 |
|
Ciencia con Laura |
@cienciaconlaura |
38.000 |
|
PerdiDUE |
@perdidue |
60.000 |
Own: Own elaboration.
The tools used to obtain data were documentary review, used both to determine the state of the question and to identify the categories of analysis and the relevant variables; and content analysis of the publications of the accounts that make up the sample, using a data dump sheet (Table 2) based on the previous work of Pérez-Ordóñez et al. (2021).
The period of analysis of the accounts has been limited to the month of December 2021, as these were dates in which events of interest occurred - the rise of new variants of the virus, holidays and travel, the proximity of the Christmas period and family gatherings, massive use of antigen tests, etc. - in a context in which the pandemic had already had a long history.
Table 2. Publications analysis sheet
|
Influencer |
|
|
Date |
|
|
Type of publication |
Post/video post/Reel/Carousel |
|
Topic |
|
|
Reactions |
Views/Likes/Comments |
|
Reply |
|
|
Type of image |
Video/Music video/Photography/Illustration/Infographics |
|
Image description |
|
|
Visual resource highlights from the publication |
|
|
Comments |
|
Source: Own elaboration based on Pérez-Ordóñez et al. (2021).
4. DEVELOPMENT OF THE RESEARCH
The research, as explained above, focused on the analysis of influencers' publications during the month of December 2021, finding similarities and differences between them.
4.1. Alfredo Corell's health information (@alfredocorell)
Alfredo Corell (see Figure 1) is an immunologist and Professor of Immunology at the University of Valladolid, where he is also Vice Rector for Teaching Innovation and Digital Transformation and joined Instagram in April 2012.
Figure 1. Profile of Alfredo Corell
Source: Instagram.
He has more than 90,000 followers and his popularity has grown as the pandemic has developed, as he has become a regular expert and commentator in the conventional media, especially on television. It was precisely on the small screen that he began to spread the word in a very special way, customising different household utensils to show how the virus, the immune system, defences, etc. work, and incorporating the images and symbols of popular culture icons such as Star Wars and Captain America into his explanations of immunology and even into his own personal image. These same symbols and his appearances on television programmes have been used to talk about health through his Instagram profile, where there are many posts related precisely to the health crisis. Thus, during the period analysed, Corell shared six posts, five of which were related to the pandemic (83.3%), while only one echoed the criticism that Corell himself suffered from haters and Instagram's censorship of the influencer (16.7%). In all of them, Corell makes use of video, either in video post or reel format (depending on the length), but in no case does he use still images.
Analysing the response from followers, Corell's posts generate a good number of reactions, with views standing out among the metrics analysed. Thus, the most viewed post was that of 14 December 2021, related to the vaccination of minors against Covid, with almost 184,500 views. 500 views, and was also the one with the most likes, with 9022; but, curiously, it was not the one that generated the most comments among the community (752), being surpassed by the video published on 15 December denying false information about the speech by scientist Robert Malone -also related to vaccination against Covid-19-, which generated 890 comments, being the second video that generated the most views (80199) and likes (4345). The video post that provoked the fewest reactions among the professor's community was the one published on 15 December, in which he analysed the immunity generated against Covid-19 (natural or due to the effects of vaccines), with 26,751 views, 2,497 likes and 97 comments. For his part, Corell usually interacts with his community through the comments, responding in 66.7% of the publications, both responding to the criticisms of some haters and solving doubts generated by the community. Similarly, he usually uses text in the post (83.3% of publications), describing or presenting what is seen in the image and using simple, colloquial language.
All of Alfredo Corell's publications studied are videos, although not very rich in visual resources: 66.7% of the videos are still images of Corell in front of the camera, explaining or analysing the proposed topic, in vertical format and without any other visual artifice -selfie-style-; while 33.3% are extracts from the scientist's appearances on a conventional television channel, with all the technical resources of these media. Finally, although the number of post publications is not very numerous, the stories are, many of which can continue to be viewed through the highlights and which are organised by theme but which, as with the videos in the posts, lack visual resources apart from the use of the selfie-style camera.
4.2. Health information by Lucía Almagro (@diariodeunacientífica)
Lucía Almagro, known as @diariodeunacientifica, is a Spanish biotech scientist and populariser who is also an entrepreneur. Lucía's current account dates from 11 December 2021, although her activity on Instagram goes back much further, but after a problem with the network's algorithm - she was labelled as a hater and spreader of fake news - she was forced to open a new profile in order to continue her work as a communicator and entrepreneur. On her website -www.diariodeunacientifica.com- Almagro herself explains how she became a communicator, as a result of her career as a researcher:
During all this time, I started a science outreach project on my Instagram @diariodeunacientifica where I showed how science is done, showing in detail the experiments and bringing science closer to people.
In 2020 the pandemic arrived, and with it came the need to communicate science around this issue due to the great misinformation and concern of the population. From that moment on I knew that science communication was my passion, and I decided to undertake this project professionally after a tough decision to abandon my thesis (Almagro, n.d.).
Despite having had to open another profile, as of 20 March 2022, @diariodeunacientifica had a community of more than 42,000 followers, had published 55 posts and numerous stories, one of the formats most used by the populariser on Instagram. During the period analysed, Almagro had made 22 posts, of which 59.1% were carousels of text and illustration images, 27.3% were video reels, 9.1% were single-image posts and 4.5% were video posts. In this regard, it should be noted that Lucía Almagro has developed a visual identity for all her publications -especially in the still images, but also in many of her videos-, which brings unity and coherence to the profile (see Figure 2).
Figure 2. Publications by @diariodeunacientifica
Source: Instagram.
As already mentioned, the first of the publications are from 11 December 2021, where Lucía Almagro presents her new profile. During the first two days on @diariodeunacientifica, half of the contributions were published, many of them coming from her previous Instagram, with activity normalising as of 13 December.
In terms of the themes of the publications, those dedicated to the Covid-19 pandemic - vaccines, test interpretation, contagions, etc. - stand out, with 40.1% of the posts. -, with 40.1% of the posts, while the rest of the contributions are dedicated to other diseases (18.2%) and science-related experiments or curiosities, such as sea viruses, a bacterial experiment or the explanation of what is inside a popular rhinitis medicine, among others.
Among her seven video posts, whether Reel or regular video post, the one dedicated to the functioning of the immune system was the most viewed, with 6,6013 views and published on 12 December; while her video on a bacterial experiment was the least viewed (2,751 views). In the Like reactions, the post on vaccine efficacy received the most likes, with 4888 likes (20 December 2021), followed by the post explaining how and when to perform an antigen test to get the best results, taking into account the viral load, with 4390 likes (11 December 2021), and the reel in which the influencer reflected on the role of the media - conventional and digital, including social networks - and various personalities during the pandemic, with 4104 likes. It is a piece produced as a result of the controversy caused by the statements made by the comedian and presenter Paz Padilla on vaccines. For its part, the least accepted according to this metric is the one published on 31 December 2021, where Almagro thanks her followers for their support during 2021 and congratulates them on the new year, with only 727 likes, being also one of those that attracted the fewest comments, with only 13 contributions from followers. The aforementioned post on the Paz Padilla controversy was the most commented, with 283 likes, followed by the one clarifying some data on the Covid-19 vaccines, with 216 comments. In this regard, it should be noted that both publications were composed solely of still images (carousel) and in none of the metrics analysed -except for visualisations- did the video format prevail over the still image format. Finally, Almagro usually replies to her followers' comments, mainly by answering their questions and responding to some criticisms.
During the period analysed, Lucía Almagro always accompanied her images with text in the post, normally a presentation of the image or images or an explanation of them. Likewise, the language used by the biotechnologist was very colloquial and simple, reinforcing her vision of accessible science (Almagro, n.d.), with which she presents herself in her bio.
Finally, when talking about the visual resources of @diariodeunacientifica, it is necessary to talk about the coherence of its publications, through the use of its own visual identity, which coincides with that of the products it sells, within its business activity. Thus, it has a logo that appears in all its publications, and three corporate colours - white, blue and pink - which are used in each of the contributions. Likewise, it always uses the same typographies in its illustrations and infographics, using one for the headlines of the slides and another for the common text. These resources, in addition to the use of the same icons every time, provide coherence and unity, as well as helping to build its corporate image. Some of these visual resources, such as the use of the same corporate colours and colours, are also used in the videos produced by Almagro herself, which are shared from TikTok and in which there are plenty of still shots, selfie-style shots, as well as extracts from other videos. Almagro also includes text in her videos to help explain and better understand the image itself.
4.3. Health information by Virtudes Virtu Roig (@elblogdepills)
Virtudes Roig Virtu is a pharmacist, optician and owner of a pharmacy in Valencia, and on Instagram she is @elblogdepills. On her profile, Virtu gives her point of view on what the community pharmacy should be, as she attests in her presentation: The pharmacy is a good place to listen to the patient. It began its journey on this social network on 15 September 2015 and in March 2022 it had 45,800 followers. As with Almagro's profile, Roig's profile shows great care for aesthetics and coherence, creating a recognisable visual identity, both in the use of the same type of slides, symbols and graphics, typography and colours; and this is demonstrated both in the publications of posts and in the highlights of stories for which icons have been used to recognise the themes by which they have been organised (see Figure 3).
Figure 3. Profile of @elblogdepills
Source: Instagram.
Starting with the activity during the selected period, Roig published 17 posts during the entire month of December, that is, 54.8% of the days of the month, and all of them were still images, with the exception of one video, published on 5 December - a promotional video for the Ronald McDonald's Foundation. Thus, 41.2% of the posts were image carousels (illustrations or infographics), 52.9% were single images (illustrations, infographics or photographs) and only 5.9% were video reels.
With reference to the themes, @elblogdepills is the profile with the greatest variety of those analysed, although posts related to the pandemic -new variant, antigen tests or vaccines- are the most numerous, with 35.3%; while 17.6% were thankful for the support received by the pharmaceutical company from followers and family during the year -published on 23, 25 and 31 December- and 11.7% were dedicated to the use of certain medicines. Of all of them, the post dedicated to the Timing of immunised people who are infected by Omicron (29 December 2021) was the most liked by followers, with 2069 likes; followed by the one dedicated to Pharmacist's Day, with 1864 (8 December 2021), and the one showing how to preserve an antigen test, with 1585 (6 December). Interestingly, the only video, the one from the Ronald McDonald's Foundation, was the least liked, with 264 likes. In terms of the number of comments, the New Year's greetings and thanks to followers on 31 December stood out, with 135 comments, followed by the Christmas greetings on 23 December, with 104, and the least commented video published on 20 December, about red flags on flu and colds, with only 8 comments. In this regard, it should be noted that Roig always replies to the comments, thanking them for their participation or replying or resolving the doubts raised. Likewise, Virtu always accompanies her posts with informative and explanatory text about the images or the image that accompanies them, always in a simple and friendly language. Among the types of images, the use of infographics (52.9% of cases) and illustrations with text (35.3%) clearly stand out for their slides.
With regard to the visual resources used in this profile, the coherence in the approach of the publications, through a corporate style, stands out. Thus, Roig always uses the same style of graphics and icons, the same typography (uppercase for headlines and highlights and lowercase for the rest of the data), colours and a simple, uncontrived style. It is striking that the vast majority of its posts contain an image with graphics or illustrations in the background and a white square in which the headline appears in capital letters, together with the pharmaceutical company's signature. In this way, Virtudes Roig tries to provide simple, useful and easy-to-understand information on different topics that she knows may generate doubts or need some kind of clarification. Nor does she forget to give a more personal and human touch, replying to all the comments and even sharing personal images of herself and her family.
4.4. Laura Taina's health information (@cienciaconlaura)
Laura Taina González is a pharmacist and researcher in Nanomedicine, an area in which she is working on her doctoral thesis. She introduces herself as a scientist and with the phrase Science for everyone, highlighting the informative nature of the account, whose date of origin is not public, although the date of the first publication is, which was made on 18 January 2018. In these four years, Laura has managed to generate a community of 38,000 followers, being the profile with the fewest followers of those we have analysed, and has published 153 posts, as well as numerous stories. She also has a blog, the link to which can be found in the profile bio, and a corporate visual identity, consisting of a logo and corporate posts (slides created to convey visual coherence).
During the selected period, Laura only published three slide carousel posts, on 12, 19 and 23 December 2021, i.e. she only shared content on 9.6% of the days. Of these, two (66.7%) were related to the pandemic - Omicron variant and vaccine effectiveness - while one (33.3%) was dedicated to the use of isotonic drinks in the face of dehydration caused by vomiting and diarrhoea. These carousel publications consist of three or four slides with images and text explaining the topic in question. In addition, Laura accompanies all the publications with a text of publication in the post, using a very simple and friendly language.
In terms of the reactions generated, the post that received the most likes was the one about the omicron variant - the data known at that time - published on 19 December 2021, which obtained 2875 likes; while the post published on 12 December - which dealt with the use of isotonic drinks for the treatment of dehydration caused by diarrhoea and vomiting - was the second in number of likes (2610) and the post published on 23 December - effectiveness of vaccines - was the third with 1723 likes. However, if we look at the metric of comments, the isotonic drinks post, with 85, was the one with the most comments, followed far behind by the post on Omicron (48) and the one on vaccines (41). It should also be noted that Laura answers many of her followers' questions.
The resources used by Laura in her posts are text and illustrations, used in each of her slide carousels, starting with an image in which the topic is presented textually, accompanied by an illustration (66.7%), her logo (100% of the posts), bibliography (66.7%) and a phrase by Marie Curie in English (100%). The rest of the slides are texts with some illustrative drawings and a last slide asking for help to share the publication (see Figure 4).
Figure 4. Slides that make up a publication in Carousel by Laura Taina
Source: Instagram @cienciaconlaura.
Finally, Laura also publishes numerous stories, many of which are organised in the highlights by theme and feature a personalised icon for each one of them. In this way, Taina once again demonstrates her interest in giving visual coherence to everything she presents on her Instagram profile.
4.5. Health information by Javier Perdiguero (@perdidue)
The last of the micro-influencers studied was that of the nurse Javier Perdiguero, @perdidue, a public health professional, currently in the ICU. This profile was created on 25 January 2017 and his bio reflects the tone of the account, humour: I use sarcasm and irony (Perdiguero, n.d.); but he is also a teacher in the master's degree courses he presents in the profile. In March 2022, he had more than 60,000 followers.
In the research period, the nurse published six posts, of which 66.7% were videos (33.3% reels and 33.4% video posts) and 33.3% were illustrations (carousel, 16.7%, and single image, 16.6%). Perdiguera's profile, in terms of topics, focuses mainly on the situation of nursing and its professionals, either through humour videos describing some common practice at work (33.3%) or denouncing some aggression suffered by nurses, such as that suffered by the professionals who were infected with coronavirus after a Christmas celebration in Malaga or verbal aggressions by citizens in health centres and hospitals (50%). The remaining 16.7% was devoted to publicity for a course in which Perdiguera participated as a teacher.
With regard to the metrics considered, the publication of 23 December, which showed a video in which health professionals were verbally assaulted, was the one that generated the greatest reaction, with 880252 views, 7366 likes and 650 comments, of which only one was a response from @Perdidue. A humorous video reel about the profession, from 2 December 2021, was the second most viewed, while that of 8 December, in which Perdiguera expressed his opinion on the criticism of professionals for the outbreak in Malaga, was the second most liked, with 6604, in comments, with 226. For its part, the post dedicated to the course taught by the nurse, from 27 December, was the one with the fewest likes, with 651, and a humorous reel from 13 December was the one that generated the fewest comments (18). The nurse, moreover, does not usually reply to comments, with the exception of a couple of doubts from a follower, and always uses text in the post to present the image, using very colloquial language.
As for visual resources, Perdiguera uses videos from third parties to make his own montages - generally with images from the media - or to disseminate them as they are, and in them, the use of text within the video itself to explain some aspect of it stands out. And this practice of using other people's material is also used in the publications of still images, which are also accompanied by text, but without any visual identity. When he makes his own videos, he uses the selfie shot, speaking directly to the camera, as he does in the stories, which are very numerous and many of them appear grouped into themes in the profile highlights (see Figure 5).
Figure 5. Bio and some highlights from @perdidue's profile
Source: Instagram.
5. CONCLUSIONS
This work achieves its objectives by offering an approach to the phenomenon of micro-influencers of health communication in Spain on Instagram. Their profile corresponds to micro-influencers who manage to build not very large but loyal communities, in which interaction with other members of the network and the contribution of valuable content make these accounts recognised experts on the platform.
The practices they develop to become leaders of their communities have also been described, their main themes have been determined and the expressive resources through which their publications are conveyed have been identified. The characteristic elements of the formats analysed can be summarised as follows:
- Focus on the general public.
- Constant use of selfie-style video in stories.
- Differences in the types of images used, with the most informative and Instagram-focused profiles using still images in a corporate style -the three female profiles: @elblogdepills, @cienciaconlaura and @diariodeunacientifica- and the use of video for more media profiles -the two male profiles: @alfredocorell and @perdidue-.
The use of these resources through infotainment content creation strategies has enabled the accounts analysed to become relevant users on the platform. In terms of topics, those related to the pandemic stand out above all others, be it the appearance of Omicron, mass infection, antigen tests and vaccines. It is precisely these that are the most controversial, being the most commented on in all the profiles that have dealt with them.
The limitations of this work are those inherent to an exploratory study that is constantly evolving, as it deals with a current and changing phenomenon. Nevertheless, it is of great interest both for health professionals and for disseminators and academics, who usually focus their efforts on media with a broader tradition. This research aims to contribute to the knowledge of the phenomenon of micro-influencers from the perspective of health communication, although it is an area of study in which future lines of research can be explored, as well as comparisons of specialised and international practices.
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AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS, FUNDING AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
AUTHORS
Cristina Pérez-Ordóñez
Lecturer and researcher at the University of Malaga, since 2016. Previously, she developed her professional career in different local, regional and national media. Subsequently, she worked as head of communication and marketing in different companies and institutions, linked to the field of health and social innovation. Independent trainer and consultant, she has worked for different institutions, both public and private, in the field of communication, marketing, advertising, online marketing and social innovation. With a degree in Journalism and a Master in Strategic Management and Innovation in Communication, her current lines of research focus on the music industry, cultural and creative industries, visual culture and educational innovation.
Orcid ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9532-0087
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.es/citations?user=VXDNus4AAAAJ&hl=es
Andrea Castro-Martínez
PhD in Public Relations and Advertising from the University of Malaga, Seville, Cadiz and Huelva with International Mention. Lecturer and researcher at the University of Malaga since 2016. For eight years she was deputy director of the Communication and Design degrees at EADE, headquarters of the University of Wales in Malaga, where she also taught the degrees and the MBA. She has a degree in Audiovisual Communication and in Advertising and PR from the UMA, and has studied several experts and an MBA. She has worked in different media and has been a teacher and communication consultant. Author of more than thirty publications, her lines of research are public relations, strategic communication, internal communication, new forms of advertising and communication with a gender perspective.
Orcid ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2775-625X
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Zj4rXMMAAAAJ&hl=es
ResearchID: AAH-4909-2020
Revista de Comunicación y Salud, 2023, Vol. 13.