Social media health influencers are a new type of opinion leaders in the era of Web 2.0. Health influencers are social media influencers who focus on health-related topics. They capitalize on social media platforms for educational, financial, or political purposes. But what do they say about health?

We studied the contents of top 10 health influencers of Sina Weibo, a Chinese microblogging site equivalent to Twitter boasting over 462 million users. Here are some findings:

• Health influencers had a clear emphasis on women’s health (OB/GYN diseases and risks related to pregnancy and childcare) and beauty and skincare (in terms of risks and benefits).
• Overall, they used low fear appeal and high efficacy messages. However, messages containing efficacy information were less likely to be liked.
• These influencers relied heavily on narrative evidence; however, there was no significant relationship between the use of either narrative or statistical evidence and the number of likes.

Zou, W., Zhang, W.J., & Tang, L. (2021). What do social media influencers say about health? A theory-driven content analysis of top ten health influencers on Sina Weibo. Journal of Health Communication. 10.1080/10810730.2020.1865486 [Read the full text here]