Opinion | Wednesday, 8th April 2020
Coronavirus: The social media influencer helping keep kids fit
How Joe Wicks is influencing motives, attitudes and behaviours linked to exercise
Originally published on Medium
By Dr Opeoluwa Aiyenitaju, Manchester Metropolitan University; Dr Wasim Ahmed, University of Newcastle; Dr Alex Fenton, University of Salford and Professor Simon Chadwick, Emlyon Business School, France.
Joe Wicks is a British fitness coach who shot to prominence on Instagram as a passionate advocate of the importance of personal health and well-being. Now with millions of social media followers and a string of cookery books to his name, he has been catapulted into the public spotlight like never before.
Following the outbreak of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) and as British schools began closing in response, Wicks started a daily P.E. workout for school children via YouTube. Daily views of his workout footage are hitting almost two million, with a similar number of people now following the account. Wicks has rapidly become a globalised phenomenon.
Typical content being generated by Wicks can be observed via his YouTube account, where he is known by the moniker of The Body Coach.
Adding to the growing number of global followers, Wicks’ Twitter account has become a focal point for him to share content and comments. The influencer is approaching 400,000 followers on this platform.
‘Influence’ is a term with an etymology that frames it as having the capacity for producing effects. On social media, these effects can be readily observed via the reach of, and engagement with, posts made by those deemed to have influence.
Influence is not based on power or prestige, but on the ability to serve as connecting communicators who inform their peers about what matters in regards to their behaviours and choices.
In this context, we are monitoring Wicks and his influence using mixed methods research. The questions underpinning our analysis are: What is the nature of the health and well-being content being generated by an influencer? How is it moving through social media networks? And what is user sentiment towards this content?
Using NodeXL software, we have undertaken an initial analysis of Twitter communications which reveals a social media network with a broadcast structure. That is, with Wicks leading the generation of content, with this content subsequently being shared and discussed by sizeable communities of other social media users.
Upon closer analysis of the network, what becomes clear is that a secondary layer of influencers and opinion leaders is proving to be instrumental in disseminating Wicks’ content. In particular, news services and celebrities appears to be elevating awareness and distribution of both his content and social media conversations about him.
Our initial analysis of sentiment indicates an overwhelmingly positive view of Wicks, with word pairs such as ‘feeling good’ and ‘smashed it’ being prominent. However, there is also evidence of negative sentiment towards Joe Wicks and of aggressive social media content being posted, some of which even threatens violence.
At this early stage of our analysis, it is clear that Joe Wicks and his workout social media content is impacting upon young people. He is influencing these youngsters (and others too) to engage in daily exercise. In turn, the content he is generating is being shared, notably by a secondary group of influencers and opinion leaders. Sentiment is generally very positive.
Our next steps will be to continue monitoring if and how the shape and structure of relevant social media networks change (using visualisations such as those above). We will also be observing key nodes in the networks, such as the role that celebrities play in disseminating and commenting upon Wicks’ content. In addition, further analysis of the sentiment towards him will be undertaken.
Ultimately, our goal is to understand how Joe Wicks has influenced motives, attitudes and behaviours linked to exercise during this challenging period when people are being affected by Coronavirus.
