Govt paying social media stars thousands to promote health
TAXPAYERS have forked out more than half a million dollars in the past 18 months as the federal government hires social media influencers to post photos promoting women’s health.
NSW
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SOCIAL media stars some better known for posing in bikinis and one pushing extreme fasting diets, are being paid thousands of dollars by the federal government to promote women’s health.
An investigation by The Daily Telegraph has revealed the Health Department has splashed out more than $600,000 on hundreds of so-called “influencers” in the past 18 months as part of a campaign to encourage women to exercise.
They have been paid to post fitness photos on their Instagram accounts, with some understood to get as much as $3000 a post.
Those hired include an influencer sponsored by booze companies, one who promotes extreme dieting and another who had to apologise in 2017 for racist tweets.
And experts claim many social media stars have no real impact on their followers, meaning money spent by government is wasted.
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The Telegraph’s investigation last night prompted Health Minister Greg Hunt to launch an urgent review of the funding program.
Data shows since 2016 to June this year Health has spent $826,157 hiring influencers to make paid social media posts.
The bulk of the money was allocated under the “Girls make your move” campaign, which encourages women to exercise.
In the first stage of the campaign in 2016, Health spent $100,000 hiring 27 influencers to make 33 posts. In the six months from January this year another $237,057 was spent.
A report by data analysis company Lumio found that a majority of influencers hired by Health aren’t “valuable” from an advertising perspective because most of their followers are tuned out.
It comes as there has been increasing scrutiny on social media “stars” who charge brands for sponsored posts, with major companies dumping Instagrammers because of concerns about their influence.
Some of those hired by the Health Department have built followings with accounts dominated by swimwear shots.
But many ranked low on Lumio’s scorecard, which analyses how often users comment and like an Instagrammer’s posts and eliminates followers who are considered “ghost accounts”.
One of those hired was Big Brother reject Lina Grant. While Grant has 15,100 followers, Lumio found just 4654 of them were valuable. The company rated her 17/100 in influence.
Grant also is an ambassador for booze brand Jacob’s Creek prosecco Spritz. She regularly posts photos of bottles of champagne and buckets of beer.
Another influencer hired was Sydney-based influencer Lily May Mac. While Mac was one of the few ones described as “genuinely valuable” by Lumio, she has previously come under fire for making racist tweets.
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In 2013 Mac posted “Do you ever dislike someone so much you hate their entire race?” Mac said she regretted the tweets: “I want to make it clear that I have separated that old self a long time ago to a better me,” she said. She said she thought she was now a “great role model”.
Influencer Chloe Ting, who has 276,000 Instagram followers, was hired to make a post for Health in 2016.
Ting’s videos include “how to lose weight fast”, “how to grow a bigger butt” and multiple videos about intermittent fasting.
In response to questions, Ting defended her rhetoric on weight loss.
She said in her videos she talked about “how it actually takes time to lose weight in a healthy manner through cutting sugar, cutting processed food and eating whole foods”.
Mr Hunt’s office said the Minister had been disturbed that some of the influencers hired had also posted content promoting dramatic weight loss or made racist statements.
“The Minister does not endorse these posts” his spokesman said.
“Minister Hunt has launched an immediate review of the use of these influencers. The agency responsible no longer has the government advertising contract.”
Lumio, which provides advice to brands such as David Jones and Audi, analysed a sample of 19 of the influencers used by Health. It found just three of the group had enough people interested in their posts to be valuable to an advertiser.
Lumio co-founder Dan Anisse said the government campaign would have only reached about 40 per cent of the followers Health paid to access.
“This is taxpayer money so it should be used more wisely,” Mr Anisse told the Telegraph.
He said more work also should have been done to ensure influencers were positive role models, particularly given the campaign was targeting young girls.
A Health Department spokeswoman said the use of influencers was not “undertaken in isolation” and was part of “a broader communication strategy using multiple channels”.
“We contract advertising, media and PR companies for each campaign and they engage the relevant influencers to match the campaign objectives,” she said.