Influencers Changing Food Marketing

Social media users have been uploading images of food since the launch of the networking sites, showing off their culinary skills or their exciting nights out. We’ve become so interested in seeing other people’s dishes that the hospitality industry is beginning to take advantage of online food influencers for their marketing campaigns. 

Suzanne Higgs, professor in the psychobiology of appetite at the University of Birmingham, told the BBC seeing pictures of what other people are eating influences our desires, even so far as changing our relationship with food

“If all your friends on social media are posting pictures of themselves consuming fast food, it’s going to set a norm that eating fast food is what people do,” she stated.

This shows social media is becoming an essential tool for food producers, restaurants, and chefs to promote themselves. 

According to one study, children and adolescents see food marketing between 30 and 189 times a week just on social media apps. 

It revealed 72 per cent of participants aged between seven and 16 were exposed to food marketing when on their usual social apps for five minutes each. 

The most common types of produce they saw were fast food (44 per cent) and sugar-sweetened drinks (nine per cent). 

Professor Higgs recognises: “It’s possible for some people in certain situations that social media could be the predominant factor that influences their behaviour, but it’s only one factor.” 

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Social media management in Marlow can help you manage your networks and make use of influencers to promote your brand.