As the federal government continues to face criticism for failing to advertise COVID-19 vaccinations, new data has revealed Australia’s social media influencers have stepped up.
The data released from HypeAuditor pulled together social media data from January and July associated with the hashtags #vaccinated, #getvaccinated #vaccineswork #fullyvaccinated, #getthevax and #jabdone. HypeAuditor found 300 posts by 207 Australian influencers — categorised as those with an authentic following of more than 1000.
Posts from social media influencers encouraging the uptake of COVID-19 vaccination are estimated to have had an authentic collective reach of 3.8 million people. The majority of the audience reached were within the 25-44 age bracket, which coincides with those who are most at risk of the Delta variant.
The biggest spike of COVID-19 vaccines-related posts from influencers was in July, accounting for about a third of all posts made since January. The organic spike also coincides with the start of the lockdowns in various states across the country, starting with NSW and the rising number of new daily cases during that month. The majority of posts were from:
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Female influencers, aged between 25 and 44 years old (accounting for 52 per cent of the posts)
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Nano influencers (follower count between 1,000 and 10,000) made up 65 per cent of the posts
The influencers with the highest reach for their COVID-19 vaccination posts are:
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Carrie Bickmore [pictured]
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Adam Liaw
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Clementine Ford
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Urzila Carlson
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Jessica Rowe
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Deborah Blashki-Marks
Alexander Frolov, CEO and Co-Founder of HypeAuditor, says that he expects influencers will keep playing an important role in getting Australia out of the COVID national emergency by encouraging their followers to get vaccinated.
“At the moment, where there are pockets of uncertainty, hesitancy, and misinformation about vaccinations in Australia, influencers can have a huge impact. By sharing their own stories of their vaccination, and encouraging their followers to consider it, an authenticity shines through that is otherwise absent from government sponsored advertising campaigns or political jargon,” says Frolov. “It also shows how social media can be used to reach new audiences, as we saw last month with Dr. Kerry Chant’s TikTok Q&A with young influencers about the vaccine, which was broadly well received.
“The data clearly shows the potential influencers can have when using their platforms for good — to spread a community-minded message that will hopefully protect Australians from COVID-19 quicker.”
