Celebrities, Influence, and Covid-19

Brandwatch Bulletin #23: Celebrities, Influence, and Covid-19

The benefits and the dangers.

30 November 2020

Today we’re looking at how celebrities and influencers are sharing messages about Covid-19 online. Can they be relied on to share safety information?

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Health and star quality

We used Brandwatch Consumer Research to look at English-language mentions of Covid-19 from verified Twitter accounts so far in 2020. We excluded conversation from politicians and journalists to explore how celebrities have used their platforms to discuss the virus throughout the crisis.

This follows news that the UK government has considered enlisting the help of “sensible” celebrities and influencers in a bid to discourage virus misinformation and vaccine skepticism.

We found that mentions of the virus from verified accounts peaked in March with 5.5m in total, and there are still hundreds of thousands posted per week.

To understand more about the conversation, we used Brandwatch’s Reach score to discover who the most influential celebrities posting about Covid-19 were and what they were saying.

In America, we found that San Francisco 49ers cornerback Richard Sherman was the most influential person. He’s posted about the virus 130 times in the past eleven months, reaching an average of 2.6m people per post. He focused on vaccines, getting back to the NFL, and the government’s response.

WAP singer Cardi B was the second most influential celebrity discussing Covid-19 on social media. She reached an average of 2m people across herr 117 posts, focusing on calling out the current US administration and confusion about official guidance.

Her response has been well received. Sentiment-segmented conversation was 57% positive over the eleven month period, with people describing her statements as incredible (53k mentions) and flawless (51k mentions).

Award-winning actor James Woods posted 125 times about the virus. He clocked in as the third most influential celebrity, reaching an average of 1.9m people per post.

Oprah also generated a lot of conversation with her tweets on the virus. She reached an average of 1m people across her 117 posts about the virus on social media. Reviewing sentiment-segmented conversation, just 31% of public social media mentions about her and Covid-19 were classed as positive. Negative mentions stemmed from a dinner party she held which some people felt shouldn’t have taken place (despite testing).

UK celebrities can be dwarfed by stars across the pond, so we have taken a quick look at UK celebrity conversation separately. Springwatch presenter Chris Packham, businesswoman Deborah Meaden, and writer and TV personality Stephen Fry all reached hundreds of thousands of people with their Covid-19-related posts.

The dangers

But some celebrities and influencers have been heavily criticized for how they’ve handled their social media platforms throughout the crisis.

The most notable celebrities receiving criticism are the Kardashian family (338k mentions). They found themselves in hot water over their extended family thanksgiving feast which appeared to violate official guidance, and a luxurious vacation to Tahiti which broke non-essential travel advice in the summer. Sentiment-segmented mentions of the family and Covid-19 were 89% negative and some people branded them irresponsible (23k mentions), while many felt that the family did not set a good example (16k mentions).

And, despite Cardi B’s above-mentioned posts that got her a lot of positivity, she was heavily criticized over Thanksgiving weekend for a feast with 37 people. The event triggered a spike in negative mentions.

That’s the problem. While celebrities might make excellent advocates for safety and against misinformation online, the public’s respect for and trust in them can change very quickly.

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Stay safe,

Brandwatch React Team

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