Social media platforms, like TikTok, Instagram and Facebook, allow users to create their own content and share it with their followers. For Millennials and Gen-Zers, social media has even started to replace other forms of media, like television and news.
Over the last few years, social media has helped average people become famous and become what are called Influencers. Influencers who focus on food will post their favorite and least favorite products on their pages, and those opinions could impact Millennial and Gen-Z buying habits in the grocery store.
Because of all of this, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that Influencers could affect the future egg industry.
One example of an Influencer making an impact on eggs is Joy Baur, NBC’s Today Show Nutrition and Wellness Expert, who spoke at the American Egg Board (AEB) and United Egg Producers (UEP) 2022 Joint Annual Executive Conference.
“Social media is exciting because the reach is infinite,” Baur stated. “Influencers are regular people who have expertise, a life experience or a strong opinion that they want to share with their audience. This has helped build a level of trust with their followers.”
Baur achieves thousands of views on her food videos and has almost 400,000 followers on Instagram and Facebook. She believes that eggs are healthy and versatile and communicates that message with her audience.
Some of her popular egg-based recipes include scrambled eggs in a mug or a low-carb omelet wrap. She even shares “egg hacks” such as how to use grated boiled eggs in a salad and how to freeze eggs for later use.
Influencers are predicted to have such a large impact on Millennial and Gen-Z buying habits that the American Egg Board’s (AEB) recently launched Crack it with an Egg campaign is led by social media chef Josh Elkin, the movement's Chief Cracking Officer. Josh’s team of 11 social media influencers has created and posted more than 50 new egg recipes on social media that are reaching over 11 million followers.
While all of this sounds great, the idea of influencers having this large of an impact on the egg industry is a bit unsettling. Influencers can get famous almost overnight, so if any of those influencers do not eat eggs or speak out against the industry, that could cause trouble for producers in the future. Maybe to mitigate this, more egg industry professionals should consider expanding their social media platforms and partnering with nutrition experts to educate viewers on why eggs should be a part of your daily diet.
