Many people now consider social networking to be an indispensable tool. There are now over 4.6 billion social media users, who leave a digital footprint through their online interactions. These big data provide enormous research potential for identifying the social and cultural aspects of the monitored topic. Moreover, the use of social media platforms has been found to have an impact on eating habits. The analysis of these social networks is thus essential to understand the factors that influence eating habits. To this aim, we identified the main topics associated with food bloggers on Twitter using the Social Media Analysis based on the Hashtag Research Framework of 686,450 Tweets captured from 171,243 unique users from 1 January 2017 to 30 May 2022. Based on the analysis of communication on Twitter, the most communicated hashtags in the food blogger sphere were as follows: #yummy, #healthy, #homemade, and #vegan. From the point of view of communities, three major clusters were identified, including (1) healthy lifestyle, (2) home-made food, and (3) fast food, and two minor clusters were identified, namely, (4) breakfast and brunch and (5) food traveling.

Department of Management Faculty of Economics and Management Czech University of Life Sciences Prague 165 21 Prague Czech Republic

Zobrazit více v PubMed

Wibowo A., Chen S.-C., Wiangin U., Ma Y., Ruangkanjanases A. Customer Behavior as an Outcome of Social Media Marketing: The Role of Social Media Marketing Activity and Customer Experience. Sustainability. 2020;13:189. doi: 10.3390/su13010189. DOI

Ginsberg K. Instabranding: Shaping the Personalities of the Top Food Brands on Instagram. Elon J. Undergrad. Res. Commun. 2015;6:1–2.

Lee H.-M., Kang J.-W., Namkung Y. Instagram Users’ Information Acceptance Process for Food-Content. Sustainability. 2021;13:2638. doi: 10.3390/su13052638. DOI

Walsh M.J., Baker S.A. Clean Eating and Instagram: Purity, Defilement, and the Idealization of Food. Food Cult. Soc. 2020;23:570–588. doi: 10.1080/15528014.2020.1806636. DOI

Reagan R., Filice S., Santarossa S., Woodrugg J.S. #ad on Instagram: Investigating the Promotion of Food and Beverage Products. J. Soc. MEDIA Soc. 2020;9:1–28.

Roach A. The Ultimate Guide To The Best Instagram Hashtags For Likes. 2002. [(accessed on 1 April 2022)]. Available online: https://www.oberlo.com/blog/best-instagram-hashtags-for-likes.

Molenaar K. The Ultimate List of Trending Hashtags on Every Platform. 2022. [(accessed on 1 April 2022)]. Available online: https://influencermarketinghub.com/trending-hashtags/

Mainolfi G., Marino V., Resciniti R. Not Just Food: Exploring the Influence of Food Blog Engagement on Intention to Taste and to Visit. Br. Food J. 2022;124:430–461. doi: 10.1108/BFJ-04-2021-0400. DOI

Hookway N. SAGE Research Methods Foundations. SAGE Publications Ltd.; London, UK: 2020. Blog Analysis.

Lepkowska-White E., Kortright E. The Business of Blogging: Effective Approaches of Women Food Bloggers. J. Foodserv. Bus. Res. 2018;21:257–279. doi: 10.1080/15378020.2017.1399046. DOI

Pfister D.S. Networked Media, Networked Rhetorics. Penn State University Press; University Park, TX, USA: 2014.

Schmidt J. Blogging Practices: An Analytical Framework. J. Comput. Commun. 2007;12:1409–1427. doi: 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00379.x. DOI

Schneider E.P., McGovern E.E., Lynch C.L., Brown L.S. Do Food Blogs Serve as a Source of Nutritionally Balanced Recipes? An Analysis of 6 Popular Food Blogs. J. Nutr. Educ. Behav. 2013;45:696–700. doi: 10.1016/j.jneb.2013.07.002. PubMed DOI

Dickinson K., Watson M., Prichard I. Are Clean Eating Blogs a Source of Healthy Recipes? A Comparative Study of the Nutrient Composition of Foods with and without Clean Eating Claims. Nutrients. 2018;10:1440. doi: 10.3390/nu10101440. PubMed DOI PMC

Jia N., Chen J., Wang R. An Attention-Based Convolutional Neural Network for Recipe Recommendation. Expert. Syst. Appl. 2022;201:116979. doi: 10.1016/j.eswa.2022.116979. DOI

Sthapit E., Piramanayayagam S., Björk P. Tourists’ Motivations, Emotions, and Memorable Local Food Experiences. J. Gastron. Tour. 2020;5:17–32. doi: 10.3727/216929720X15968961037881. DOI

Soulis G., Kotsani M., Benetos A. Let Food and Physical Activity Be Your Medicine. Eur. Geriatr. Med. 2019;10:553–558. doi: 10.1007/s41999-019-00202-3. PubMed DOI

Cesiri D. The Discourse of Food Blogs. Routledge; New York, NY, USA: 2020.

Johnston J., Goodman M.K. Spectacular Foodscapes. Food Cult. Soc. 2015;18:205–222. doi: 10.2752/175174415X14180391604369. DOI

Brombin A., Mascarello G., Pinto A., Crovato S., Ricaldi G., Giaretta M., Ravarotto L. New Ways of Spreading Food Safety Online: The Role of Food Bloggers in Risk Communication. Br. Food J. 2022;124:775–794. doi: 10.1108/BFJ-01-2021-0044. DOI

Naulin S. Lifestyle Journalism. Routledge; New York, NY, USA: 2019. Are food bloggers a new kind of influencer? p. 12.

Presswood A.L. Food Blogs, Postfeminism, and the Communication of Expertise: Digital Domestics. Lexington Books; Blue Ridge Summit, PA, USA: 2018.

Salvio P.M. Dishing It Out: Food Blogs and Post-Feminist Domesticity. Gastronomica. 2012;12:31–39. doi: 10.1525/GFC.2012.12.3.31. DOI

Rodney A., Cappeliez S., Oleschuk M., Johnston J. The Online Domestic Goddess: An Analysis of Food Blog Femininities. Food Cult. Soc. 2017;20:685–707. doi: 10.1080/15528014.2017.1357954. DOI

Greville-Harris M., Smithson J., Karl A. What Are People’s Experiences of Orthorexia Nervosa? A Qualitative Study of Online Blogs. Eat. Weight Disord.-Stud. Anorexia Bulim. Obes. 2020;25:1693–1702. doi: 10.1007/s40519-019-00809-2. PubMed DOI PMC

Bissonnette-Maheux V., Provencher V., Lapointe A., Dugrenier M., Dumas A.-A., Pluye P., Straus S., Gagnon M.-P., Desroches S. Exploring Women’s Beliefs and Perceptions About Healthy Eating Blogs: A Qualitative Study. J. Med. Internet Res. 2015;17:e87. doi: 10.2196/jmir.3504. PubMed DOI PMC

Boepple L., Thompson J.K. A Content Analysis of Healthy Living Blogs: Evidence of Content Thematically Consistent with Dysfunctional Eating Attitudes and Behaviors. Int. J. Eat. Disord. 2014;47:362–367. doi: 10.1002/eat.22244. PubMed DOI

Tiusanen K. Fulfilling the Self through Food in Wellness Blogs: Governing the Healthy Subject. Eur. J. Cult. Stud. 2021;24:1382–1400. doi: 10.1177/13675494211055734. DOI

Véron O. Critical Perspectives on Veganism. Palgrave Macmillan; London, UK: 2016. From Seitan Bourguignon to Tofu Blanquette: Popularizing Veganism in France with Food Blogs; pp. 287–305.

Hart D. Faux-Meat and Masculinity: The Gendering of Food on Three Vegan Blogs. Can. Food Stud. Rev. Can. Études L’aliment. 2018;5:133–155. doi: 10.15353/cfs-rcea.v5i1.233. DOI

Taillon B.J., Mueller S.M., Kowalczyk C.M., Jones D.N. Understanding the Relationships between Social Media Influencers and Their Followers: The Moderating Role of Closeness. J. Prod. Brand Manag. 2020;29:767–782. doi: 10.1108/JPBM-03-2019-2292. DOI

Goodman M.K., Jaworska S. Mapping Digital Foodscapes: Digital Food Influencers and the Grammars of Good Food. Geoforum. 2020;117:183–193. doi: 10.1016/j.geoforum.2020.09.020. DOI

Lofgren J. Food Blogging and Food-Related Media Convergence. M/C J. 2013;16 doi: 10.5204/mcj.638. DOI

Lynch M., Chamberlain K. Research Methods in Digital Food Studies. Routledge; New York, NY, USA: 2021. Exploring the food blogosphere; p. 14.

Germic E.R., Eckert S., Vultee F. The Impact of Instagram Mommy Blogger Content on the Perceived Self-Efficacy of Mothers. Soc. Media Soc. 2021;7:205630512110416. doi: 10.1177/20563051211041649. DOI

Gauthier M., Durocher M. A Food Blog Created by and for Elders: A Political Gesture Informed by the Normative Injunctions to Eat and Age Well. Interact. Des. Archit. 2018:75–92. doi: 10.55612/s-5002-036-005. DOI

Diemer S., Brunner M.-L., Schmidt S. “Like, Pasta, Pizza and Stuff”—New Trends in Online Food Discourse. Cuizine. 2014;5 doi: 10.7202/1026769ar. DOI

Kleindienst D., Pfleger R., Schoch M. The Business Alignment of Social Media Analytics; Proceedings of the ECIS Twenty-Third European Conference on Information Systems; Münster, Germany. 29 May 2015; p. 103.

Pilař L., Kvasničková Stanislavská L., Pitrová J., Krejčí I., Tichá I., Chalupová M. Twitter Analysis of Global Communication in the Field of Sustainability. Sustainability. 2019;11:6958. doi: 10.3390/su11246958. DOI

Chen P.-J., Antonelli M. Conceptual Models of Food Choice: Influential Factors Related to Foods, Individual Differences, and Society. Foods. 2020;9:1898. doi: 10.3390/foods9121898. PubMed DOI PMC

Kahneman D. Maps of Bounded Rationality: Psychology for Behavioral Economics. Am. Econ. Rev. 2003;93:1449–1475. doi: 10.1257/000282803322655392. DOI

Decker R., Trusov M. Estimating Aggregate Consumer Preferences from Online Product Reviews. Int. J. Res. Mark. 2010;27:293–307. doi: 10.1016/j.ijresmar.2010.09.001. DOI

Köster E.P. The Psychology of Food Choice: Some Often Encountered Fallacies. Food Qual. Prefer. 2003;14:359–373. doi: 10.1016/S0950-3293(03)00017-X. DOI

Podsakoff P.M., MacKenzie S.B., Lee J.-Y., Podsakoff N.P. Common Method Biases in Behavioral Research: A Critical Review of the Literature and Recommended Remedies. J. Appl. Psychol. 2003;88:879–903. doi: 10.1037/0021-9010.88.5.879. PubMed DOI

Roudsari A., Vedadhir A., Amiri P., Kalantari N., Omidvar N., Eini-Zinab H. Developing and Validating Food Choice Determinants Questionnaire: An Instrument for Exploring Food Choice Determinants in Iran. Int. J. Prev. Med. 2020;11:141. doi: 10.4103/ijpvm.IJPVM_250_19. PubMed DOI PMC

Wilson C. Credible Checklists and Quality Questionnaires. Elsevier; Amsterdam, The Netherlands: 2013. Questionnaires and Surveys; pp. 29–79.

Penna A.C.G., Portel C.S., Pagani M.M., Mársico E.T., Silva A.C.O., Esmerino E.A. Impact of Food Choice and Consumption Profile on the Perception of Food Coloring on Kefir Labels: Insights of the Projective Technique of Product Personality Profiling. Food Res. Int. 2021;150:110802. doi: 10.1016/j.foodres.2021.110802. PubMed DOI

Rivaroli S., Calvo-Porral C., Spadoni R. Using Food Choice Questionnaire to Explain Millennials’ Attitudes towards Craft Beer. Food Qual. Prefer. 2022;96:104408. doi: 10.1016/j.foodqual.2021.104408. DOI

Marsola C.d.M., Cunha L.M., Carvalho-Ferreira J.P., da Cunha D.T. A Dataset of Food Choice Motives among Adults Consumers in Brazil: The Use of Food Choice Questionnaire. Data Br. 2022;40:107703. doi: 10.1016/j.dib.2021.107703. PubMed DOI PMC

Jaeger S.R., Prescott J., Worch T. Food Neophobia Modulates Importance of Food Choice Motives: Replication, Extension, and Behavioural Validation. Food Qual. Prefer. 2022;97:104439. doi: 10.1016/j.foodqual.2021.104439. DOI

Pilař L., Stanislavská L.K., Kvasnička R., Hartman R., Tichá I. Healthy Food on Instagram Social Network: Vegan, Homemade and Clean Eating. Nutrients. 2021;13:1991. doi: 10.3390/nu13061991. PubMed DOI PMC

Pilař L., Kvasničková Stanislavská L., Poláková J., Rojík S., Kvasnička R., Gresham G. Customer Experience with Organic Food: Global View. Emirates J. Food Agric. 2018 doi: 10.9755/ejfa.2018.v30.i11.1856. DOI

Pilař L., Kvasničková Stanislavská L., Kvasnička R. Healthy Food on the Twitter Social Network: Vegan, Homemade, and Organic Food. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health. 2021;18:3815. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18073815. PubMed DOI PMC

Statista Research Department Social Media-Statistics & Facts. [(accessed on 1 April 2022)]. Available online: https://www.statista.com/topics/1164/social-networks/#dossierKeyfigures.

Worldometer World Population Projections. [(accessed on 1 April 2022)]. Available online: https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/world-population-projections/

Pilař L., Poláková J., Gresham G., Rojík S., Tichá I. Why People Use Hashtags When Visiting Farmers’ Markets; Proceedings of the Agrarian Perspectives XXVI: Competitiveness of European Agriculture and Food Sectors; Prague, Czech Republic. 13–15 September 2017; pp. 287–292.

Zhang K., Geng Y., Zhao J., Liu J., Li W. Sentiment Analysis of Social Media via Multimodal Feature Fusion. Symmetry. 2020;12:2010. doi: 10.3390/sym12122010. DOI

Childers C.C., Lemon L.L., Hoy M.G. #Sponsored #Ad: Agency Perspective on Influencer Marketing Campaigns. J. Curr. Issues Res. Advert. 2019;40:258–274. doi: 10.1080/10641734.2018.1521113. DOI

De Veirman M., Cauberghe V., Hudders L. Marketing through Instagram Influencers: The Impact of Number of Followers and Product Divergence on Brand Attitude. Int. J. Advert. 2017;36:798–828. doi: 10.1080/02650487.2017.1348035. DOI

Malik A., Berggren W., Al-Busaidi A.S. Instagram as a Research Tool for Examining Tobacco-Related Content: A Methodological Review. Technol. Soc. 2022;70:102008. doi: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2022.102008. DOI

Palazzo M., Vollero A., Vitale P., Siano A. Urban and Rural Destinations on Instagram: Exploring the Influencers’ Role in #sustainabletourism. Land Use Policy. 2021;100:104915. doi: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.104915. DOI

Martina C., Ladislav P., Stanislav R. Transdisciplinary Case Studies on Design for Food and Sustainability. Elsevier; Amsterdam, The Netherlands: 2021. Organic wine as an Instagram star using a design thinking approach; pp. 149–163.

Vrain E., Wilson C. Social Networks and Communication Behaviour Underlying Smart Home Adoption in the UK. Environ. Innov. Soc. Transit. 2021;38:82–97. doi: 10.1016/j.eist.2020.11.003. DOI

Moreno M.A., Standiford M., Cody P. Social Media and Adolescent Health. Curr. Pediatr. Rep. 2018;6:132–138. doi: 10.1007/s40124-018-0165-8. DOI

Pilař L., Balcarová T., Rojík S., Tichá I., Poláková J. Customer Experience with Farmers’ Markets: What Hashtags Can Reveal. Int. Food Agribus. Manag. Rev. 2018;21:755–770. doi: 10.22434/IFAMR2017.0039. DOI

Gascoyne C., Scully M., Wakefield M., Morley B. Food and Drink Marketing on Social Media and Dietary Intake in Australian Adolescents: Findings from a Cross-Sectional Survey. Appetite. 2021;166:105431. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2021.105431. PubMed DOI

Molenaar A., Saw W.Y., Brennan L., Reid M., Lim M.S.C., McCaffrey T.A. Effects of Advertising: A Qualitative Analysis of Young Adults’ Engagement with Social Media About Food. Nutrients. 2021;13:1934. doi: 10.3390/nu13061934. PubMed DOI PMC

Pilař L., Kvasničková Stanislavská L., Kvasnička R., Bouda P., Pitrová J. Framework for Social Media Analysis Based on Hashtag Research. Appl. Sci. 2021;11:3697. doi: 10.3390/app11083697. DOI

Maynard D., Roberts I., Greenwood M.A., Rout D., Bontcheva K. A Framework for Real-Time Semantic Social Media Analysis. J. Web Semant. 2017;44:75–88. doi: 10.1016/j.websem.2017.05.002. DOI

Arefieva V., Egger R., Yu J. A Machine Learning Approach to Cluster Destination Image on Instagram. Tour. Manag. 2021;85:104318. doi: 10.1016/j.tourman.2021.104318. DOI

Ashwitha A., Shruthi G., Shruthi H.R., Makarand U., Abhra P.R., Manjunath T.C. Sarcasm Detection in Natural Language Processing. Mater. Today Proc. 2021;37:3324–3331. doi: 10.1016/j.matpr.2020.09.124. DOI

Pilařová L., Kvasničková Stanislavská L., Pilař L., Balcarová T., Pitrová J. Cultured Meat on the Social Network Twitter: Clean, Future and Sustainable Meats. Foods. 2022;11:2695. doi: 10.3390/foods11172695. PubMed DOI PMC

Kvasničková Stanislavská L., Pilař L., Margarisová K., Kvasnička R. Corporate Social Responsibility and Social Media: Comparison between Developing and Developed Countries. Sustainability. 2020;12:5255. doi: 10.3390/su12135255. DOI

Chang H.-C., Iyer H. Trends in Twitter Hashtag Applications: Design Features for Value-Added Dimensions to Future Library Catalogues. Libr. Trends. 2012;61:248–258. doi: 10.1353/lib.2012.0024. DOI

Pilař L., Moulis P., Pitrová J., Bouda P., Gresham G., Balcarová T., Rojík S. Education and Business as a Key Topics at the Instagram Posts in the Area of Gamification. J. Effic. Responsib. Educ. Sci. 2019;12 doi: 10.7160/eriesj.2019.120103. DOI

Pilař L., Rojík S., Tučková K., Balcarová T., Selby R. Gamification In Education: Social Network Analysis; Proceedings of the 14th International Conference Efficiency And Responsibility In Education, (ERIE); Prague, Czech Rebublic. 8–9 June 2017; pp. 318–324.

Twitter Twitter API v2: Early Access. [(accessed on 1 April 2022)]. Available online: https://developer.twitter.com/en/docs/twitter-api/early-access.

Edward A. An Extensive Guide to Collecting Tweets from Twitter API v2 for Academic Research Using Python 3. [(accessed on 1 April 2022)]. Available online: https://developer.twitter.com/en/products/twitter-api/academic-research.

Bastian M., Eymann S.H., Jacomy M. Gephi: An Open Source Software for Exploring and Manipulating Networks; Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media; San Jose, CA, USA. 17–20 May 2009.

McCurdie T., Sanderson P., Aitken L.M. Applying Social Network Analysis to the Examination of Interruptions in Healthcare. Appl. Ergon. 2018;67:50–60. doi: 10.1016/j.apergo.2017.08.014. PubMed DOI

Newman M.E.J., Girvan M. Finding and Evaluating Community Structure in Networks. Phys. Rev. E. 2004;69:026113. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.69.026113. PubMed DOI

Knoke D., Yang S. Social Network Analysis. Volume 154. Sage Publications Inc.; Thousand Oaks, CA, USA: 2008.

Blondel V.D., Guillaume J.-L., Lambiotte R., Lefebvre E. Fast Unfolding of Communities in Large Networks. J. Stat. Mech. Theory Exp. 2008;2008:P10008. doi: 10.1088/1742-5468/2008/10/P10008. DOI

Muralidhara S., Paul M.J. #Healthy Selfies: Exploration of Health Topics on Instagram. JMIR Public Health Surveill. 2018;4:e10150. doi: 10.2196/10150. PubMed DOI PMC

Cavazza N., Graziani A.R., Guidetti M. Impression Formation via #foodporn: Effects of Posting Gender-Stereotyped Food Pictures on Instagram Profiles. Appetite. 2020;147:104565. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2019.104565. PubMed DOI

Mejova Y., Haddadi H., Noulas A., Weber I. #FoodPorn; Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Digital Health; New York, NY, USA. 18 May 2015; New York, NY, USA: ACM; 2015. pp. 51–58.

Mejova Y., Abbar S., Haddabi H. Fetishizing Food in Digital Age: #foodporn Around the World; Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media; Cologne, Germany. 17–20 May 2016; pp. 250–258.

Scherer L., Behrens P., Tukker A. Opportunity for a Dietary Win-Win-Win in Nutrition, Environment, and Animal Welfare. One Earth. 2019;1:349–360. doi: 10.1016/j.oneear.2019.10.020. DOI

Bauer J.M., van der Laan L.N., de Bruijn G.-J., Reisch L.A. Battle of the Primes–The Effect and Interplay of Health and Hedonic Primes on Food Choice. Appetite. 2022;172:105956. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2022.105956. PubMed DOI

Marty L., Chambaron S., de Lauzon-Guillain B., Nicklaus S. The Motivational Roots of Sustainable Diets: Analysis of Food Choice Motives Associated to Health, Environmental and Socio-Cultural Aspects of Diet Sustainability in a Sample of French Adults. Clean. Responsible Consum. 2022;5:100059. doi: 10.1016/j.clrc.2022.100059. DOI

De Jans S., Spielvogel I., Naderer B., Hudders L. Digital Food Marketing to Children: How an Influencer’s Lifestyle Can Stimulate Healthy Food Choices among Children. Appetite. 2021;162:105182. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2021.105182. PubMed DOI

Santaoja M., Jallinoja P. Food out of Its Usual Rut. Carnivalesque Online Veganism as Political Consumerism. Geoforum. 2021;126:59–67. doi: 10.1016/j.geoforum.2021.07.029. DOI

Tankovska H. Daily Social Media Time among Teens and Young Adults Worldwide. 2017. [(accessed on 1 April 2022)]. Available online: https://www.statista.com/statistics/800821/average-daily-time-spent-social-media-teens-young-adults/

North M., Kothe E., Klas A., Ling M. How to Define “Vegan”: An Exploratory Study of Definition Preferences among Omnivores, Vegetarians, and Vegans. Food Qual. Prefer. 2021;93:104246. doi: 10.1016/j.foodqual.2021.104246. DOI

Stremmel G., Elshiewy O., Boztug Y., Carneiro-Otto F. Vegan Labeling for What Is Already Vegan: Product Perceptions and Consumption Intentions. Appetite. 2022;175:106048. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2022.106048. PubMed DOI

Saboia I., Pisco Almeida A.M., Sousa P., Pernencar C. I Am with You: A Netnographic Analysis of the Instagram Opinion Leaders on Eating Behavior Change. Procedia Comput. Sci. 2018;138:97–104. doi: 10.1016/j.procs.2018.10.014. DOI

Van Bavel J.J., Rathje S., Harris E., Robertson C., Sternisko A. How Social Media Shapes Polarization. Trends Cogn. Sci. 2021;25:913–916. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2021.07.013. PubMed DOI

Bruns A. After the ‘APIcalypse’: Social Media Platforms and Their Fight against Critical Scholarly Research. Inf. Commun. Soc. 2019;22:1544–1566. doi: 10.1080/1369118X.2019.1637447. DOI