Self-Presentation Strategies of Instagram Users in Healthy Lifestyle Industry and Fitness

The research reviews self-presentation strategies of Instagram social network users based on content analysis of 1,111 posts of 20 women bloggers in the subject of healthy lifestyle and fitness. The aim of the work was to identify self-presentation strategies that contribute to the greatest engagement of users. Engagement is understood as the sum of likes and users’ comments as a reaction to the published content. The author has proved that in the context of time when media imposes on women the standards of beauty and harmony, causing depression and low self-esteem, self-presentation of a non-idealized image of a blogger who leads a healthy lifestyle and engaged in fitness, but at the same time can eat food that is not related to proper nutrition, demonstrates physical disabilities, encourages women to love and accept them with all features, contributes to the greatest audience engagement in comparison with an idealized image of a blogger who always follows a healthy lifestyle and shows only good physical shape. It is also proven that the greatest response from the audience receives the content that matches the gender stereotypes widespread in society. In particular, this is a representation of a sexually-charged female body, denoting the subordinate dependent position of women seeking to be attractive to men. So, images of a blogger with semi-nude or tight-fitting clothes on the chest or buttocks, have greater user engagement compared to the non-sexualized image. In addition, according to the prevalent idea in Russian society, one of the criteria for a woman’s success is a personal life: a romantic partner or a happy family. The study proved that the greater engagement of users is common to a blogger who publishes materials about various aspects of her personal life, rather than self-presentation covering only professional activities.