The rapid rise of the expert culture
Author: Sarah Greenidge, Founder of WellSpoken
Date of preparation: October 2017
The rapid rise of the wellness expert has been the latest shift in the wellness market. Post an onslaught of bad press and media speculation, we as the consumer have swiftly moved away from looking to the celebrity ‘fitspo’ influencers for advice on our wellbeing.
In an attempt to search for credible advisors, we have rested our laurels who seemingly have relevant degrees or qualification in the areas we have interest in – all in an attempt to separate the wheat from the chaff.
The challenge we face as a wellness community is that qualifications do not necessarily translate into credibility – these two things are not equivalent. We have to acknowledge that certain qualification can hold different weightings especially in areas such as nutrition where there are multiple associations accrediting different things.
Having an in-depth knowledge in a subject area does build a certain element of credibility, but learning how to communicate credibly to different audiences across various different platforms, understanding all of the different nuances and power of language – is really an art form in itself.
Here at WellSpoken we believe that credible wellness communications fall under three pillars:
What you say
How you say it
Where you say it
Speaking out of remit – challenging concept even though someone may be a Doctor – doesn’t mean they can speak on all things nutrition – even Doctors will admit the mandatory training on this subject during their degree is limited.
Same as a nutritionist giving advice on workouts etc. they aren’t qualified PT’s to be distributing that content under the guise of an expert.
This shift to seeking expertise is a good sign. It means as an industry we are starting to realise the dangers of misinformation
We at WellSpoken are calling for industry-wide recognition that credible wellness communications are a skill-set that we all can be upskilled in.
