Whether you are an aspiring yogi, a CrossFit junkie, or a cardio bunny, you’ve no doubt been aware of the yoga social media community that is growing day by day. The 21st century busy lifestyle that most of us lead these days has resulted in an increased need for stress-release, and a desire for improved self-care. For many, yoga is exactly this. Keep on reading to let influencers inspire you this International Yoga Day.

What’s all the hype about?

If you didn’t already know, yoga is an ancient Indian practise, involving physical, mental and spiritual disciplines. The word ‘yoga’ means union. This essentially translates to “that which brings you to reality”.  

Yoga clearly isn’t a new thing, but for the western culture, it has really gained a lot more attention over the years. There are many reasons for this, one of course, being the availability of information through social media. The internet and social media has given people the opportunity to learn new things and discovery potential hobbies and interests, like yoga.

Yoga is not just a physical exercise or workout, but instead a disciplined path which must be practised. There are many different branches and traditions of yoga, all of which are practised in slightly different ways. However, generally speaking, yoga promotes health and wellbeing through physical exercise, mental calmness, deep breathing, and teaching of mind to body connection.

Yoga influencer, Deepika, on Instagram

What are yoga influencers?

As with any community around, there becomes an online community too, involving social media influencers that play a huge role. Yoga is no exception to this. Although yoga influencers can technically fall under different categories, such as fitness or health and wellbeing, they still tend to have a very precise specialism in yoga.

Unlike walking, or even running, yoga is not something that you can just throw on a pair of trainers and get started. Yoga requires teaching and practise. This ancient tradition is not easy, and although it can be practised alone, amateur yogis tend to participate in classes or online, at-home videos.

Yoga influencers are those with a large social media following, teaching, inspiring, and actively sharing their interest in yoga. You don’t need to be a qualified yoga instructor to be an influencer within the community, but maybe just enjoy sharing your passion online.

Yoga influencers tend to post generally inspiring and informative content relating to the the practise, as well as helpful tips and advice. Many of these influencers also host online classes, share videos through their Instagram and YouTube accounts, or even have their own guides and products to sell.

Yoga influencer, Melissa, on Instagram

Top yoga influencers for International Yoga Day

At Heepsy, we have gathered the top influencers across various categories, which can be found in our Rankings.

We selected a few of these influencers to have a look at below.

Deepika Singh Goyal

Deepika describes herself as an actor, dancer, and yoga enthusiast. With 2.2 million followers, Deepika has inspired a community of young aspiring yogis. Her content features a variety of dancing, including many traditional and cultural routines, as well as videos of her yoga practises too.

With Heepsy, we can see that Deepika has an engagement rate of 3.4%, which is above average for an influencer of her size. This shows that her followers are actively interested in her content, with a good level of interaction being maintained between her and her audience.

Sadhguru

Sadghuru is one of the top Yogis, also being named one of India’s 50 most influential people. Not only an yogi, but Sadghuru is also an author and international speaker, inspiring audiences at some of the biggest events hosted by the United Nations and the World Economic Forum. His book is titled “More Than a Life”, encouraging readers to discover their spiritual self, which could even change your life.

With 5.5 million followers, his verified Instagram account is managed by the Isha Foundation volunteers. We can see with Heepsy how Sadhguru’s Instagram follower growth rate has increased at a steady, healthy rate. His account really took off in 2018, growing alongside the general yoga community over the years.

Follower growth evolution for yoga influencer Sadhguru on Instagram

Melissa Wood

Known by @melissawoodhealth on Instagram, Melissa inspires her 834K followers with not only yoga, but her all-round health and wellbeing content. She posts content about her nutritious diet, exercise, bodyweight workouts, and yoga practises. Her bio states “all about prioritizing your peace”.

Melissa has founded her own company, where she sells her yoga and workout programme, fitness clothing, meal plans and recipes. She has built a community of followers that are aspiring to find their inner peace, self-worth, and healthy lifestyle.

With Heepsy, we can see that Melissa has great authenticity metrics, with more than 90% genuine followers, a high number for an influencer of her size.

Audience authenticity of yoga influencer Melissa Wood on Instagram

Finding yoga influencers with Heepsy

Whether you’re interested in working with yoga influencers, or hoping to take up a new hobby, Heepsy allows you to find influencers in this category with only a few steps.

You can search for yoga influencers from a few categories.

  1. Log in to your Heepsy account.
  2. Select Instagram or YouTube from the first dropdown menu.
  3. In Categories, select ‘fitness’ or ‘health and wellbeing’, or any other category that fits with your specific yoga interest.
  4. Use the search bar to insert keywords such as “yoga”, or “yoga teacher”, or “yoga enthusiast”, for example.
  5. Get analyzing!

Conclusion

Whether you have taken the day off social media to ground yourself through yoga, or you have been actively seeking out new Instagram influencers to inspire you, hopefully you have found a way to learn about International Yoga Day.

Don’t forget, if you are looking to find yoga influencers, for your brand campaign or for personal interest, then Heepsy is the place to get started.