Our decisions about behaviour don't just come from internal factors, but are shaped by a variety of external sources, such as peer reference groups, family and the local community/culture.
In real life networks, the choice to exercise more, give up smoking, eat healthier or save more money can be influenced by those around us. The readiness to share these personal positive initiatives may be tempered by the closeness of the relationships we have with others, but generally, these can be shared experiences across our family, friend, professional or acquaintance networks. Given that the power of social networking is moving these relationships online, regardless of geographic barriers, shouldn't our positive decisions become even more incentivized?
The amount of information online supporting positive behavioural efforts is vast, with sites such as Webmd, blogs on nutrition, Facebook pages for NGOs such as the American Lung association and twitter pages for those ready to provide fitness advice. Going beyond just providing information, and reinforcing activity, seems to limit the amount of sources slightly.
Foursquare's Healthy Eating Badge encourages healthy dining options...
Location based social networks (LBSN) such as Foursquare provide good examples in the form of their current campaigns with Runkeeper (providing badges to those who run certain amounts) and CNN on healthy eating (providing badges to those who check in at various Farmer's Markets & other locations). Promotions such as these take the search for information and incentivize activity, but what about aiding decisions and committing to them?
This rather quick analysis of phrases on twitter, shows how quickly 750 messages with these certain positive phrases are generated. Confounding tweets selling products aside, we see that most positive phrases are present in various amounts on Twitter.
The way a user shares such decisions, be it to start running or give up smoking, may vary across networks , though organic conversation seems to be the most basic vehicle for such an announcement. Just as telling fiends in person about our decisions is a tacit license to provide encouragement and engage in our efforts, doing so online, hopes to encourage those within our social group. The reach and timeliness of communication through social media is useful, but do users leverage the lasting power of relationships to enhance their health decisions?
Looking at Facebook Applications for positive health choices (Fitness (both eating & running), Smoking, Finances & Sobriety), I found 44 examples of non-quiz based applications for sharing and committing to a positive behaviour
Facebook applications are a strong candidate for sharing and committing to a positive health change, as they automate sharing progress, track data well and hold the capacity to engage friends. Looking at 4 major categories (becoming fit, saving money, quitting smoking and sobriety/substance related issues), there seems to be an indication that many different applications have built small user bases on Facebook.
Overall, the most popular applications found were Cardiotrainer (78,623) & Nike+ Run Tracker (29,786) -- (full list below). Beyond the top few applications though, a heavily fragmented sample exists. On average, each application has 3,685 MAU, but 420 with top 5 applications ignored. Usage of applications seems to mirror the expected social readiness to reveal such a decision to your friends (in both real life and online), with diet & fitness issues trumping the more serious money & substance abuse issues.
Looking at the anecdotal data from both Facebook & Twitter, it seems that both online and offline channels are regulated by similar social norms when it comes to behavioural choices. This isn't too surprising, as the way which we consider online network behaviour has moved closer to the real world in recent years. While social networking may increase the reach of our friend networks, the implications for behavioural choices and announcements frequently reverberate into the real world, meaning that influence on our choices involves both.
Does this mean that social networks don't have a greater capacity to drive positive health choices? Probably not. The issue seems to involve bringing users outside of a current network in around the choice, less than using existing friends to reinforce it. Communities of runners (either in forums, on apps, or just conversing) reinforce running behaviour, more so than non-running friends probably would. The same could possibly be said for dieters or those quitting smoking online, the shared experience between individuals in those sub groups may grant a greater authority on that specific topic.
WeQuit's Facebook app may have motivated some users during its launch on 'No Smoking Day', but its current user base (98 MAU) shows the challenge in using network involvement to drive lasting interaction around positive behaviour in social media.
So what does this mean for companies or app developers hoping to build a community to drive positive behaviour? It points to developing strengths from networking users around a shared interest, using search, collaboration and matchmaking features over the ability to post to existing networks. The power of the news feed or wall post to drive users in may work for social gaming, but it doesn't seem to be there yet in social positive health.
Appendix:
Full list of Positive Health FB applications analyzed:
| Application Name | MAU | Category |
| Cardiotrainer | 78,623 | Fitness |
| Nike+ Running Monitor | 29,786 | Fitness |
| Map My Run | 21,756 | Fitness |
| My Diet | 11,636 | Fitness |
| Quit-o-meteR | 3967 | Smoking |
| Fit-ify! | 3,297 | Fitness |
| Shapelink.com Fitness Log | 3,034 | Fitness |
| CalorieStory Food Diary | 2,286 | Fitness |
| Healthseeker | 1,468 | Fitness |
| Livestrong.com Daily Dares | 1,011 | Fitness |
| Change Reaction | 785 | Fitness |
| No Smoking! | 672 | Smoking |
| Weight Watchers Tracker | 470 | Fitness |
| Weight Challenge | 465 | Fitness |
| MyMoney | 383 | Finances |
| Healthy Lungs | 361 | Smoking |
| Calorie Counter | 269 | Fitness |
| NHS Healthy Living | 239 | Fitness |
| How much money did I save since I've quit smoking? | 162 | Smoking |
| Quit Smoking Counter | 158 | Smoking |
| Stop Smoking | 148 | Smoking |
| Quitclock | 144 | Smoking |
| Quit'n'Tell | 128 | Smoking |
| QuitTracker | 128 | Smoking |
| WeQuit | 98 | Smoking |
| Feed the pig.com | 81 | Finances |
| Spark Your Life Activity Tracker | 69 | Fitness |
| Quit Smoking | 69 | Smoking |
| iChallenge Fitness | 60 | Fitness |
| Nutrition Data | 59 | Fitness |
| Virtual Smoker | 58 | Smoking |
| Sobriety Chips! | 46 | Sobriety |
| Payoff.com | 41 | Finances |
| With a little help from my friends | 30 | Smoking |
| Split Bills | 24 | Finances |
| Healthy Steps | 21 | Fitness |
| Blast n Quit | 18 | Smoking |
| Sober Gifts | 18 | Sobriety |
| How addicted are you to cigarettes | 17 | Smoking |
| Cybercise | 15 | Fitness |
| Quitters | 15 | Smoking |
| Gimmepleez | 11 | Finances |
| Smart Saver | 10 | Finances |
| Yousustain | 10 | Finances |
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