Going Social — Will It Work for Wellness?

December 08, 2011

In the late ’90s, as Health Enhancement Systems was moving our paper-based wellness campaigns online, we included buddy features and interactive, fun elements that engaged participants in more than just the ABCs of healthier habits. Some potential buyers immediately raised a cautionary finger, suggesting they would have a hard time convincing management that employees wouldn’t be “wasting time” on the Internet instead of doing their jobs.

How times have changed. Now our online customers and prospects can’t get enough (we call it twitterpated) — wanting to learn all about the social features built into our products and how that can make their dreams of wellness programming success come true.

Licking the Ice Cream Cone vs. Burning Off Ice Cream Cone Calories

Using a social media site like Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Twitter is like licking an ice cream cone. It’s tasty, easy, immediately rewarding, and enormously popular — according to Nielson Wire, more than 20% of all time spent online in 2010 was on social media sites. And the time/person on Facebook at 6 hours a month was 2.5 times more than the next closest website. It’s astonishing when you consider just a few years ago, these sites were barely on anyone’s radar.

But changing a health behavior isn’t like licking an ice cream cone — it’s hard and the rewards aren’t immediate. Some wellness practitioners, who know this all too well, have mistakenly tried to trick participants into believing it is easy by suggesting that little changes here and there will do the trick. It may be the most counterproductive notion dispensed by well-meaning health promoters.

What Social Tools Do Work for Wellness?

Simply creating a way for people to interact within a wellness website doesn’t accomplish much, if anything, by itself. People don’t spontaneously form supportive groups that move the needle for population health in a positive direction. Why not? Because, frankly, they have easier and more immediately rewarding things to do, like post fun pictures on Facebook… of their friends licking ice cream cones. But you can build social elements into your campaigns and website that have significant impact — with the right execution. Here’s what we’ve found works…

Teams. You can boost overall participation by up to 40% and completion rates by 50%. Some keys to success:

• Stick to 4 or 5 participants in a team. Any fewer than 4 and it doesn’t feel like a team; more than 5 presents a psychological hurdle for many.
• Make the team goal about consistency, not super-human feats of athletic accomplishment. You want the average Joe or Jane feeling their chances of success are as good as anyone’s.
• Keep it brief, yet meaningful. About 6-10 weeks for a team competition is long enough to have participants feel results personally, but not lose interest.
• Give everyone a shot at “winning.” The overall competition stays interesting to everyone the first few weeks, but as the top teams start to pull away, the bottom teams can lose motivation. Set a minimum threshold for weekly participation and make anyone who achieves it eligible for a random prize. Call it “Weekly Winners.”

Buddies. In addition to teams, set up a noncompetitive way for friends to view each other’s progress and communicate through the program. Make it visual, not just the numbers. But don’t stop there. Post tips or articles on how friends can help each other be successful in behavior change.

Wall posts. Create a page where participants can share thoughts on the program. But don’t just build it and hope for the best. Designate a content expert to drive the conversation with the latest program updates, interesting research, and fun facts. Most people who visit the page won’t post a thing or reply to anyone’s comments — that’s okay. If it has useful information that’s updated regularly, they’ll return to check it out — giving you another way to educate and inspire.

There’s no question a networked world offers significant reach and the opportunity to leverage the collective strength of your population. Take full advantage of it, but remember that improving health still happens in the nonvirtual world, it’s still not easy, and your participants will ultimately have to take responsibility for their own health if they’re to have lasting success.