What does it take for social media to truly transform behavior?
Experts already recognize this is the game-changer needed to fully manage public health and safety in a globalized society. The speed and spread of exchanges around the world has simply accelerated too much to treat public health as an exclusively local issue.
There is a long human tradition of turning to technology to produce solutions for complex problems. The Obama administration has officially put the specter of cancer in its cross hairs by announcing its Precision Medicine Initiative to genetically isolate and eliminate the disease in all its forms. For all its promise, targeted cures are inherently less powerful than preventing disease in the first place.
Preventive healthcare is the golden apple in America-enshrined in the Affordable Care Act and routinely discussed by care providers, educators, and even policy-makers opposed to the ACA; but prevention is rooted in individual behavior.
Social media has shown its merits in the business world, as well as a platform for political engagement, fundraising, and viral entertainment marketing; so what about campaigns to collectively elevate public health by influencing behavior? This isn't just marketing a product or an experience--it is marketing lifestyles.
In order to curb the threat of health-threats rooted in behavior-such as obesity, and the accompanying cardiovascular problems that negatively impact and kill so many Americans every year-healthcare workers need to find a more effective way to counter the overwhelming power of consumption-centered marketing and culture. Clearly, simply knowing that food is unhealthy or that exercise is necessary is not enough to fully turn around poor behavior. Influence requires more than raw data.
The kind of changes required to turn unhealthy habits 180-degrees are much more dramatic and interruptive than the sort that might lead a Facebook user to 'Like' an inspirational photo or follow a political candidate on Twitter. As smokers attempting to quit, or foodies trying to get into swimsuit shape can attest, every day presents a new challenge-and an opportunity for failure.
The primary use of social media to help such positive intentions flourish was built around the idea that supportive communities can help proactive individuals stay motivated, focused, and ultimately succeed in changing their own lives. A popular concept, it has enjoyed some limited success-of course, by design it relies on individuals seeking out a supportive network to get help in reaching their own predetermined goals. Encouraging more individuals to set such goals in the first place, and thereby spread their good-health habits through social networks, remains tantalizingly out of reach for public health advocates.
The complex task of sorting through the Big Data pooled generated by social media seems, by comparison, a simple task. This is perhaps why so much work is being done to develop and improve systems for aggregating social data to monitor and track disease outbreaks and better coordinate international responses. This, of course, is a sophisticated reaction to public behavior, and carries with it great potential to curb the impact of deadly diseases-but it is still a reaction.
The challenge, then, is for marketers and health experts to collaborate to find inventive ways to turn imperative messaging (like "Get immunized" or "Go for more walks") from a directive, to an opportunity for creative self-promotion. In emergencies, the problem is less getting out a message and protective advice, and more controlling public panic and overreaction.
There is actually some precedent for success. Public health experts fighting AIDS worldwide have clearly recognized that, when it comes to this virulent STD, changing behavior is as critical as distributing antiretroviral medication and developing a vaccine. To this end, CrowdOutAIDS bet on the power of crowd-sourcing leadership strategy and enjoyed some success in its engagement campaign.
The lesson applied here reflects that of the #IceBucketChallenge, which raised millions for ALS by allowing internet users to showcase their creativity, individuality, and broadcast themselves-the very things that make social media itself such an integral feature of the internet.
This is the double-edged sword of relying on social media-and the vast network of internet users-to advance public health. Messages and intentions can quickly morph into something wholly unintended (and not necessarily desired) without careful management and strategy. Social media certainly can help change behavior; it remains to see if that change can be effectively managed to improve public health.