Image by ramyo via Flickr
A reflection on Dr. BJ Fogg‘s Persuasion Bootcamp
As health professionals working in health promotion and health communications our primary goal is to create programs that result in behavior change. We have become to some degree accustomed to the use of printed media and advertising in our strategy to engage with our target group and the public.
With the rise in the last few years of social networks like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Quora and many others, our capacity to explore a new form of persuasion forces us to think with a new paradigm.This new form of persuasion is called Mass Interpersonal Persuasion (MIP).
Behavior design has always relied previously on motivation and less on ability with very little focus on triggers (cues or prompts). Our social marketing efforts, promote behavior change with an idealistic view of human behavior. Realistically, human behavior can only be changed through small baby steps or small practical steps and ‘hot triggers’ when applied simultaneously with motivated individuals. Please see Fogg Behavior Model for an in-depth explanation.
MIP is made up of six components (Fogg 2008) that come together in a single platform
1. Persuasive Experience: An experience that uses the Fogg Behavior Model to change behavior by harnessing the power of ‘hot triggers’.
2. Automated Structure: Using digital technology to automate ‘hot triggers’ in an online social experience.
3. Social Distribution: Using social media to share a persuasive experience with friends or online communities.
4. Rapid Cycle: The sharing between friends and online communities can happen quickly.
5. Huge Social Graph: Through social networking sites, the capacity to reach millions allows for mass distribution of the persuasive experience.
6. Measured Impact: The impact/effect of the persuasive experience can be monitored and evaluated in real-time by the users and creators.
Today, social networking sites like Facebook is an important technology channel in MIP but soon using mobile technology will become a natural tool for behavior change. In the past, traditional media were channels for persuasion but these channels were controlled by people or organizations in power or influence. Now, ordinary people and individuals can have an impact when they use MIP to change behavior. I, like Dr. Fogg, believe that human nature is fundamentally good and that we will use MIP for the benefit of society.
#3 things I’ve learnt from Dr. Fogg
1. Putting ‘hot triggers’ in the path of motivated individuals and making the behavior easy to do with small baby steps. Make the intended behavior as simple as possible!
2. Less money, fewer people, less time. “If you’re not embarrassed by your work when you launch, you’ve probably waited too long”. Design, launch, test, iterate and go back to the drawing board in much shorter time periods. The whole idea of baseline data, 200 page project documents etc are working cultures that will shift to a more Silicon Valley startup working culture.
3. Filter all health communications projects to concrete, practical, simple behaviors starting with a e.g. a ‘click’ on YouTube video or a QR code on a campaign poster, a ‘share’ on Facebook, an RSVP for an event and more importantly a ‘comment’ on Facebook. Once this simple behavior is established build on it with the next behavior.
The post Mass interpersonal persuasion appeared first on Youth Health 2.0.