Socially influencing technologies for health promotion: Translating social media analytics into consumer-facing health solutions

Health-related online communities are increasingly popular platforms on which consumers engage in peer-to-peer communication while seeking and providing health-related information. These platforms provide an empirical account of user communications related to health behaviors. Several advanced analytical approaches have been developed to unearth and characterize social influence mechanisms embedded in these platforms. However, translating these insights into design features of consumer-facing health promotion information systems presents very significant challenges. In this paper, we present a design methodology that utilizes persuasive principles and lessons learned from large-scale analysis of an online community for smoking cessation, to harness social influence and implement as technological features of a behavior support intervention. We transformed observed social diffusion patterns underlying user communication events to user-participatory interactions that can potentially lead to superior user engagement through meaningful network affiliations and thence to sustained healthy behavior change. Preliminary evaluation study and future steps are discussed.