FaceBook Live Can Change Fitness
Americans have a serious fitness problem. More than two thirds of adults are considered overweight and only 20% of adults get the recommended amount of physical activity. Many initiatives, like Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign, have tried to change America’s fitness problem but have pretty much failed. Despite this, I believe it's possible to design a successful fitness initiative by really dissecting the problem and implementing a solution utilizing Facebook Live.
Before getting into what a Facebook Live fitness campaign would look like, it’s important to understand why people are overweight and not exercising regularly. As most of us can attest to, we know that we should be active but it’s easy to find excuses to skip the gym after a long day of work. So where do these excuses come from? I believe the biggest problem is due to people exercising alone. When you exercise alone it’s easy to skip the gym because you’re only letting yourself down and can rationalize the decision. Having a training partner or personal trainer makes you feel more obliged to exercise as you don’t want to let them down. A training partner will also give you positive reinforcement, which is key because it takes weeks to see results. This delayed gratification causes many people to feel helpless and quit too soon. So in essence, the two key underlying issues causing people to skip the gym are a lack of positive reinforcement and a lack of accountability. Now that we know the root of the problem, where does Facebook Live come in?
I envision a Facebook Live fitness campaign that operates similarly to the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Each day people would live stream themselves for a few seconds commuting to the gym, live stream themselves exercising for a few seconds while at the gym, and live stream themselves after their workout. During the last live stream they would then tag friends they want to see exercising that day. The whole campaign is just three, short live streams each day. But despite the simplicity, something like this would tackle the two underlying problems that cause many people to stop exercising.
By live streaming their commute, people show their friends that they are going to they gym. They are forced to keep accountable and can’t make excuses because their friends will notice if they skip a day of live streaming. On top of that, the person streaming their commute will receive comments and likes from their friends in real time as they head to the gym so they will arrive feeling positive and ready to take on a hard workout. This kind of positive reinforcement is key to making exercise enjoyable when first starting out.
By live streaming themselves exercising, people will have to ask someone to briefly film them which forces them to interact with someone at their gym. This interaction should lead to people feeling a greater sense of comradery at the gym, which will make them more likely to want to come back. Additionally, the daily recordings will act as a video training log that people can browse through and see their own progress. Being able to see how much you’ve improved will keep you hungry for more.
Finally, live streaming after a workout allows people to thank those friends who supported them and gives them an opportunity to call out friends they want to see exercise that day. This encourages everyone to continue liking and commenting on their friends’ live streams and it also makes the challenge a bit competitive because friends will be calling each other out for not exercising. I believe these two factors will help the campaign keep momentum for at least a few weeks.
In addition to the positive reinforcement and accountability this movement would have, it would also give people motivation to start working out who ordinarily wouldn’t. Much like how people hopped on the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge when all their friends did it, people would want to hop on this challenge when they see their friends doing it. And seeing their friends progress each day will inspire people to try exercising and progressing themselves. This would lead to a sort of chain reaction where more and more people join the movement because they’re inspired by the increasing number of friends who are already a part of the movement.
In order to really have a large-scale campaign, I think it’s important to get fitness celebrities involved as ambassadors. This includes people like Dwayne ‘the Rock’ Johnson, Alex Morgan, and LeBron James. These ambassadors would be the marketing face of the campaign and go on talk shows to spread awareness of the movement. In addition to working mainstream media routes, these ambassadors would instantly reach millions of people due to their high follower counts on social media. If a campaign like this is marketed as effectively as the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge was, I expect it would get a record number of people exercising even if just for a few weeks. Obviously not everyone would continue exercising after the campaign ran its course, but I do believe a significant number would end up enjoying the gym and decide to maintain their new lifestyle.
Past fitness initiatives failed because they didn’t address the two underlying issues of inactivity. However Facebook Live offers a unique opportunity to launch a campaign that will both address the issues and reach millions of people along the way.