16 Mar More people using Facebook for health info before face time with a physician
Posted at 01:16h
in Consumer Packaged Goods, Internet Marketing, Product innovation, Social Networking
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Using Wikipedia as a source for an academic paper will still get most people into hot water, yet a growing number of people are turning to even more dubious sites to verify facts for information about their health.
A survey of nearly 23,000 Americans, released last month by the National Research Corporation, says that 20% use social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, to help make health care decisions, with one in four saying the information found there was “likely” or “very likely” to affect their course of action.
Perhaps more telling was that 32% said they had a “very high” trust in social media — only 7.5% of respondents rated their trust level as “very low.”
These are not the young or poor making these decisions, either. The survey found
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In its infancy, advertising was an interruption. Ads were part of the price of watching TV or flipping through a magazine. More recently, brands have experimented with ways to make their messages desirable in their own right, via social engagement and branded content.
But at a Social Media Week event at the Time-Life Building in New York City this month, Gabe Zichermann argued that in the future, brands will use game mechanics to go beyond just getting a customer’s attention. Instead, they will make themselves a part of the rhythm of their customers’ lives. Games are “a process, not a destination,” Zichermann argued.
Zichermann said he defines “gamification” as the use of game mechanics and game-based thinking to solve problems and create user engagement. But more broadly, he explains, a solid game-based marketing program is really just the final incarnation of the loyalty programs businesses have been using for almost 200 years.
In the first phase of loyalty programs, customers were given free merchandise for buying a set amount of product. Think of those cards that promise you a free pizza after you buy nine pizzas at the regular price. These are still the most common form of loyalty program, he says, but they’re not the most effective. They tend to offer incentives 
This post was written by SmartBrief technology editor Susan Rush.
If you think social TV is only for young, hip viewers, you are mistaken. Live televised events or TV series that have loyal fan bases are perfect candidates to add social TV elements — that was one of the takeaways from the “Social Television — .
Where will social TV work?
To open the session, panel moderator Richard Sussman of The Nielsen Co., pointed to the success the 2010 Oscars had with Facebook, noting that “Facebook was the winner of the Oscars.” Shows like the 
This post was written by Mirna Bard, a social-media consultant, speaker, author and instructor of social media at the University of California at Irvine.
SmartPulse — our weekly reader poll in SmartBrief on Social Media — tracks feedback from leading marketers about social-media practices and issues.
Last week’s poll question: Would you pay a monthly fee to use a social-networking site?