The journey to a healthier life begins with one step. But it can be a very tiny step, according to Persuasive Design pioneer BJ Fogg. Want arms like Michelle Obama? Do 3 pushups when you get out of bed every morning. Wish you could finish a novel? Write one sentence after you drink your first cup of coffee.

Now, take the science of behavioral change and add it to the massive proliferation of mobile technologies. The result? The power to help people live happier, healthier lives.

What does it take to get people to swap French fries for fresh fruit? How can you motivate someone to take the first baby step toward better health? And once they’ve started, how do you ensure that those new, healthy behaviors “stick?”

• Make it unforgettable. Anchor the new behavior to an old one, and don’t forget to congratulate them when they’re done, says BJ Fogg.

• Make it social. MeYouHealth’s Trapper Markelz says to give them simple daily challenges and let them share their accomplishments with friends and family.

• Make it fun! Dustin DiTommaso, Experience Design Director at Mad*Pow knows that an engaging, rewarding game-playing experience can bridge the gap between people’s intentions and actions.

• Make it adaptable. It’s easy to support someone who is already motivated to change unhealthy behaviors. But, what about all of those people who aren’t quite there yet? NutriSystem’s Debra Gelman helps design online experiences that support, motivate and inspire people to be healthier no matter what stage they’re in.

• Make it elegant. Why bother designing an app that nobody wants to use? Josh Clark, Founder of GlobalMoxie, and inventor of the wildly popular C25K (Couch-to-5K) running program; specializes in “designing for touch,” where ergonomics and interfaces are key.

• Make it efficient: If you’re adding mobile or online self-service functionalities, they’d better be just as easy and save twice as much time than what the customer can do offline. Just ask John Yesko, Director of User Experience at Walgreens.

If you know me professionally, you understand that I’ve been balancing two great loves: marketing and experience design. And, like anyone who tries to juggle two careers at the same time, I’ve frequently wished for more time and energy to spend on both.

I’ve burned the midnight oil, risen before dawn, double-booked and juggled meetings, and somehow managed to help Mad*Pow achieve a 35% growth spurt over the past year. Not bad considering the whole economy is in the proverbial toilet.

I’m so proud of the work I’ve done as a Director of Marketing and as an Experience Design Director. It has been a unique opportunity that many people might give a limb for. But the time has come to choose. When I envision myself later in my career I see “DESIGNER” and want to spend as much time working those designerly muscles as possible.

I will miss wearing my marketing hat, but will make sure to pack those brand strategy and communication skills with me for my journey. If there were 48 hours in a day, I’d gladly spend them brainstorming ways to get Mad*Pow the massive media exposure we deserve or creating hilarious viral videos. Unfortunately, I’ve only got 24 and I’m going to spend slightly more than a third of those being a designer.

Which leaves Mad*Pow in need of a new Marketing Director.

So, consider this blog post as a kind of occupational personal ad: Single Marketing Director Position with highly attractive benefits package seeks passionate, nurturing, quirky, extraordinary candidate to knock my socks off.

Type “Social Media Influence on SEO” into Google, limit the results to the last week, and you’ll get 341,000 results. Even though these two search terms would yield billions of results if entered individually, combined they demonstrate how the Internet is abuzz with the connection between the two. Late last year both Bing & Google confirmed the trend outright. So, SEO professionals need to understand that social media will likely become even more influential as the year progresses.

Rand Fishkin, SEOMoz’s CEO and one of the top SEO thinkers around (twitter: @randfish), believes SEO would fall by the wayside without social media. In his blog 8 Predictions for SEO in 2012, he notes,

“Already, we're seeing SEO and social media marketing become intrinsically intertwined, but in 2012, I believe we'll see SEO without social fade, just as SEO without link building did from 1999-2000. It's not just that social signals are making their way into the ranking algorithms (in both direct and indirect ways), but also that social is becoming the dominant method of both sharing and discovery for web users.”

SEO experts didn’t focus on social media during its infancy, due to NoFollow tags. Now that those have been removed, and it’s clear that social media is driving content consumption, SEO experts should start taking note of social sharing. Previously, site traffic and backlinks to your site were the main data points used to prove to search engines that your site had valuable, consumable content and was worthy of high search rankings. Now that social sharing, Likes, RTs, and Shares are defining popular content, SEO experts need to put on their content creator hats, or at least help their clients understand this new shift in how rankings are calculated.

Personally, being a White Hat SEO expert, I am pleased that social sharing metrics are being used. Those SEO professionals using questionable tactics will have a harder time tricking search engines into thinking their site is worthy of top rankings.  Since search engines will be using some qualifying social measurements, such as Google’s “Author Authority,” as well as others like engagement level, timing (rss feeds posts), and quality of followers, these Black Hat SEO pros won’t be able to manipulate ranking as much. Search Engine Watch discusses these possible new ranking measurements in their blog, if you want more insight.

Google has done a good job of responding to questions on social site ranking in terms of social sharing:



Now listen, I’m not saying you need to actually create new content as an SEO expert. What I am saying, is that the list of SEO best practices will grow going forward. Clients will need to be educated on how to best use social outlets, how to set up reputable social accounts for “Author Authority,” how to craft engaging messaging that drives click-throughs to the content, and how to best use social networks to promote social sharing. Social media will be playing a much bigger role in SEO in the coming year so make sure you understand how to leverage each outlet to be able to continue to compete for top rankings.

Read other Search Engine Optimization & Search Marketing posts by Jonathan Mackin. Drop Mad*Pow an email about SEO and Social Media at solutions@madpow.net.