Living in today’s health care environment is fraught with contradictions.

On the one hand, we are an empowered culture creating better and more universal access to health through programs like the Affordable Care Act. People of all ages and ethnicity are making proactive steps to prevent illness and to incorporate wellness into their everyday lives.

Conversely, the dangers associated with non-communicable diseases are threatening our future. Research tells us that if we don’t change our eating behaviors, then 86 percent of the American population will be obese by 2030. A number of consumer awareness campaigns and programs have been launched but, as much as we educate people on the dangers of obesity, tobacco and sedentary lifestyles, changing these deeply ingrained personal health behaviors is difficult.

While opinion leaders and academics hotly debate health behavior change and what it will take to reverse these dangerous trends, people are taking the conversation into their own hands and participating in the debate in a much different way: through storytelling.

Stories of personal health transformation are permeating our social existence – these stories live on YouTube, on Facebook newsfeeds and are traded during cocktail parties. We’ve become a society that’s keen to document and share our personal stories of health. Whether it’s through words, film or imagery, we are telling what’s working, what’s not and why we’re committed to improve ourselves. And we’re not afraid to get personal.

Take Arthur’s Inspirational Transformation, a video with over 9 million views on YouTube. From the get-go, we’re drawn in by Arthur’s story. He invites us to join the ups and downs of his very personal health journey. We don’t know Arthur, but we’re rooting for him as if he’s our brother or friend. By the end, we’re moved. For many, the realization might be, “If he can do it, so can I.” For others, it might be as simple as getting to gym for an unplanned workout. Regardless, the story moves our minds, our hearts and, in turn, our actions. The story inspires some kind of change.

At Edelman, we’re consistently seeing all forms of storytelling content move people to action. To dive deeper into this trend, we convened a panel in March at SXSW, “Contagious Content: Making Healthy Behavior Stick,” with companies that are rethinking wellness and creating contagious content that can inspire, engage and raise awareness.

The panel explored three attributes that we as health communicators should keep in mind when creating content that people can consume and act on:

1. The content must be created for the person. Health and well-being are personal, so content must be equally personal and customized for the individual to maximize impact.
2. Compelling content should rally the community. The act of making health a group and socially-connected endeavor is a top motivator in health behavior change.
3. Emotion — whether it’s humor, inspiration, sadness or joy — is a key driver in behavior. When you have an emotional tie to an idea or behavior, you think, learn, feel and act.

Image credit: tableatny

For television networks, trying to attract a Millennial audience is not a surprising move. The Millennial generation, defined as those between the ages of 18 and 33, is now the largest on the planet. But launching new TV channels to reach them may seem counter-intuitive. Some studies say that television is a dying medium as habits shift to newer forms of entertainment, such as social media or YouTube. But the fact is that Millennials are still watching television in great numbers. According to Pew Research, nearly six in 10 Millennials watch at least one hour of television every day. The real shift is HOW they consume television. A 2013 eMarketer study found that 106 million Americans, or one in three Americans, watched TV online. That number is expected to grow to 145 million in the next four years and the trend is led by those ages 18-34. In 2010 a survey of college freshman found 87 percent said they prefer watching TV and movies online rather than subscribing to a cable or satellite dish service. Some television networks realize this shift and are evolving to better engage them.

This Fall, two new television channels will launch that target the Millennial generation. The first new channel, called Pivot, will feature “entertainment that inspires social change” and will include a broad range of shows from comedies to documentaries. Pivot also acquired the highly acclaimed series “Friday Night Lights.” The second new TV channel is called FXX, and is a spin-off from the FX network. The FXX channel will include a mix of re-runs, including shows like “Parks and Recreation,” and also include new original content, focusing on comedies, including “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” which will move over from the FX channel.

What both new channels have in common is that they are built in a way that acknowledges how Millennials want to view television – online and on-the-go. Both channels will features their shows as a traditional television channel, but their focus will be on content viewable online and offering an app that allows for live-stream or on-demand content via smartphones and tablets.

These two channels are reacting to a new reality in entertainment. Passive television viewing is a thing of the past for the newer generations. Millennials want to view their favorite shows on their mobile devices, and they are using several types of media at the same time to interact with the content they view. The challenge for marketers today is to create content they want to view, but equally important is to make it viewable in the right places and to make it interactive. These two new TV channels represent what most television will look like in the not-too-distant future.

Alex Abraham is a senior vice president at Edelman and the director of the 8095® Millennial Insights Group. Follow him on Twitter @alexbabraham.

The new layout change will be made available on March 7^th; however most brands won’t be required to adopt the new layout until mid-June.

Layout

Within the new layout, YouTube has eliminated the customizable background and replaced it with Content Art—a photo banner that automatically resizes depending on browser size and the device used. The Channel Art does not have to be an image; it may also contain an unlimited amount of text with a call to action.

YouTube has also eliminated the image mapping function and replaced it with the ability to add links that show up as icons on your Channel Art. You can list up to four verified sites, which can vary from a brand’s Facebook page to a brand’s website.

Channel Trailer

For non-subscribers, a brand’s landing page features a Channel Trailer that automatically begins when a visitor lands on the brand channel. The Channel Trailer takes up prime real estate on the homepage of the channel, making it an important asset that brands can use to give a brief description about their channel, promote specific campaign videos or engaging content.

The Guide

YouTube has added a Guide, which lives on the left hand side of every YouTube page and is comprised of every user’s subscribed Channels. Through the use of the Guide, YouTube has made it easier for subscribers to navigate back to a specific Channel with just one click and optimizes navigation so that users are one click away from the YouTube content they care about the most.

Curating Content with Sections

In addition to the Channel Trailer, YouTube gives brands greater control over how content is displayed by enabling them to create custom experiences through the use of Sections. Sections can contain a playlist, videos or both.

Creating a Community through Tabs

Instead of landing on a brand’s channel to consume only videos, YouTube has added a tab functionality that enables users to interact with the channel on various levels. The five different tabs that live on a brand’s YouTube channel are: Overview (Home), Videos, Discussion, About and Custom. Brands are able to enable or disable the Discussion and Custom tab.

The Overview or Home tab is where the Channel Trailer lives for non-subscribers and where Sections live.

The Videos tab displays all of a brand’s video content.

The Discussion tab is where YouTube emphasizes the community aspect of the new platform, allowing users to comment directly on the Channel in addition to commenting on specific videos.

The About tab informs visitors about the brand, what their YouTube channel offers, and their other online platforms. The About tab is also where the Feature Channels list lives in addition to living on the right hand side of the page.

The Custom tab, which has its own unique URL, is the only part of the new YouTube design that can be targeted based on IP addresses. Using this IP address targeting capability, the Custom tab is extremely useful for brands that want to create a Global YouTube Channel where they can target country specific content. Note: The Custom tab is only available once a YouTube rep has verified your brand.

Why It Matters

• YouTube is moving away from being a video-only platform and is turning into a dynamic, highly visual environment for users to engage with brands.
• The new features (sections, trailers, etc.) emphasize the importance of rich content to recruit new subscribers.
• By making this shift, YouTube is emphasizing the importance of a brand channel subscribers and on creating and cultivating a community of brand enthusiasts through engaging content.  It is no longer a video repository and instead a true social media platform.
• The new Channel layout reflects YouTube’s recognition of the importance of maintaining a consistent experience across the multiple devices site visitors are using to consume content on YouTube, from mobile devices to TVs.

Recommended Reading

• How to Prepare for the New Channels Design
• Introducing Your YouTube One Channel

Contributors: Charlotte Runco, Celia von Bernuth, Stephanie Finn, Analise Siciliano

Global Pages is a streamlined solution to create a better experience for global businesses and their community on Facebook. Essentially, it creates a central hub, allowing brands to have one global brand identity. Brands will be able to customize their Page’s look and feel for each country or geographic region, while maintaining global metrics such as Likes, People Talking About This, and check-ins.

How It Works

Instead of the current multi-page model in which brands have created their own localized solution, they will now have the ability to create local country-specific or regional versions of their pages that will sit within one central hub on Facebook, following a unified naming convention.

Brands that follow a Global page model will have the opportunity to localize the following features:

• Cover Photos
• Profile Photo
• Tab Structure
• Photos
• Access to local Facebook Insights data
• Brand Mailbox
• Vanity URL
• Milestones
• About Section

What Does This Mean For Brands?

1. Page Direction & News Feed

Fans will be directed to different pages based on Facebook’s geo-prediction algorithm, which takes into account IP address. ‘Current City’ is not factored into this algorithm, meaning that while traveling, fans will be directed to the local page. Brands with Global Pages can redirect multiple countries into single regional pages. For example, a brand could direct Canada, the U.S. and Mexico to a “North America” page.

Another thing to note is that fans will be able to select which page they want to view. The selection is then remembered for future visits to the brand page, and the updates from the selected page will show up in fans’ News Feed. If a market is not selected, Facebook will serve content from the market they think is most relevant based on the algorithm. If a user cannot be located and has not selected a local page, Facebook will serve the global page.

2. Organic Wall

As Timeline stands right now, organic wall posts are not specific to one region. Posts from fans from all over the globe can be seen on the wall under the single-page model. With the new Global Pages set up, the organic wall will be fully targeted – displaying the fans’ most relevant to the market.

3. Brand Mailbox

This feature was not open as part of the API so CMS platforms could not provide solutions to geo-targeted brand mailbox messages in the past for single-page brand models. However, with global pages, each locale will be able to view and respond to messages from its respective market. This is a big implication for social CRM and management of campaigns/promotions through the Facebook page.

Considerations

1. The New Rules of Naming

Local pages can only be renamed to follow the naming convention of the Global Page. For instance, [Brand X] Japan can be renamed [Brand X] but not migrated to another locality such as Korea. Pages will also not be able to change category (Product to Brand, Group to Page) in this process.

Brand pages will have a consistent URL that will take the user to either the global page or the local page based on user preference or geo-location. Local market pages will also have their own direct URL that can be used to send Facebook fans to the specific pages. Therefore, brands can now use the global Facebook URL in creative assets such as television commercials and still drive to local activations.

2. ‘Breaking Up’ a Global Page – A Single Page Model Caveat

The new Global pages product makes it fairly seamless to connect separate local pages under a global umbrella, but if you are currently operating a single global page that delivers targeted News Feed and tab content, there are some additional steps involved.

Each market within the global page will have to create a new page named ‘Brand [Market]’ (abiding by the naming convention guidelines) and repopulate with backdated posts/milestones on the Timeline as well as localized Profile Picture and Cover Photo. When this page is pulled back into the global framework, this will be the version that fans in that market will see moving forward.

3. Bringing Glo-cal to Monitoring and Issues Management

Fans will be able to easily toggle between all of the pages in your global network. This may give any groups that want to attack brand pages easy access to do this over multiple pages. It will be more important than ever that all teams managing local pages are communicating and consistent in how they handle issues.

The use of CMS platforms can help mitigate the issue through monitoring and flagging tools, but as a best practice, those managing social media presences should implement and internal system for handling crisis issues.

4. Data. Globally. On Your Competitors Too.

Later this year, Facebook will include in its API country-level fan counts for all Pages, including both those using the Global Pages framework as well as Pages that haven’t transitioned to the new framework. Analytics teams will then be able to track how each country-level page is performing across all global markets. In addition, teams will have the ability to compare individual Pages’ Fan counts on a country-by-country level against other Pages on Facebook, all within the API.

5. Local Content Can Have a Big Impact

We’ve said it a million times. Content is king. Local content is even better. And that’s where the focus should be with global pages. Brands should not just repeat translated posts across local pages. They will have to listen to their local community, measure activity, consider local trends and develop appropriate content that will resonate with local audiences.

6. Global Ads Work Better for Everyone

The new Global Pages model benefits brands’ ad spends as well as Facebook’s income. Global brands previously targeted Facebook ad buys to their primary languages. If a U.S. page, for example, buys ads in English, a non-English speaker has no incentive to Like the page. In addition, the money spent on those particular users does not drive stronger engagement. With Global pages, Facebook incentivizes brands towards making larger, more global ad buys specifically targeting global audiences.

Recommended Reading

Below are articles we recommend reading to learn more about Facebook Global Pages:

• Facebook Launches New Page Structure for Global Brands
• Facebook launches ‘global pages’ for brands to offer localized experiences
• Facebook’s New Translated And Localized Global Pages Could Lure International Marketing Dollars

*Starbucks and Dove are Edelman clients.

This article was compiled by Reema Mitra, Zach Pospisil, Chris Rooney, Adam Rosenberg and Suzanne Marlatt.

Image credit: Scott Beale

SCO (Social Content Optimization), is a process Edelman Digital is presently refining based on our belief that search and social are intertwined.

In our model, we first perform that initial search and social conversation audit to see what people are asking for or discussing but then compare the results to a company’s public digital assets such as videos, images and documents to see if they are properly aligned with the vernacular people use for search and easily shared between people socially.

In short, a digital asset that is searchable AND sharable is more relevant. Theoretically, the net result looks something like a huge spider, spreading and maximizing the find-ability and share-ability of a client’s materials so they organically work much harder for you.

What are your thoughts on the future of search – do you have a content optimization plan for your business?