I am often so very naive.  I know I am supposed to be an adult, who even has some semblance of a brain, but I am a marketer’s dream.

I have never considered social media noise before; never thought about how all the notifications were competing for my attention and how often I had got in to checking my phone.  It’s worse if I’m not focussed, so I can go all day at work and never look but one hint of a moment of boredom or procrastination and I’m there.  Cats and kittens always work…..

It was a presentation by Hany Rizk @Rizkhany last week that brought this in to sharp focus by showing this video.  I recommend that you watch it through to the end:

Also look at the website Time Well Spent

It got me thinking about how I manage my personal time and how I need to find some quieter spaces.  Hany managed to persuade me that I need to use settings better to manage my notifications and even switch off my phone (gulp).  I know, most of you are thinking; ‘where has she been????’

I work in an environment where digital tools are seen as part of the future in the way we support health and well-being and I started to wonder how health related digital tools could compete with the existing noise.  How can we build tools that use notifications etc in a positive way, a way that enhances health related behaviours?  How can we compete with the noise of giants like Facebook and Instagram?  We need to think like Marketers!

If we are to build new digital tools that are successful and fit in with people’s lives we need to consider the noise that we create and how its positioned alongside the existing cacophony of social media.

I wonder who is thinking about that as they design new health tools.  I hope some clever people are!