In the UK version of Wired, I read this article about their theory that RunKeeper could become the Facebook of fitness because the company has released an open API. Translation, folks are free to build app stuff around RunKeeper...the open API is one of the reasons why Facebook itself became so widely used.
So now, in your "fitness feed" you'll be able to aggregate all your health info in one place like health stats, check-ins, games etc. RunKeeper is calling it a "Health Graph." Interesting indeed.
One personal note, please, I beg of you developers, no Farmville or Bejeweled for fitness.
We're more than just stats
I totally agree with the article in that, "...fitness has become so much more than just recording how many calories you burn or how many miles you run."
And I am a huge fan of RunKeeper, I use it all the time as my pedometer for when I walk, run, bike outside. In fact, for my 112-day exercise streak, you can see many RunKeeper screenshots of some of my workouts on my Daily Mile page. I love the RunKeeper pedometer interface, and it's ease.
And speaking of communities, I use Daily Mile as my fitness community versus RunKeeper because I think the design of DailyMile is much brighter and fun than RunKeeper whose functions are very practical indeed, but whose design feels cold and unsocial to me. If Daily Mile came up with a cool pedometer for my iPhone, I'd be off RunKeeper all together...not hating, just saying.
What can I say Orange is perky and Blue (when it comes to health) reminds me of health insurance namely Blue Shield. But mind you, because I am a right-brainer, those things matter to me. I love data, I just don't like to see bar charts. I like to see infographics. Daily Mile just feels funner and more social to me.
I am scratching my head on how RunKeeper can be the Facebook of Fitness because where's the mindless fun and socialness? What's fun about looking at health stats? Where are the cute cats?
In fact, many of us avoid looking at our health stats...which isn't to say it's right, it's just a reality factor. Case in point, let's look at health issues in the U.S, they are getting worse not better especially ones directly tied to food and fitness - Diabetes and Obesity. You'd think that us looking at our health stats more would improve our health issues, but apparently not so much. How to help make significant change in health really keeps me up at night sometimes which is why I blog.
Back to being the Zuckerberg of Fitness
Let's be honest, most of go onto Facebook to kill time with our friends and spy on Ex's or try to rekindle old relationships or create new ones. It's mostly mindless fun which is why I bring up cute cats...pointless yet highly entertaining for some reason. And yeah, many will use Facebook for business and networking...but then we can go back to our personal page and do the fun stuff.
Emotionally, we go to Facebook to see pics of our family and friends in far away places of BBQs, weddings, and funny pictures of their pets. We talk about how we farted in the gym and how we think politicians need to keep it in their pants. Yes, we share important news and articles that will improve our lives, but then can quickly digress into a photo of, "So what do you think of my cute pedicure?"
Facebook let's you express a multitude of facets of your life, not just one.
I love my growing community on Daily Mile, but I don't linger as long there as longs as I linger on Facebook. On Daily Mile all we talk about is our workouts, and yeah even share some funny pics and stories of lost toe nails and blisters....ya know because only runners can understand the humor and glory in those injuries.
Don't get me wrong, I think niche communities are fantastic because you can connect with like minded and spirited folks, but to be the "Facebook" of a niche, well that's some grandiose ambition. The key for RunKeeper or any niche community for that matter to become bigger is factoring the fun and socialness, but more importantly the fun! Because hey, one can never put cute cat pics and videos in too many places :-D