Ben Sommers on the Social Aspect of Fitbit

Fitbit is more than just a fitness tracker; it’s a social experience that engages people and keeps them motivated, said Ben Sommers, MBA, vice president of North America Business Development at Fitbit Wellness.

Transcript (slightly modified)

What is important for patients and providers to understand about emerging technologies like Fitbit?

I think one of the key takeaways is not just focusing on the hardware itself, the device itself, and not explicitly even just focusing on what the sensors are tracking and what the data is providing with this. What we’re trying to guide them to is this notion that it’s an experience, it’s not a piece of hardware.

And so if you’re going to involve folks in a program, and that could be in a clinical setting, in an employer setting, corporate wellness setting, weight management, whatever it might be, the notion of having a really immersive, social, connected experience is such a key part of, one, getting folks engaged in the program. Two, sustaining engagement over time. And three, keeping them engaged even if there’s not something programmatically supporting it, and by that I mean, they may already have friends and family that are on this same platform, and they’re providing this sort of grassroots encouragement with one another to get and stay engaged, that’s in addition to whatever the employer or the plan might be providing.