Motivational Strategies for Improving Healthy Eating Habits: A Thematic Analysis of a MyPlate Twitter Campaign

Abstract

This study examined the #MyPlateMyWins Twitter campaign from ChooseMyPlate.gov to understand the motivational strategies used to influence people to change their eating habits. Although studies have explored healthy diet promotion in a variety of contexts, researchers have been slower to explore how Twitter is used in this regard. Applying Uses and Gratification (U&G) theory and using a thematic analysis, this paper found three major strategies used by the campaign: Starting with small changes in health behavior; being a healthy eating role model for kids; and, remaining physically active. These findings should be helpful for organizations or individuals to design effective strategies on social media platforms to advocate people to change their healthy eating behavior. A major limitation of this research is that it used data from only one campaign and one hashtag. Accordingly, I suggested conducting future research using persuasive contents from more than one campaign and hashtag to find the more refined outcome