Shape is helping readers start the year off right with Personal Best, a campaign that touts a mobile-optimized hub and a Facebook community to encourage users to help each other achieve their fitness goals. 

The campaign also features a full suite of initiatives on an array of social media networks. Shape is also promoting a hashtag for the campaign, #MyPersonalBest, to, among other engagements, connect users with many of the influencers Shape has recruited to be a part of the campaign.

?We?re certainly looking for traditional engagement and traffic as well, but when we were planning for 2017, one of the biggest white spaces we saw in our campaign and product offering was a more cohesive sense of community,? said Amanda Wolfe, senior digital director of Shape.com. ?The Personal Best program is all about keeping our audience engaged and motivated to reach their goals well after resolution season ends?because real goals are not a one-month thing! 

?And to do that, research and our experience with our audience tells us that accountability and community is a huge factor in sticking with your goals?whatever they are. It?s also incredibly rewarding to see our users supporting and cheering each other on to be their Personal Best already!?

Each month, the Personal Best hub on Shape.com will spotlight a new goal ? like eating healthier, getting more sleep and training for a new race ? and give users the practical tools and social support to achieve it. For the January launch, the program also features influencer-developed 30-day fitness and healthy eating plans designed to jump-start 2017.

In addition to the Facebook community, Shape will also host Facebook Live chats, feature Instagram and Snapchat takeovers with influencers, and share original motivational videos and graphics, attempting to strike the delicate balance between influencer-driven and user-driven marketing that publishers strive towards in engaging readers.

?We do at least one Facebook Live per week, and giving our users access to our stable of experts, influencers and editors has definitely garnered a lot of interaction and participation with our audience,? Ms. Wolfe said. ?We never just broadcast?there?s always a social media editor on the other end who?s ready to answer questions, share links, ask the expert questions from the audience, and more.?

The site will regularly publish original editorial content?from service pieces with research-backed advice and news features to first-person stories and custom videos?tailored to each month?s goal.

Magazines have been getting especially creative in order to drive engagement: Real Simple, a women?s interest magazine owned by Time Inc., recently partnered with a leading mobile engagement platform to bring granular sections of content to Facebook Messenger users (see story). 

And The Economist, after widely broadcasting its dedication to fact-based analysis in the aftermath of the election, is moving towards channeling its hard-hitting journalism through a partnership with a global virtual reality network (see story). 

?Mobile is crucial,? Ms. Wolfe said. ?More than half of our audience visits our site on their mobile devices, and, of course, most users on social platforms are also on their phones. 

?So we always think mobile-first in planning our content strategy and user experiences.?