Our weekly update, where we share what’s inspiring us:

A Gym Membership That Charges You for Not Exercising

Most gyms rely on monthly membership charges to generate revenue, but what about charging members more for not going? This is the idea behind Gym-Pact, a model aimed at incentivizing members to attend the gym multiple times a week. Already partnered with three Planet Fitness locations around Boston, the behavioral economics based business model plans to make profits via referral fees and revenue-sharing programs with affiliate gyms. How it shapes members’ behavior is still to be seen.

Facebook Launches ‘Sponsored Stories’

Facebook has introduced a new ad format that turns you and your friends’ Facebook actions into promoted content. With the new format, advertisers can piggyback on users who have already ‘liked’ or mentioned the product or service. Advertisers can then choose to take certain actions, based on the users’ mention of their product. Betting on the increased value of socially contextualized ads could prove a good move towards validating the social network’s massive valuation.

The A-B-C of Behavior

January is almost over – how’s your resolution going? If you haven’t already realized, changing bad behaviors, or trying to nurture new ones, isn’t simple. Design consultant Jodie Moule explores the “ABCs” of behavior and outlines change behavior models.

Trust Barometer 2011

How much do your customers trust you? Does it transfer over to your social media strategy? Edelman outlines their 2011 trust barometer findings, like the Technology sector now being considered the most trusted industry among consumers.

The Age of Coworking: Collaborative Consumption for the Creative Community

Collaborative consumption – from bike-share programs (Bixi), entertainment (Netflix), and car share (ZipCar) – has been inundating society with great success in the last few years. But until now it has mainly focused on our individual consumption. In New York, dozens of coworking spaces have popped up, allowing every profession – from designers to lawyers – to come together and share the expenses related to modern office spaces. Beyond cost sharing, they also tend to foster collaboration and development. With all these great benefits, the question is whether larger companies will get in on the trend.

Scoop.it

Don’t have the time to write your own blog? Scoop.it aggregates sites and lets you focus on a preferred theme to curate a blog-like site of your own. Currently in its Beta form, it reads like a customized digital newspaper, but with the added benefit of a user able to add comments. Pretty cool, and appears to fit a niche as the number of active bloggers continues to drop.