How Social Can You Be?

As Health Activists, our mission is to communicate our message. As of this point in 2012, there have never been more choices for extending your audience reach. Your blog by itself is a great central location, but it’s a pretty small piece of real estate for people to actively search out. There are a range of additional tools that can complement your and send your message further.

Many of you are active on Twitter, which is great. Choice use of hashtags and links in your tweets can expose you much more broadly, especially if what you say is helpful or interesting enough that someone wants to retweet it.

Your social networking sites are a great resource. LinkedIn and Facebook are not only another place to post a link to your blog, but any discussions or groups you participate in adds to your credibility.

You also need to think visually if you want to maximize the chances of reaching the the largest number of people who might be interested in what you have to say. In addition to making sure you include some kind off graphic in every blog post, pin that graphic to a Pinterest board and any others that might be eyecatching and relevant to your followers.

What about You-Tube? It’s pretty hard to argue with the penetration that video has. And with people’s attention spans these days, it could be your greatest hook. I’ve been experimenting for a while now with short Captain Russ diabetes videos like this one. This book trailer is the final tip for the day. The reach of ebooks is exploding. The built-in marketing of Amazon and Smashwords is a huge leg up. Don’t write a book expecting to make any money. Do it because it provides a concise method of detailing your helpful knowledge. Every bit of communication about the book also provides a way to get people back to your blog where they can continue to benefit from your expertise. Ebook publishing is not difficult. I'd be happy to share what I've learned from my project if you're interested.