SMart Choice Lifestyle: social media

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Multiple Sclerosis in the 21st Century. Use Social Media to Raise Constant Awareness - Manifesto -

In recent years, with the rise of the new media and then getting more and more social, there have appeared new ways of contributing to the awareness effort. People’s attention is focused on these little screens we call smartphones and tablets. Their attention span became smaller, time has even become a commodity and all the awareness efforts should be made wherever people spend most of their time: on social media.

In today’s article, I’m going to focus on three creative ways (plus a hybrid one) in which you can use the new media. These can make such a big difference in letting the world know about multiple sclerosis.

SOCIAL CONTEXT

All over the world there are many societies, organizations, NGOs and medical institutions who dedicate their entire efforts and expertise to raising awareness and trying to find a cure for multiple sclerosis. There are also huge efforts being made in order to communicate MS to the general public, but mostly in advertising or social campaigns, in changing and creating policies inside the governments and so on.

Being a part of the online MS community myself and having closely observed it for the past two years or so, I can now say that we aren’t using social media to its true potential. Although we have quite an online presence, most of the MS-related communities, pages, etc. are targeted back to MSers, their families and friends, to medical research or political entities.

Given the fact that we are young people with ages between 20 and 40, we are tech-savvy, so we need to do the best we can in order to raise awareness. Constantly, not just on MS Awareness Month or International MS Day. These campaigns bring huge amounts of attention to our cause, but only on the short term.

People tend to forget the things they are not reminded of again and again. Think about advertising. It takes a large number of repetitions for a commercial to raise interest in a product or service, not even mentioning that the market is already supersaturated with ads, promotional emails, promos and intros that interrupt daily lives, only to annoy and lose attention of people completely.

The globalisation of online communication changed our societies. This is where the public opinion is formed today. Social media are the new agora of our civilisation. From ancient papyruses to the written word and television, the world we live in has been built on stories, on legends and on tales of conquest and bravery. We are all looking for role-models, for real-life heroes, we want to hear success stories.

By gaining more and more attention from the ones around us, public opinion will begin to create more buzz about multiple sclerosis constantly. The more people that know about it, the better. They can eventually help in influencing political and social decision-makers to focus more efforts on research and finding a cure, onto creating rehabilitation centres and facilitate access to treatment.

WHAT ARE THE SOCIAL MEDIA YOU CAN USE?

There are three main categories of social media that I would like to tell you about. These categories involve three creative ways in which we can share things and an extra one focuses on mixed media. You can use the ones that best suit the way you express yourself, or a mix of the four. Your choice.

I personally use a mix of blogging, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to share my stories, because I feel more confident writing and taking pictures.

WRITING - Mostly used in blogging. Platforms like: Blogger, Wordpress, Medium, Twitter.

PHOTOGRAPHY - Displaying bits and pieces of your daily life, experiences and favorites. Platforms like: Instagram and Snapchat.

VIDEO - For those of you who wish to record themselves vlogging or telling your story. Platforms like: YouTube, Vimeo, Periscope (live chat using video).

MIXED MEDIA - Can’t decide on one type or want to have more tools in your storytelling belt? Platforms like: Tumblr (text, images, gifs), Snapchat (video and images), Facebook / Twitter / Instagram for their native video capabilities or for their microblogging (text) ones.

WHY IT'S EASY TO TELL YOUR STORY

We like to be given attention, to be able to talk about ourselves and to be listened to. What better way to do this than to use social media? Be constant. Be present. Show your life events with and without multiple sclerosis. Celebrate your wins and share your loses. Let the world know that multiple sclerosis is real, chronic and that it must be cured.

You might not want to disclose your identity. Social can help with that. Create a public persona that will make you feel safe, whilst still be able to be present online. There are countless others who have already put a face on MS. In raising awareness, your story counts. The more voices tell the world about multiple sclerosis, the better.

We all have a story to tell. Some unbelievable ones, I assure you. Stories that the world can learn from. Stories about hardship, human resilience, about helping each other, stories of strength, of needs, dreams, anger, sadness and happiness. All human, all about survival. It’s all about ourselves, but it’s also about sharing it with our communities.

In the 21st century, the power of this new media can serve a higher purpose. That of raising awareness to help our fellow humans and by that helping ourselves as a society.

LET'S MAKE IT A REALITY

Share this short manifesto using the #MS21stManifesto hashtag. The power is always in the community. I invite you to tell your story.

As always, transformation comes from within.

Sincerely,

Alex

Monthly Learnings & Blog Statistics NOVEMBER 2015 #SMartWednesday

It’s time to see how November went in terms of lessons learned and blog stats. At the beginning of each month, I count the blessings and misfortunes of the previous one. Welcome to #SMartWednesday Monthly Learnings & Stats Edition! Keep reading to find out more.

EXPERIENCES & WHAT YOU SHOULD ALSO KNOW

In order to have the lifestyle you wish, you have to make the right and smart choices for you. Do what suits you best and what makes you happy. These are my choices for this month. I choose to share them as pieces of advice that you can adjust in your own lifestyle as needed.

Declutter & simplify the way you live. Go through all your possesions by category and sort each one of them into three piles: keepers, donate, garbage. If you are emotionally attached to a certain item but you don’t use / look at it for weeks in a row, take a picture of it and let it go. For really important items, design a “Memory Box” and add them to it. Then put the box away so that it doesn’t take up your day to day space. Do one category at a time and don’t be pressured to finish. The calmer you are, the best choices you will be able to make.
Let go of negative emotions. You can do this as often as you’d like. Start with once a month ad then go deeper, once a week to daily. All you have to do is to write down all the negative emotions you have felt in the last month, week, day. Have a column for the negative emotion and another one for its reason. Ask yourself why did you feel that, as many times as it takes to get to an answer that you feel it’s right for you. Then forgive those who have done you wrong, ask for forgiveness and most importantly, forgive yourself! Forgive and let go. It’s the most powerful thing you’ll ever experience.
Find balance in life. All the elements in your day need to be aligned in order to help you train your body, mind and emotions to focus and produce better work by staying on schedule. With everything in balance, you don’t have to rethink how, why and when to do things every time you do them. It automates your daily schedule, your week, your month.
Prioritise & simplify routines. If you don’t have established routines, work on building at least two: a morning and an evening one. Make them times of getting back to yourself. Begin and end the day with a clear and eased mind. It does wonder for your brain and way you approach things. Work on having a simple daily schedule and batch similar tasks together, as to save energy. Tweak it as many times as you need.
Visualise your ideal lifestyle & note it all down on a piece of paper. Be as specific as you can be. When you are finished, grab a marker and go over the goals and plans you have in your description. Transcribe them on a separate paper and then work your way down this list, and assign plans and actions for each goal. Make weekly plans of action and daily tasks that will get you closer to your goals each day. Action is the key to all plans and goal setting. Do it!
Go inwards & go deep. Allow yourself at least 10 minutes in the morning and 10 in the evening to really stay silent and think about what your intentions are and what your day has been like respectively. Analyze your motivations, reasons and decisions and write down the most important three things for that day. Three intentions in the morning and three woderful things that happened. You could go even deeper and write an entire page for each. The choice is yours.
Learn to unwind & let go of control. The world doesn’t stop if you don’t control it. Stop. Breathe. Be calm. You’ve done your best for the day. Unwind. Take a hottish shower and do some light stretches, just enough to losen those tight muscles. Close all distractions or put them in a different room: phone, TV, computer. Change into something comfortable, pour a glass of red wine and put on some music, or read a book, or simply lay in bed with your eyes closed. Let go of all things around you and just be. Re-lax, my dears, relax!

SMART CHOICE STATS & SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT

This month I am upset. The Analytics part of my blog got screwed up by some annoying crawlers and spam links that scrambled the statistics I wanted to share with you.

Although the numer of unique visitors has gone up (546 - 70% new, 30% returning), the bounce rate was 93% (percent of leaving the site after a few seconds or just a few minutes) with an average of 32 seconds / session and of 2 pages / session.

Most of my referral traffic came from places like adf.ly (221 users), get-your-social-buttons.info (128 users), snip.to (51 users), site13545613.snip.to (25 users). It's pointless to get high on 500+ unique views when they have no value.

Social was the same as last month, the major traffic bringers were Facebook and Twitter. The most engaged social community was that on Instagram, with 42 new followers and 10+ comments. Twitter comes up second, with 11 new followers and 5+ retweets. Facebook was more layed back this month, with only three more likes.

Blog demographics changed for the better as this month: more than half of you guys were female, with ages between 25-34 (70.91%). The rest were from the upper age groups and / or male. The information on SMart Choice Lifestyle is specifically designed to fit the needs of this age group (female AND male), so I am happy about the outcome.

Most of you guys were from Northern America, Eastern Europe and Eastern Asia. The rest were from Western and Northern Europe, Australasia, South America, Southern Europe and Southeast Asia. Thank you Ontario, New York, Moscow, Yekaterinburg, Kiev, Beijing, Amsterdam, Brighton, Brisbane, for being interested in this lifestyle platform.

The top 5 most read articles in November (click to read each article):

LAST BUT NOT LEAST

I am so grateful for the opportunity to write weekly articles on SMart Choice. I am even more grateful to have people interested in what I have to say. My day is happy if I make only a single one of you guys make the smart choices that will change your life in a positive & healthy way.

Thank you for letting me be a part of your life this month also!

This was all for this week’s #SMartWednesday! Thanks for being here!

You can Subscribe in the upper right hand corner.

Love,

Alexis

#SMartWednesday - October 2015 Monthly Learnings & Blog Statistics

Hi there! Missed talking to you since last week! I’m back with #SMartWednesday. Starting with this October, at the end of each month, I write all about what my experiences were, what did I learn and let you in on stats of the ‪#‎SMartChoiceMS‬‪ social media platforms. Let’s dig into it!

Experiences & Growth

October has been an interesting month for me as I discovered so many new things and correlated with like-minded people, in real life and/or via social media. This goes for both SMart Choice issues, as well as for personal ones. It's a very fulfilling and changing experience to have.

Quieting the mind even more through meditation has made me a more focused and more in depth-view kind of person. It has reconnected me to my inner spark and helped me face and come to terms with most of my fears and anxieties. But not be fooled! This has been an ongoing process for over a year now, and I am just begining to scratch the surface. Nonetheless, I like what I’m finding on a daily basis.

I understood my WHY in doing all that I do. I know! Pretty deep stuff, huh? In fact it’s very simple and could happen to you too. I just looked deep inside myself and understood the reason that has always made me tick. The one thing that was always a part of me, no matter what was the type of thing I was doing at a certain moment in life. They say that when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. There were several ones which appeared. I will talk more about that this Friday, on #LifestyleFriday.

Lessons Learned

Pay attention to the five people you surround yourself with (in real life/online/dead/alive). You are the average of those individuals. It will reflect in your ideas and your point of view. It does change your world view and the way you connect to reality, in time influencing the way you evolve or decline along the way.

I kept my brain active and searched for ways to give back to all of you (show gratitude) and how I can be of assistance. I tried to remain humble and listen to your story instead of constantly telling mine. We’re on a social relationship and it’s a win-win situation.

Being social and connected with likeminded people can truly make a difference. I know that many of you are visiting SMart Choice Lifestyle via a desktop computer. Some of you could have difficulties getting outside or perhaps you are to busy to network in real life.

That’s what social networks were created for. Go online, engage, get into discussions with peers. There is nothing more rewarding than talking to people who understand what you’re going through or that are into the same things as you are.

If you are a young MSer, newly diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, there’s no better place for you to be than on shift.ms. It has been my hub from the first month I found out I had MS, and the people there have helped me tremendously. Go check it out!

You have to stand up for yourself and be your own advocate. Even if it’s through tears.

Stats & Social

October looked pretty interesting in terms of statistics and social media engagement. I put aside my innate introversion and really got engaged with people on social. And the most wonderful thing happened: you began to respond and did what human beings always have done. Communicate. Be curious. Support an idea if it resonated with you.

That translated into a overall growth for SMart Choice, compared to the previous month.

The blog had 448 unique visitors, of which entirely new ones made up 41% of the total.

You spent an average of 4 minutes / session, with an average of 3 pages / session.

The demographics showed that during this month, you were 100% female, with ages between 35-54. Is that true? Raise your hands if you’re not from this interval.

The top 3 places from which you guys visited SMart Choice were: Romania, UK and the USA. Followed by Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Switzerland, Ireland and Spain. Thank you all for visiting!

Socials looked like this: Facebook - 40 likes, Twitter - 86 followers, Instagram - 42 followers. This numbers are reached this month, and reflect the whole eight months since starting the blog.

Most of the traffic was sourced through Facebook, followed by shift.ms and last but not least by Twitter. Instagram did not bring any traffic whatsoever. I’m working on posting more interesting content, so that you can receive more value through what I give.

This was all for this week’s #SMartWednesday! Thank you for reading and if you would like to receive my next articles right into your mail, subscribe to SMart Choice Lifestyle by filling your email adress in the box on the upper right. Join my SMart Warriors list to receive access to Premium content and many more!

Have a most wonderful day!