Tweetable - Food and Health Communications

Are you looking to grow your social media presence? It can be easier than you might think, especially with the right approach. Try these tips to improve your social media strategy, then feel free to update your feeds with our most popular nutrition articles and recipes.

Tip #1: Be Present

Establishing an online presence is vital. No one will know about how amazing your nutrition tweets and updates are if you only post them once a month. Tweet often, generally more than once per day, and update Google+ and Facebook on most days. People will be more likely to follow you if they know they can depend on you for regular updates.

Being present also means participating in online discussions about health and nutrition. If someone is talking about MyPlate, chime in if you have something to add. You can also start a conversation, once you’ve built up your list of followers. Have people weigh in on the latest health topics, or ask them what they’d like to see from your profiles.

Tip #2: Remember Your User

Although it’s tempting to talk all about yourself (it is social media after all), tweets and updates that gain more traction often look at health from their followers’ perspectives, making things overtly relevant to them. For example, instead of, “We found this fascinating study about antioxidants and heart disease,” try “Have you heard the latest about the link between antioxidants and heart health?” or “Add another resource to your heart disease prevention plan.”

This also means that you need to respond to any user feedback immediately. Thank people for their comments and respond to every single question. Do this as soon as you can. This is social media -- people expect things to be quick and simple. They will not be happy if you take a week to write back to their nutrient question.

Tip #3: Mix it Up!

Make sure you keep things varied. Yes, vitamin D deficiency is a huge deal, but if all your updates focus on it, people will get bored -- especially if you’re updating multiple times per day. Use a bunch of different tools to get your message across, approach a problem or issue from multiple angles, and make sure that each update doesn’t look exactly like all the others. Theme weeks or days may give you an opportunity for delving more deeply into the issues that matter most to you, but, even then, variety is important. Consider approaching a topic from a series of expanding or narrowing perspectives.

Tip #4: Use Other Resources

There are tons of resources out there to help you keep your nutrition-based social media campaigns simple, fun, and relevant. Try using a social media manager. We’re especially fond of Hootsuite (http://hootsuite.com/), though there are many to choose from. Don’t just set it and forget it, though. Breaking news can cast new light on something you wrote a week ago, so check to make sure that your messages are still saying what you hoped they would say.

Another great resource is tracking software, which helps you see which updates and tweets get the most traction. Hootsuite offers tracking, as does goo.gl and many other sites.

Of course, you'll need great nutrition content too. If you're looking for inspiration, check out these lists of our most popular articles, or visit our amazing Nutrition Observances Calendar.

Top 35 Most Popular Nutrition Articles:

12 Monthly Food and Nutrition Observances Calendar Links

These have lists of produce in season, seasonal and relevant articles and recipe lists for each month. Tweet the link below or see the link to tweet more links from each month that are very timely.

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