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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:
- MyPlate
- 12 Salad Presentations
- 12 Things We Learned from MyPlate
- Children, Activity, Diet
- Seven Remarkable Summer Fruit Desserts
- Whole Wheat Breadsticks
- How to make a tropical fruit platter
- Low Sodium Vegetarian Pizza
- Happy Birthday To You
- Portion size matters
- 5 Mistakes of Label Reading
- 5 Ways to Make Salad
- Pound of Melon
- Fill Half Your Plate With Fruits and Vegetables: Labor Day
- Get the Nutrition Right Game
- Super Tapas
- Breakfast Portion Control
- McDonald’s McCafe Coffee – Best Bets
- 15 Things You Can Do with a Box of Clementines
- Pasta Primavera Salad
- 10 Commandments of Weight Loss
- 25 Ingredients for 15 Delicious Meals – What We Bought for $63
- Celebrate MyPlate’s Birthday with Cheesecake
- 100 Calorie Snacks – in Pictures
- Witches and Slaw for Halloween
- Roasted Vegetarian Dinner
- Lunch Portion Control
- Snacking Portion Control
- Take Your Salad to Work
- Hidden Veggies Lower Calories
- MyPlate Fun
- MyPlate For The Heart
- Make a Pear Centerpiece or Pear Salad Or Pear Appetizer
- Roasted Chicken Dinner
- Double Lemon Cheesecake
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.
85 Best Basic Recipes for Healthy Cooking
Judy’s passion for cooking began with helping her grandmother make raisin oatmeal for breakfast. From there she earned her first food service job at 15, was accepted to the world-famous Culinary Institute of America at 18 (where she graduated second in her class), and went on to the Fachschule Richemont in Switzerland where she focused on pastry arts and baking. After a decade in food service for Hyatt Hotels, Judy launched Food and Health Communications to focus on flavor and health. She graduated with Summa Cum Laude distinction from Johnson and Wales University with a BS in Culinary Art, holds a master’s degree in Food Business from the Culinary Institute of America, 2 art certificates from UC Berkeley Extension, and runs a food photography studio where her love is creating fun recipes.
Judy received The Culinary Institute of America’s Pro Chef II certification, the American Culinary Federation Bronze Medal, Gold Medal, and ACF Chef of the Year. Her enthusiasm for eating nutritiously and deliciously leads her to constantly innovate and use the latest in nutritional science and Dietary Guidelines to guide her creativity, from putting new twists on fajitas to adapting Italian brownies to include ingredients like toasted nuts and cooked honey. Judy’s publishing company, Food and Health Communications, is dedicated to her vision that everyone can make food that tastes as good as it is for you.
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