Welcome to the Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge brought together by WEGO Health – a social network for all health activists.  Again, I am participating in the annual Writer’s Month Challenge in which I will be writing about my health activism and health condition based upon prompts given.

Today’s prompt is as follows:

Write about your favourite social network.  Do you love Twitter? Facebook? Pinterest?  Why? 

I can be found on most social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and Instagram!  Facebook used to be my first choice of social networks as, it was the one all my friends used; it was convenient and had a lot of features that I could integrate with online socialising such as the messenger IM, games and so on.  However, since starting the blog and the health activism, Twitter has now become my favourite social network to use.

Twitter has become my favourite social network for several reasons:

1. It only allows 140 characters per tweet and therefore is quick to get your message out there.  It gets straight to the point, and can easily receive and view content quickly 
2. You can be updated with current and breaking news which can come in very handy.  You can follow organisations, charities, or even experts on your specific interest, and able to get up to date on all the latest research, studies and advice relating to your health condition for example
3. I love the ‘favourites’ feature – with so many blogs and articles that people tweet which I want to read but often don’t have the time, I can ‘favourite’ them; and save those links which I can read later when I have the time
4. Twitter allows you to send your message; your story where potentially millions of people will hear it
5. Twitter is also great for promoting your blog and new posts which have just been published and to get more traffic to the blog.  According to my site statistics the majority of people find my blog through Twitter
6. It is a great platform for networking with other ‘spoonies’ and make new and lasting friendships – I have been blessed to have met so many wonderful people, who I now regard as great friends.  Twitter allows us all to stay connected and to stay up-to-date with what is going on with each other.  For example, if we read that someone is having a bad day then we can send messages of support and comfort.  Twitter can basically used to form a small community of like-minded people, or people with shared experiences or in out cases illnesses!
7. Twitter is also a great platform to express opinions on a wide variety of local and global issues; and for bloggers and health activists especially it allows us to express opinions on the issues that matter most to us, and what is relevant to our health conditions
8. Twitter can also be a great tool for researching and finding new information by searching using specific hashtags.  This may be useful for patients wanting to find information on new treatments or therapies that have been recommended by their medical team and determine how effective or what other patients thought of the treatment/therapy
9. The service TweetChat allows users to get involved and communicate live with organisations and chat with like-minded people.  I love getting involved with the WEGO Health Chats via Twitter every week and discussing various topics relating to the chronic illness community
10. There are plenty of Twitter users that provides us all with a constant flow of positive quotes and messages in order to remind us to direct our thoughts in a positive way and become better than we are.  You can log in to Twitter on a bad day and within minutes be lifted by positive words
11. Twitter can be used on computers, phones and tablets via the website or an application that can be downloaded – so you are able to get your message out anytime, anywhere!

Furthermore, if it was not for Twitter, I would never have met some wonderful people and help form the ‘Spoonie Book Club’ – a book club for those of us battling with chronic illness.  A fantastic opportunity to talk with friends on topics that matter most to us, but more than that, also allows us to forget about our illnesses and conditions for an hour and just have fun discussing a great book and have some fun.  Thanks to the other ladies that helped form the book group – Aisha, Anya and Megan!

If you would like to join and discuss some great books, you can connect with us by using the hashtag #spooniebookclub – the details of the book for this month can be found here

What is your favourite social network?  And why?  As ever would love to hear your thoughts!