HAWMC: Day 5 - Speak Up, Speak Out, Speak Life!

This is my 3rd year attempt to do this Health Activist Writer's Month Challenge and see it all the way through the month of November. Third time is a charm, right? I have a lists of prompts, I can do this. I will do this. So far, so good since I"ve made it to Day 4 - that's a first!

Each day, WEGO Health, an awesome empowerment network of over 100,000 health activists, posts a prompt and health activists around the world reflect, write and post their experiences with their health in response to these posts. If you've read this far, I thank you. You'll be reading a lot about HIV for the next 25 days. Let's do this!

Living with #HIV has truly changed who I am as a person as far as the way I think, the way I respond to the world and the way I allow the world to impact me. Social media has played a huge role in that. My old MySpace blog was where I first spread my wings in engaging with an audience on HIV. The love and support I received through that platform was overwhelming. It also became a form of my healing. Then MySpace was no longer and I had to adapt. In the day of fast-paced, instant gratification social media, I've adapted to expressing myself on various platforms. It's helped me not just amplify my voice but the hard work of countless others, generating a collective impact on the world. 

Twitter - in my opinion and my little use of it, I think it's the most limiting of expression that I prefer, so I maintain my interest by being a re-tweeter. 140 characters or less gives me anxiety, but when it's important or I want to be the first to say it, I make it happen.  

Instagram - probably my most favorite format as I have two accounts. I love speaking through photos or giving my interpretation to a photo quote. The ability to be able to cross post onto other social media platforms makes it extra fabulous. I do wish that Twitter wouldn't make Instagram shares an outside link though. I also find it's easier to push followers to your other social media platforms when you cross post from Instagram, especially with the hashtags. I have specific ones I use for my advocacy consulting page, feel free to use them when sharing my blog! #empoweredlegacies (name of organization) #embracehealing #giveinspiration #livevictorious (slogan) #SpeakUp #SpeakOut #SpeakLife (slogan/motto/mantra) #missempowered (alter advocacy ego)

Facebook - I love and prefer to share through my emPOWERed Legacies page. Being in the public eye and not wanting to delete anyone, it's been difficult for me to set parameters as I built my following so I have family mixed w/ advocacy peers and people I meet at events add me as well. I'm public about a lot, but there's a LOT I also keep to myself, so my original intent to have a Facebook account to keep up with family sometimes gets lost in communicating my work efforts as well. It's ok though. As long as the message gets out and people actually check on me outside of social media, I'm good.

Oh and I love me some Pinterest, but I don't use that to amplify my voice; however now that I'm blogging more, I really should. That's my safe haven on the Internet. I can fantasize, be in Spain, have a thinner waist, cook amazing meals and be socially amazing all while wearing my pajamas eating peanut butter out of a jar. 

I have a YouTube account but I don't have the things I want or the space to do videos the way that I want - yet.

I'm debating on a SnapChat, the filters do look temptingly fun . I'm debating on Facebook Live but my luck, something embarassing would happen that I wouldn't be able to edit. I'm debating on podcasts or BlogTalk Radio, but I think I will stick with what makes me comfortable for now, and if needed, as I always do I will adjust accordingly.

What's your favorite method of letting your voice be heard? Are there any that are useful that I failed to mention? Thanks for reading! Feel free to comment and share, share, share! If you know of other ways I can amplify my voice, let me know! Co-blogging is also fun, let's make it happen!

xoxo

www.kamaria.org | #embracehealing | #giveinspiration | #livevictorious | #empoweredlegacies