September is World Alzheimers Month

Hello neglected tens of readers! I’ve missed you!

This particular September means many things in my household. Kids are back to school and the youngest is now a full-fledged First Grader which means everyone is in school all day and I have a full 7.5 hours to do as I please (e.g., sit in silence, sip my coffee and compose this post at my leisure with no interruption! Ha!)

More importantly...

September is World Alzheimers Month. I have a dear friend whose mother is suffering from Early Onset Alzheimers, which I have recently learned is a much more aggressive form of this terrible and heartbreaking disease. Both of us are active in the many forms of Social Media including Twitter and she, along with other members of her family, and members of the Alzheimers Association community have been using this powerful tool to help raise awareness and share information about the disease.

I have talked about before, but cannot say enough, what a powerful tool Twitter can be for connecting people and removing the proverbial walls that exist outside of this arena. With that said, it is also important to remember that there are, unfortunately, seemingly well meaning folks who are not necessarily what they appear to be.

In the world of Social Media perception is reality – I can say anything I want or represent myself in a certain manner that might be entirely false. Integrity, trust and authenticity are the qualities I look for and value the most in my feed. If I connect two people together it is because I feel strongly that they might benefit from the introduction. I am passionate about this – it is what I love to do.

Tips & Twittequette:

Retweet the tweets of major organizations connected to your cause.

Include whatever hashtag they are using (e.g., #WorldAlzheimersMonth #humantrafficking #SusanGKomen).

Engage with and follow people within that community to see how you can work together effectively.

Do your homework before donating money to any organization other than who you know to be the main representative of the cause.

Do not expect to tweet a link directly to any celebrity or news organization and have them magically start clicking your link, following, or mentioning you!

Do not tweet the same link to many people in a short period of time with no other personal interaction. You will be viewed as a spammer and likely reported as such.

Do say thank you and acknowledge when others mention or retweet information for you.

Follow These Influential Folks:

@AlzheimersAssoc
@mariashriver
@Irememberbetter
@ewpotts
@cc4alz

Get Involved:

Please go to the Azheimers Association website to find out all of the latest about upcoming events in your area. There are Walks, Galas and other creative ways to help raise awareness and research dollars for Alzheimers conveniently listed on their site.

Final Thoughts:

There’s no ‘I’ in Team people!

Hope you’ll take a moment to give a Tweet for Alzheimers.

As always thank you for reading.
XO