I recently came across this post on the blog for the web-developers site MoPro.com and thought they did a nice job with simplifying some key steps to getting your site and presence on the web stronger.  For the full article click here. Essentially they key points includes the following with some editorialization by me. It must have been looking at this image I took this summer while typing this that inspired my reflective thinking today about standing out in a crowd.

1. Create a sitemap and submit it.

Google actually has a great link for this here . Since its where you want to integrate too ,Its always good to start with them then expand your search. Several online tools exist for creating sitemaps as well and found this blog post on SEMrush helpful as a starting place read.

2. Submit your URL.

Yes this means you actually submit it to Google. Here are a few places to review on the hows and whys;

Submit URLs to Google

But the actual submission is done here (you will need to login in) URL Submission page.

3. Set up your Google Analytics.

When I was first starting out – I understood this in concept – but found it somewhat confusing until I realized that if you don’t know the place to add the code, it won’t make sense. If you aren’t super tech savvy – this is a place you want to talk to those that are on the best place to add your code. First steps of this if set up a Google Analytics account. A good link on setting up the tracking can be found here

4. Link to your site on social media.

Duh, no brainer right – well you would be surprised how many people forget this step. Some of that is because different people use different accounts and if you are ant image focused for instance – you might not ever use the instagram account, etc.

Before you start, this is a good time to establish your Social Media Landscape Portfolio. Start a file that lists each account, the objective, those who have log-ins and any parameters you use them for (i.e. one way out, promotions, etc).

5. Create and share content.

OK -I have a real bias on this – I am not a fan of so-called social media experts who essentially “push” other people’s content out on lists without ever developing original or at least “almost homemade” content themselves. In fact I have several folks,  I stopped following as all they ever do it push other peoples posts out, without so much as a context or opinion. Not only do I find that less useful, I reminds me of teachers who use textbook provided lectures without ever really knowing the material or the “real-time contextual opportunities”.

So I say, establish yourself as someone who has something to say and have a viewpoint. It may not always be right or even timely – but it will be yours.  Now this doesn’t mean you can’t “ever” push – but I tend to recommend for every 5 times you push others content out, you  post 1-2 of your own original or “almost-homemade” ones out. This generally means 1-2 times per week or 3 times per month. BUT remember these can be visual as in photos that resonate with your work or themes, words, “moments in time” or as I like to call them “Learning Nuggets”.

Find your own voice, practice at keeping it consistent and create as much as your promote. Don’t forget include the suitable partners or memberships that add to your post.

If you are going to talk about this post for instance, instead of a post like “MentorSF echoes MoPro blog on was to develop yourself online” refocus the content (for twitter or Facebook etc) to use active links such as “Reading @FVStrona latest on expanding your reach with mentions from @MoPro, @goggle and more http://wp.me/p7MC7b-as   ” with each area underlines as an active link.

“What is REAL?” asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. “Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?”

“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”
“Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.

“Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.”

“Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,” he asked, “or bit by bit?”

“It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”

The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams

Wrapping up a 3 day State of Michigan HIV and STD conference in Traverse City on a high note but tired. I was asked to present on integrating technology into public health and comprehensive HIV/STD prevention and linkage to care.

I had forgotten how real ground level statewide conferences can out shine some of the national level ones; presenters actually get time to present versus cramming five distinct themes at 12 minutes each on a panel going against five other panels.
Or seeing diversity in the experiences of the voices; including academic and clinician based content balanced against local level and health communicators content that includes front line worker presentations which has huge contextual value often lost to “hard science” biased national conference content.

Well worth the trip to share some of what I spend so much time on but with an audience that was so eager to hear and implement and question.

Like other national trends at conferences,  PrEP played a big role at this one although because of the rural nature there was a lot of smaller communities here in Michigan that are just beginning to figure out PrEP and how to add it to their discussions. Another big observation was a solid integration that “STD prevention is HIV prevention” and that HIV prevention/treatment as prevention can’t outshine the need for solid STD efforts. An unfortunate  byproduct of reduced spending in some programs which had STD efforts playing “second fiddle”  to the more popular (and better funded) push towards “getting to zero” local and nationsl HIV strategies.