I enjoy the fact that the diabetes online community is not exclusive. Sure, “diabetes” is in the label, but you do not have to have diabetes to be part of the community. Parents of children living with diabetes, medical professionals, super-awesome lurkers that are just curious – anyone can join in the fun. Part of the power o fthis community is the fact that we share. A lot.

Sharing our personal stories brings us closer together. Sharing these experiences, these triumphs, these difficulties, sharing all of it strengthens bonds, educates the uniformed and it welcomes the uninitiated.

One of my biggest difficulties when I was first exposed to the community was how to participate. Would Twitter be enough? Should I just stalk everyone on Facebook? Should I start a blog? What would I blog about? I’m sure these questions circulate through everyone’s head at some point in their digital journey. Thankfully, we have things like Diabetes Blog Week to help ease into the process of blogging, sharing, and connecting.

Karen Graffeo has just announced the topics for the Third Annual Diabetes Blog Week over here. If you’re curious, click the link and consider signing up. If you don’t have a blog yet, now’s the time to set something up. As she details in her post, there are plenty of free options. This blog is on WordPress but there’s also other sites and services like Blogger, Tumblr, Facebook (I know at least one person that uses Facebook’s Notes to, at times, write at length), Diabetes Daily, and TuDiabetes.

Even if blogging doesn’t catch on for you, if you’re reading this I encourage you to keep up with the conversation next week as all of these stories are published. It’s a fascinating insight into the diabetes community and it’s something you don’t want to pass up.