8 Ways You Can Support the Space Industry

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The average person can significantly help increase support of the space industry. Here's how:

• Talk about space on your social media accounts. (This is the easiest way.) Share links to cool space images and articles and encourage you friends and followers to do the same! [Learn how easily you can use social media to inspire people to support the space industry.] This will expose your friends and followers to the wonders and benefits of space exploration - sometimes that's all it takes!
• Let me know if one of the celebrities you follow says/does something in support of the space industry. I will then add them to the list of Mars Stars (celebrities actively showing support of the space industry). It's important to recognize and show our appreciation for these celebrities because they increase publicity and exposure for the space industry! Celebrity support could be the catalyst that gets a lot of new people interested in space again. [Why celebrity support of the space industry is so important]
• Spreading the word about the list is huge. The more people that know about it the more incentive there will be for celebrities to support the space industry and get on the list. Everybody knows someone that knows someone who can help to publicize the need to increase celebrity support of the space industry. And even if you don't you can impress on other people how important it is and start a chain that will eventually get the message to someone with a connection! 
• Write a small piece for your local paper about why the space industry is so important! Because local papers rarely feature space articles you will be reaching an entirely different demographic than most space articles!
• Send letters to politicians telling them that you care about the space industry and outlining why they should too! If more people do this politicians will see that their constituents truly care about the space industry and they should fight for it.
• Participate in public forums and ask questions about space - If a celebrity or organization is taking public questions then ask some about space! A lot of times different celebrities and organizations take time to interact with their fans and followers over Twitter, Reddit, or some other public forum. Encouraging them to show support for the space industry could get them talking about it!
• Hold a space-related event at your house and invite people over! If there is a big launch coming up you could just invite some friends over to watch it on TV. During an eclipse you could have a barbeque or outdoor party. It's a reason to get all your friends together and have a good time while showing them how cool space is. I know I'll probably do throw a party when the Mars Science Laboratory touches down in August!
• If you have kids, teach them to love space! If you show them how beneficial and amazing space exploration is you could inspire them to study the sciences and go into a space-related field later in life!

Doing any or all of these things will expose people to space that otherwise might not have been. Oftentimes people aren't interested in space because they haven't seen how amazing it is. The more people interested in space, the more people will support the space industry. YOU can help make space a part of people's lives again! If we do that, we'll see space put back at the top of the agenda again!

Find a Niche and Establish Yourself in the Space Community

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A few days ago I wrote a post called You Can Use Social Media to Inspire Others to Take an Interest in Space. I've heard from a few people that they really want to help increase interest in space and are going to start using social and new media to do so. But the question has arisen, how does someone find a niche in the space community and then establish themselves?

Creating a space related blog is the perfect way to help inspire others to take an interest in space. The idea of creating a space blog can be overwhelming. Space encompasses everything in the universe and you can't possibly cover all of it by yourself. There are already numerous sites that have news on everything related to space, so if you want to make an impact you will want to narrow your scope and focus on one or two aspects of space. This will give you an audience that wants to read more about one particular aspect of space. For example, Mars Travel concentrates a lot on Mars, so the readers are generally going to be people more interested in Mars.

Below are some steps you can take to find your niche:

• Determine what interests you most about space
•  Is there already an established website dedicated to that aspect of space?
• If there is that shouldn't stop you, but it can make it harder for your site to get off the ground and produce unique content.
• Is there enough information related to this area of space to create regular content? 
• If not maybe you should combine it with one or two other aspects of space.
• Is this a topic that you can make interesting?
• Some things will be hard to get people interested in, but ultimately if you are a good enough writer you can make anything interesting.
• Determine how you can use your skills and experience to provide a unique perspective
• Do you have experience in a field unrelated to space? If so, you can use your knowledge to help relate space to that field. This will give otherwise disinterested people a reason to take an interest in space.
• For example, if you work in the entertainment agency you could have a blog that uses references to films to explain different space missions, phenomena, etc.
• For example, if you work with computer software you could write about the different programs used in the orbiters, rovers, probes, etc. 
• Find a way to create interesting and unique content.
• Find something that hasn't been done before then do it. 
• This is what I did with my Mars Photo of the Day posts. I noticed that no one had ever showcased images of Mars on a regular basis and that it was difficult to find images of different features on Mars. 
• You want to give people a reason to come to your site over one of the bigger space sites, so you want to offer them something that they can't get anywhere else.

Once you find your niche there are some critical steps you must take to ensure you get people interested in what you have to say:

• Use social media to spread your articles/posts. You won't be able to stand out if people are never introduced to your content.
• I'll write a whole different article on this later, but for now just know that half of blogging nowadays involves using social media to connect with your audience. 
• Write often
• If you only update your blog sparingly its going to take a while for you to get a foothold, but if you have new content all the time there is more for people to be interested in. You could write this great article once a month, but if people aren't continuously going to your site for new content they would never see it. 
• I know you're busy. You have a job, a family, a life, etc., but write as often as you can.
• If you can't put in the time to keep an updated blog there are other ways to inspire others to take an interest in space.
• Accept all feedback, negative and positive, because it is only through feedback that you can improve your content and its appeal. 
• Don't get frustrated with a lack of readers, especially at the beginning.
• You have to consistently create quality content before you can expect a spike in readers (unless you're a celebrity or something). 
• Creating a good blog takes a lot of patience and perseverance; most blogs fail because their author's just give up.
• It's not going to be an overnight success and it will take hard work. You have to build a relationship with people over a long period of time. 

If you follow the steps above and keep working at it you will find your niche and be able to do your part to inspire others to take an interest in space. And who knows, maybe one of the big space sites will like your content and ask you to contribute to their sites!

YOU Can Use Social Media to Inspire Others to Take an Interest in Space

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Do you want to help inspire others to take an interest in space exploration? What's stopping you?

What, you thought you had to be a rocket scientist or billionaire to make a difference in the space industry?

Well you don't. Anyone can help inspire other people to take an interest in space exploration.

Below are some suggestions on how you can use your interest in space to inspire others using social and new media!

• The easiest, least time consuming way is to begin posting about space on your social media accounts, like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or any other ones you have. If you read a cool space article then share it with people! Sometimes people aren't interested in space because they aren't exposed to all the fascinating news or images about it! 
• So many space-related sites (including this one) make it incredibly easy to post their articles to your Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and other social media accounts! If your friends/followers see that you are interested in an article then maybe they'll check it out and become interested too!
•  You can start a blog about space that showcases some of the cool things you find when bored and perusing the Internet.
• Once you start doing this you might start seeking out really cool things to post to your blog. You'll probably learn more about space by doing this than you ever thought possible. (I know because I learn something everyday while finding content for my Mars Photo of the Day.)
• If you are interested in a particular aspect of space you can write a blog centered around it. (This is what I did when I realized there weren't that many regularly updated blogs on Mars.)
• There are numerous Space sites that cover all aspects of space, but a lot of times you will find some specific space topics that do not have their own site dedicated to them.
• If you have a blog you will also have content for your social media accounts!
• Try to create content, either on a blog or through social media, that will appeal to an audience other than the typical space enthusiasts.
• If you can make space appeal to people with seemingly unrelated interests like art, entertainment, etc., then you could inspire even more people to be interested in space that might not otherwise have been.

YOU can inspire others to take an interest in space.  There are so many amazing discoveries to be made in space, but they are dependent on space enthusiasts spreading the word and inspiring others to take an interest. The more people interested in space the more support there will be for future space research and exploration.

You will be amazed at the number of people you can inspire to take an interest in space through social and new media. You'll also have a lot of fun doing it and find tons of people that share the same interest in space as you! Give it a shot; you will probably be surprised at what you find.

[Find a Niche and Establish Yourself in the Space Community]

If you need some inspiration on how to use different social media platforms to promote space related content then feel free to check out all of mine!