As most people on social networking sites are aware the potential for personal rants and raves to be read by a large online audience is huge, particularly on Twitter. This potential increases even more when the advice or information is of genuine quality and expertise.

Health and fitness is a booming industry and any good advice over the internet is met with real enthusiasm nowadays. When this is coupled with high profile sources like professional sports teams or athletes, people take notice. It is this that is revolutionising the way people get useful information and motivation about fitness and exercise.

There is a huge number of Twitter accounts hosted by fitness and exercise sources such as Men’s Fitness or Women’s Fitness Magazine and as you would expect they continually post tips and articles about how to get your perfect six pack or stick to that New Year’s diet. As with anything, some of the accounts are useful and others aren’t so much.

My Fitness Hut struck me as a particularly good one for general exercise and All Good Nutrition is a decent one for diet and wellbeing. But overall there are a lot of people out there offering advice about all kinds of fitness and exercise related topics.

However what surprises me is how little professional clubs, teams and sportsmen contribute to this trend over social networks. Surely thousands of people would be interested to know, for example, what kind of fitness regime Yaya Toure conducts in a week or what an Olympic athlete eats before a key event. This really is something the average sports fan and twitter user would be interested in seeing and would be shared between thousands of people.

With regards to promoting good eating habits and encouraging regular exercise, professional sportsman could utilise Twitter and indeed many other social networking sites much more effectively. When children and many adults are struggling to make sport and exercise a key part of their life, what would be the harm in harnessing the power of Twitter to catch people’s attention and motivate them with advice from the highest level?

Nottinghamshire County Council have started a campaign called #fittertwitter to share exercise and performance tips to Twitter fans. They have elisted the help of notable British athletes such as the paralympian Richard Whitehead to share their personal advice to anyone willing to listen.

Whitehead said about the scheme: “I am delighted to get involved. It provides an excellent opportunity for athletes and coaches to engage with local people in promoting the value of sport for all.”

Professional sportsmen are regularly helping out in their local community and overseas to promote the values of sport. But as the influence of social networking continues to grow the need to use this way of sharing information grows too. Professional sportsmen and women will always have a massive influence on the behaviour and ideas of their fans, particularly for young people.

Participation in sport has been on the national agenda for quite some time, especially due to London 2012 and the legacy the UK hopes to leave behind. Social media is the key method of interaction in the 21^st century so let’s start using it to deal with a nationwide issue.