There are times when you find yourself very proud of your children. One such time was November 11, 2017. For a school project, my youngest daughter decided to do her part in helping to stop the stigma surrounding mental illness.
The idea sprouted from an experience my daughter had at camp this past summer. A dear friend of hers had to leave mid-camp when her own personal struggles started to over come her.
Witnessing a friend hurt that bad stuck with my daughter (as it sticks with any of us with similar experiences). My daughter wanted to help in some way.
The way she chose to help was by running an awareness event on Twitter using the original hashtag, #WhenAFriendIsHurting.
The idea behind using a hashtag is that it sets a premise for others to easily share their ideas, thoughts, and/or stories. What would you do if you saw a friend hurting? That was the call to action. Using the hashtag helped create a spontaneous community around the topic thus elevating and sharing all the contributions beyond any single person’s individual group of followers.
Prior to the event my daughter reached out to Detroit Wayne Mental Health Authority (@DWMHA/dwmha.com) to co-host this event with her. The Detroit Wayne Mental Health Authority ensures treatment and support for those with mental illness, developmental disability and substance use disorder. It was important to my daughter to not only create awareness but also to create a clear direction where to find help if they needed it.
It all began with this single tweet:
From there the tweets started pouring in.
After 2 hours there were:
- Over 7.2k tweets generated using the hashtag #WhenAFriendIsHurting
- Over 3.5k contributors
- Over 13.4 million reach
Individual tweets and important messages received huge amplification:
The above tweet was seen by over 30,000 people on Twitter. Not bad for a Twitter account with only 198 followers.
Twitter also helped by publishing a Moment for the hashtag. The Moment itself received:
- Over 16k unique opens
- 278 likes
- 88 shares
Here are some great tweets that helped make this event such a success:
Everyone can make a difference. We just need to take the time to do so.
Jeff Dwoskin (@Bigmacher) is a proud father, professional comedian, avid tweeter, social media guru, and co-founder of Hashtag Roundup (@HashtagRoundup)