From #FrankBruno to #FindMike – what makes a hashtag work?
Social media platforms create spaces for a bewildering array of conversations to take place on any manner of topics. And we each make sense of the social media spaces we occupy by creating an ecosystem that relates to our particular interests. Hashtags make it easy to search for or curate a particular topic and we use them to create some order or boundaries to what is possible to find. Twitter chats are another way in which we attempt to boundary the conversation – agreeing a set time to come together using a common hashtag to have a conversation on a particular theme. I’ve been wondering what the different qualities might be to hashtags which emerge unexpectedly and those which are pre-planned and used by organisations or campaigns to start a conversation. I’ve previously blogged about #mentalpatient – my favourite ever hashtag – emerging spontaneously as it did in protest at the now notorious offending Asda Halloween costume. But is that virality possible to replicate given that #mentalpatient was created by ordinary people in a particular moment rather than an orchestrated organisational campaign? #FrankBruno This week there are two particular hashtags in the mental health sphere that I stumbled upon in my timeline and which caught my attention. The first was a Twitter Chat with Frank Bruno @frankbrunoboxer which went on for a marathon two hours. I briefly jumped in and was rewarded with a nice tweet from the man himself. However, there was no consistent hashtag for the chat, which meant it was almost impossible to follow or curate either during or after the event. Whilst @TimeToChange promoted the...
#NHSTalkTech – a pledge for New Year #NHSChangeDay or any other day
When James @@Psycle_Doc contacted me with an idea for an NHS Change Day pledge I jumped at the opportunity – supporting and inspiring NHS staff to talk tech has been my mission during 2013 and a big focus of my PhD research as well. I’m most definitely not a techie, but I’ve seen again and again, people using social media platforms in creative ways to share information, have conversations and support each other – both as people accessing services and as professionals (and often both). Many professionals I speak to have all sorts of worries about social networking but this is even more of a reason to talk tech – to make sense of it and understand what it means for day to day practice and for professional development. The NHS Employers #NHSEngage campaign is all about encouraging a permissive use of social media and it’s no surprise that the Health Service Journal’s 2014 list of 25 rising stars has a strong tech theme, including recognising Teresa Chinn for establishing her @WeNurses online community of nurses. People’s lives increasingly revolve around social networking platforms for conversation and mobile phone applications for the basics of day to day living – from google maps through to online banking. Why wouldn’t we expect the same to manage a health condition if it means we can take more control ourselves, improve our experience and even possibly improve our outcomes? Another reason to talk tech is to understand the barriers that some people accessing services face. A recent report found that 51% of disabled people have never used the Internet and as the Government...about.me
Victoria Betton
victoria betton
director mHabitat | NHS | social media & mental health doctorate | interested in digital inclusion | parma violets fiend | http://codesigndigitalhealth.co.uk
