Dear Social Media Managers,
Today all social media accounts are mental health accounts. In light of both the pandemic and the increasing rates of anxiety among young people, audiences are often reaching out to trusted brands and influencers for human connection and emotional support. Being ready to support people can help you help others.
Hi Anxiety has spent two years developing an easily replicable, expert-backed formula that can help support your audience when mental health topics come up. Our framework builds on the academic field of Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and has three easy steps. We invite you to use this framework in your work. All of us could use a little extra support.
Validate + Inquire + Refer
VALIDATE
When a follower responds with a comment highlighting sadness, frustration or anxiety, acknowledge how they’re feeling. Good examples of validating statements include:
“We hear you.”
“Thank you for sharing.”
“Quarantine has been challenging for so many of us.”
“You are not alone.”
INQUIRE
A key goal of social and emotional learning (SEL) is to help young people learn self-awareness. Encouraging reflection can help:
For example, if a follower shares a comment demonstrating low self-esteem, you can ask:
“What’s just one thing you like about yourself?”
Or if they express that they feel defeated or behind, you can ask:
“What’s something you’re proud of yourself for? It can be even just getting out of bed today.”
It is important to make the questions manageable and specific. When they respond, validate and celebrate their reflection:
“That’s great!”
“Keep taking it one day at a time”
If relevant, you can also point them to mental health tips and tools on other accounts, such as Hi Anxiety.
REFER
Sometimes a follower needs more support than any social media account can provide. In these instances, it’s important to encourage the follower to speak to a mental health professional. We recommend doing this delicately and providing local, vetted resources where possible.
An example response is:
“We’re so sorry you’re having a hard time. We’d recommend speaking to a mental health professional to give you the support you deserve. If you’re in the US, @crisistextline has counselors available 24/7 to speak to you for free, just send a text to 741741. Or @openpathpsychotherapy has low-cost and virtual therapy options”
You can also view our list of mental health hotlines.
Crisis Responses:
If any follower mentions suicide or self-harm, it is important to immediately refer them to a Suicide Prevention Hotline in their local country. We recommend having an internal, crisis reporting plan ( i.e who do you tell) when and if someone posts about a mental health emergency or threatens suicide. We also recommend having on-hand vetted, mental health resources so that you can direct the community member to seek professional support.
For example, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline in the U.S. is 1-800-273-8255.
ADDITIONAL TIPS
To help further support your community, you can share and re-post mental health tips that reflect your brand or account’s values. A first step is to follow great mental health artists on social media, and we would recommend commissioning them to create work for your brand. We commission artists often and would be happy to recommend our favorites!
Want to learn more? Check out the Community Manager Manual we use for our team or reach out to us for a personalized training for your organization.
ABOUT US
Hi Anxiety is a digital social impact campaign that uses the field of social emotional learning (SEL) to help young people better manage everyday anxieties and improve emotional well-being. We have built an active and passionate community of over 200,000 people, with 3.97 million points of engagement on Instagram alone.
Over the last two years, Hi Anxiety has successfully offered self-management tools and self-awareness strategies as ways to help support young people. Our SEL framework guides the Hi Anxiety community engagement. Our impact partners include The Jed Foundation, our mental health clinical partner, and the Connected Learning Lab at the University of California Irvine, who share their academic expertise on digital well-being and conduct research on the campaign. The project is produced by social-impact experts Single Palm Tree Productions and we are honored to be supported by Pivotal Ventures, the investment and incubation company created by Melinda Gates.
Check out @_hi_anxiety_ on Instagram to see our SEL Framework in action and examples on how to best support your community.