Social Media at #CrisisDir14

We’re going to try out some social media strategies at the 2014 NASCOD/CUSA Crisis Hotline Directors’ Conference. This will help NASCOD and CUSA members who can’t attend still feel connected, and it will also amplify the messages from the conference to a far wider audience. We hope you’ll join us!

“Social Media” (or “SoMe”, abbreviated) means different things to different people. This is a quick guide to what we’re planning for the conference, and I hope it’ll answer most questions. But if you’re left with questions, please ask! If you want to try this but need a quick tutorial first, ask one of the SoMe team at the conference. We’re glad to help.

By integrating the conference with social media, we’re hoping to make it easier for people to start conversations about the things they learn in Nashville and to keep talking after everyone goes home.

Official social media channels

Twitter: live reporting of conference coverage; info during presentations and talks
Youtube: recorded and/or live content based on conference with speakers or participants
Instagram: pictures and short videos of live event
Facebook: sharing content with wider network of family, friends, and colleagues

You are, of course, welcome to use other networks as well. Historically, most of the discussion during the conference happens on Twitter and, later, on Facebook.

If you don’t have a Twitter account yet, I made a guide on how to set one up and then how to use it.

Official hashtags

Most social networks allow searching by “hashtags”, which are like labels for organizing ideas. To help everyone stay in conversation and hear each other, we’ve chosen official hashtags for the conference and supplementary hashtags for each workshop session.

You can copy and paste the hashtags directly from this page into your Tweets.

Master conference-wide hashtag (click to follow in real time)

#crisisdir14: Include this hashtag in every post about the conference, whether or not you also use others.

Supplementary conference-wide hashtags

Use these, if you so choose, when you’re talking about the subject or group in question. Remember to include #crisisdir14 in every post. Click any hashtag to follow it in real time.

#NASCOD: National Association of Crisis Center Directors
#CUSA: Contact USA
#crisisdir: directing crisis hotlines
#nashville: Nashville, the conference host city
#crisiscenters: general topics relating to crisis centers
#leadership: leadership topics
#SoMe: social media, how we use it, etc.
#SPSM: Suicide Prevention in Social Media, a weekly Tweetchat at 10pm Eastern on Sunday nights

Schedule with hashtags

Friday, October 24th

Social Media: Your Best Frenemy
9—10:30am Central
April Foreman, Ph.D (@DocForeman)
#SPSM #SoMe
Innovation in Outreach: Telehealth and Remote Capability
10:45—11:45am Central
Jennifer Armstrong, Lisa Eggebeen, Liam Barry
#innovation, #telehealth, #remotecap
Funding Strategies & Current Legislation: Implications for Crisis Providers
12:10—12:45pm Central
Presenter: Richard McKeon, Ph.D, MPH
#SAMHSA, #ExcellenceAct, #mhmwellness
LivingWorks’s New Program: “Suicide To Hope”
12:45—1:30pm Central
Bart Andrews, Ph.D (@bartandrews)
#LivingWorks, #StoH
Survivors of Suicide
1:30—3:00pm Central
Scott Ridgeway, MS, Cindy Johnson, Karol Chastain Beal, & Samantha Nadler (@foughtforhope)
#TSPN, #SOS, #attemptsurvivors, #LivedExp, #SPSM
Selling Your Crisis Program: Effective Marketing Materials
3:30—5:00pm Central
Natalie Stone
#marketing, #crisiscenters, #crisispro

Saturday, October 25th

Crisis Centers’ Response to Local Disaster
Pat Morris, LMHC, CDP & Ron White, MSA, LICSW
10:15—11:45am Central
#crisisint, #disasterresp
The Way Forward — Attempt Survivors Support
11:45—1:00pm Central
Shari Sinwelski, MS, EdS, & John Draper, Ph.D
#NSPL, #attemptsurvivors, #LivedExp
World Cafe
1:00—5:00pm Central
Molly Brack & Michael Reading
#worldcafe

Guidelines

Strive for quality, not quantity. Aim for reporting things of professional interest to those who aren’t in the room.

Dissent is allowed. Different points of view are allowed. Shoutouts and compliments are allowed. We’re not promoting a party line here.

If possible, write your posts so others are more likely to share them and amplify our message. If you’re tweeting, don’t use all 140 characters so others can add comments when they RT what you said. (Read this if you don’t understand that).

When referring to a person, cite their name or Twitter handle. If you aren’t using full names, use their last name.

“Social media helps us get the word out to distant supporters” — Hollis Easter
“We need broader conversations with more participants” — Easter
“Infinite seats at infinite tables” — @adkpiper

Link salient points (statistics, ideas, numbers, concepts) to the person who said them.

“Hollis Easter: we need to credit people with their ideas” (good)
“@adkpiper says it’s important to give credit for ideas” (good)
“@adkpiper: credit idea creators” (good)
“we need to credit people with their ideas” (less good)

Thank people for participating, sharing your posts, Retweeting, etc.

Finally, remember to interact with the people in the room with you, not just the folks listening back home.

List of social media participants

Here are some folks you can follow to start the discussion. If you’d like to be on this list, send me a message on Twitter (@adkpiper) or leave a comment and I’ll add you!

@adkpiper: Hollis Easter, hotline director from northern NY, SoMe team member
@Atoes84: Amelia Lehto, hotline director from Michigan, SoMe team lead
@BartAndrews: Bart Andrews, clinical director from St. Louis, MO
@battle4justice: Jennifer Battle, hotline director from Houston, TX, SoMe team member
@deseraestage: Dese’Rae Stage, founder of Live Through This
@DocForeman: April Foreman, co-founder of #SPSM
@foughtforhope: Samantha Nadler, coordinator of TN Suicide Prevention Network.
@icarol: iCarol Software, software for call centers
@lttphoto: the Live Through This photo project about attempt survivors
@notsoshye: Shye Louis, hotline director from Rochester, NY, SoMe team member
@trnrtom: Tom Buckley, hotline director from DC metro area