social media round up

Social Media Round Up – Hashtag Highs And Hashtag Lows

HASHTAG STORIES_

Instagram has yet again added a new feature that can enhance its users’ profile views by making Stories searchable by hashtag and location. This also means that Instagram Stories which include a location tag or sticker relevant to where you are will automatically appear at the top of that specific location’s search page. Users can find out if their story has been featured on the locations search by checking their Stories views and can opt out of this by simply pressing ‘X’. Hashtag Stories will be appearing on Instagram over the coming weeks so watch this space!

 

#ACITYUNITED_

At any other time, two football clubs in the same city are invariably arch rivals, however this week’s terror attack in Manchester saw nemeses Manchester United and Manchester City cast aside all rivalries and show solidarity for their shared home city on Twitter. Two days after the attack, Manchester United took on Ajax in the Europa League final in Stockholm. United donned black armbands and a minute’s silence was observed ahead of the match. The British club lifted the cup after a 2-0 win and the City official Twitter feed responded with an image post that simply read #ACityUnited in both team colours and the club badges below. The Tweet has been shared more than 99,000 times and has more than 180,000 likes. Since the post the clubs have also teamed up to donate £1 million to the We Love Manchester Emergency Fund.

 

SOCIAL MEDIA AND MENTAL HEALTH_

According to a recent survey, Instagram is the worst social media platform for our mental health. The photo sharing giant has been linked with bullying, anxiety, FOMO (fear of missing out) and creating unrealistic body image expectations. The results are part of the #StatusOfMind survey by the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) which included an analysis of 1,500 young people across the U.K.

Of the sites measured (Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat), YouTube received the most positive votes for health and wellbeing. In response, the RSPH is calling for social media platforms to bring in more controls over images, such as highlighting when an image has been digitally manipulated.

It’s not all bad news, social media does have some positives! Aside from the fact we all love showing our nearest and dearest how much fun we’re having, it is also linked to positive self-expression and self-identity.

 

WHEN HASHTAGS GO WRONG…_

We all love a good hashtag and over the past year we’ve had examples in our Social Media Round Ups of those that work well and also some that don’t. As social media is so integrated into everything people do these days, it’s important for brands to use platforms to reach customers, for friends to stay and touch and for politicians to engage with voters when campaigning.

This week Mexican politician, Javier Zapata, launched a campaign to promote his candidacy which has since gone viral for all of the wrong reasons. The hashtag for the campaign #hashtagcampaña, which literally translates to #campaignhashtag, was displayed on billboards across the country and has been dubbed ‘the worst in history’. Twitter users originally thought that the dummy text had been kept in accidently, however Zapata’s team confirmed that there had been no error and the politician has been ridiculed on social media as a result. We’ll be watching closely to find out if Zapata and #hashtagcampaña wins the candidacy.