Update: Following the publication of my article, there was formal contact from Social Media Club apologising for the post and acknowledging that appropriate action would be taken, and the original post by Audrey Rochas has been removed from their site.
12 hours after the original contact, Social Media Club have apologised and removed the original post by Audrey Rochas
Earlier today, the scheduled tweets of the Social Media Club, a loosely organised social media promotion organisation, posted the following tweet:
The offending tweet from @socialmediaclub
As a communicator, I am interested in community management, effective use of social tools such as Twitter to build awareness and drive engagement.
As a human, I am also interested in social good, including mental health. I have family members who have experienced a range of long and short term mental illnesses, have lost extended family and friends to suicide and my partner works in mental health education. It’s kind of a vested interest, and as such I care about representations of mental illness online, in the arts and in the workplace.
So my ire was already rising when I clicked through to the article, which perpetuates the ‘mutiple personality’ myth of schizophenia throughout. Most offensive however, was the accompanying image of the ‘angel and demon’.
The offending imagery attached to Social Media Club post
There is a long history of equating mad with bad, which goes a long way to contributing to the lack of awareness of mental illness, the perpetuation of outdated knowledge and stereotypes.
Am I overreacting? Considering Social Media Club positions itself as an organisation that promotes good online practices, and has over 150,000 followers on Twitter, and 42000 likes on Facebook, it has a substantial potential reach. As people working in communication, marketing and social media, there is a responsibility to perpetuate constructive and factual information.
If there was an editorial process for inclusion of material on the blog, it has clearly failed to pick up the tone and issues relating to the post.
Comparing to ‘normal’ people is only one of many issues with this post.
If substantially more established communication organisations like Edelman can make errors of judgement when it comes to discussing mental illness and mental health online, it is understandable that a content engine like Social Media Club is going to struggle from time to time.
Particularly frustrating is the Social Media Club’s inability or choice not to respond effectively to the criticism. As their twitter account clearly consists of scheduled tweets, with no editorial owner, the inappropriate link is being repeatedly tweeted with slightly amended wording at regular intervals. (An earlier tip from #SMClub points out that twitter is cracking down on identically worded scheduled tweets, so they are at least following practice here.) Despite multiple attempts to contact members via twitter, the link keeps coming…
Scheduled tweets mean an inability to rectify a problem
Resources for mental health awareness
For information on effective social media practices relating to mental health and mental illness, here are a range of resources that will help social media professionals and community managers.
Useful Twitter Tags for mental health resources online
Mindframe Media
An Australian initiative to support positive communication of mental health and illness in media, the arts and online.
US National Institute of Mental Health
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/index.shtml
Mind Charity UK
http://www.mind.org.uk/news-campaigns/minds-media-office/
Sane Australia (including Stigma Watch)
http://www.sane.org/stigmawatch
This is only a small selection; there are extensive resources available.
Watching this space…
Is my response disproportionate? Perhaps. But this is an opportunity for Social Media Club to demonstrate their degree of thought leadership and practical steps to rectifying issues online when they occur.
What an ironic place the social web can be. Only a few tweets further up their timeline is a post on managing a social media crisis. If expertise is demonstrated by actions rather than rhetoric, it will be interesting to see how Social Media Club addresses this issue.
If you are a member of Social Media Club, I encourage you to contact them through your chapter to raise awareness of this issue.
The contact details for the Board and Volunteers are here:
http://socialmediaclub.org/contact-us
Postscript: As of the time of posting, the offending site appears to be down.
We’re not in right now…
Meaning Business 