When you start sharing your story and campaigning, it’s really common to find yourself comparing what you create with others.
We’ve heard from people during StoryCamp that they sometimes feel overwhelmed because they believe other people are sharing better quality stories, or they feel they’re not getting many likes or much engagement compared to others. Sometimes this can make it much harder to find motivation to continue with storytelling and online campaigning.
It’s important to remember that people who already get lots of engagement on their posts once started small, just like you.
Most of the more well-known mental health campaigners have been sharing their stories for a long time, and have gained an audience by posting regularly, and networking on social media with other campaigners. And they often learned the skills they needed along the way.
Instead of comparing ourselves negatively, we could learn a lot from their online campaigning and put it into practice ourselves:
- Campaigners with larger audiences post regularly, and possibly even have a schedule.
- They build up their skills over time, and actively learn from others around them.
- They interact with their audience and other campaigners on social media, by asking questions, sharing experiences and responding to other people talking about mental health.
While it’s great to reach a lot of people with your stories – there’s also value in sharing with a smaller audience too. Knowing you’ve changed even one person’s attitude around mental health is amazing! And that person might go on to help change someone else’s mind too…