Using Social Media Positively with Louisa Rose
This week, from 4 – 10 May, it is Maternal Mental Health Awareness week, in the UK. More then 1 in 10 women develop a mental illness during pregnancy or in the first year of their baby's life. It is a week-long campaign dedicated to talking about mental illness during pregnancy or after having a baby and signposting to support for all mums. The focus is on advocating for mums affected by maternal mental health and helping them to access the information and help they need to enable recovery*. (*reference https://maternalmentalhealthalliance.org/tag/maternal-mental-health-matters-week/)
To discuss this important campaign, mental health and how to use social media positively e-meet a friend of mine Louisa: an inspirational mum of two, who champions parent mental-health online. Whilst on maternity leave Louisa has been increasingly writing and blogging about how to harness social media positively. She works tirelessly to spread a message of honesty about mental wellbeing, and shares her own parenting journey online @louisanicolerose
Mental Health Awareness in Lockdown:
Louisa’s tips for mamas on managing social media
Louisa shares her ideas and top tips for helping to manage anxiety and mental health, during these unprecedented times.
Order a Watch
Now. It's amazing how often we pick up our phone to look at the time. And once the phone is unlocked, it's only a matter of time before you're 30 weeks deep in someone's social media feed. Tell the time using a watch. It'll help you curb your phone habit.
2. Curate your feed
A lot of content on social media is a heavily edited, distorted version of real life (the parenting community is particularly guilty of this). At one point my explore feed (the content Instagram thinks I want to see based on my behaviour within the app) was full of monochrome nurseries, the latest parenting gadgets and working mums who seemed to juggle the ‘struggle’ with ease etc. After some serious curating (following different hashtags, unfollowing accounts and following new positive ones) my explore feed inspires me and makes me feel that I’m not alone in my feelings (both the positive and negative ones) as a parent.
3. Post responsibly
Is your content a true reflection of your life? If not, then own that within your caption. By all means, post happy, pretty, conventionally ‘perfect’ looking images but if that is not what life looks like for you typically, make sure your messaging is clear.
4. Beware of the rabbit hole
This one takes some practice - it's easy to find yourself 64 weeks deep into someone's Instagram feed and to wonder where the last hour of your life has gone. The first step is to acknowledge that the rabbit hole exists. The second step is to set app time limits via your mobile device. Some of the apps also feature in app time limit reminders.
5. Set yourself a social media curfew
It’s often the case that we find ourselves mindlessly scrolling (see above) so consciously setting a time of the day by which we close our social media apps is a way to combat this. Set an alarm - use your phone, the oven timer, Alexa, Google or just a good old fashioned alarm clock to remind you when it's time to shut down.
meet Louisa…
As a little background, Louisa Rose is a freelance social media consultant and a mental health advocate. She consults with brands who want to grow their social media audiences in an authentic and meaningful way. Louisa also actively campaigns for better understanding of mental health and emotional wellbeing with the goal of positively impacting the way society thinks about these issues. Louisa lives in London with her husband and two young children.
Alongside her professional work as a social media consultant for brands, Lou delivers sessions and writes about how to nurture healthy relationships with social media. The addictive nature of social and the exposure to negative content within the platforms is the perfect recipe for poor mental health. “With the right knowledge and understanding, it's possible to harness the positive impacts only and swerve the negatives. As a mum, and as someone who has experienced poor mental health from a young age, I'm really passionate about this side of my work”.