#putoutyourbats

What started as a single user-generated idea, hashtags are now synonymous with conversations by a generation of social media carnivores.

The first use of a hashtag to easily group and find content was proposed by Twitter user Chris Messina in 2007, whose idea to introduce the pound symbol was rejected by the social media giant because ‘it would never catch on’.

Boy, were they wrong.

It took two years for Twitter to officially adopt the use of the pound symbol and another two before it was introduced to the photo-sharing platform Instagram.

Fast forward to 2015 and almost every social media channel uses hashtags to organise and promote content created by users and brands.

If actions speak louder than words, do hashtags speak louder than actions?

Unless you live in a media-free bubble, you would be aware of some of the most recent viral hashtag trends in the name of activism and support, including #JeSuisCharlie, #PutOutYourBats, #BringBackOurGirls and #IllRideWithYou.

The deadly January 2015 attack in France on journalists from satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, sparked the hashtag #JeSuisCharlie (#IAmCharlie), representing solidarity for the French community around the world and advocating freedom of the press.

Australians also turned to social media to mourn the tragic passing of Australian cricketer, Phillip Hughes, several days after he was hit by a freak bouncer in November 2014.

#PutOutYourBats was first tweeted by Paul Taylor, who describes himself as an average “Joe Blow”, to his miniscule 14 followers with an image of a cricket back perched against his front door.

After it was seen by an ABC journalist, the trend gained enormous traction as hundreds of thousands of Australians posted photos of their cricket bats across numerous social media channels.

Do intangible symbols like hashtags make a difference?

The #BringBackOurGirls campaign would suggest the answer is no. Although the hashtag shined an international light on the abduction of hundreds of girls from a Nigerian school in April 2014 and attracted participation from the public, celebrities and politicians alike, the girls have still not been rescued almost one year after the kidnapping.

Unlike the spontaneous nature of #PutOutYourBats, the #BringBackOurGirls hashtag was deliberately created.

As seen from these examples, hashtags that generate significant media attention and worldwide public participation are often born from overwhelmingly tragic or horrendous events.

The opportunity for ordinary people to reach global audiences in a matter of mere seconds through the use of digital media technologies, gives these hashtags an unprecedentedly loud volume. It creates a groundswell of support for an issue – big or small.

However, even though hashtag trends are heard, it’s not clear if they are always acted upon.

We saw this following the Martin Place Siege in Sydney in December 2014 when #IllRideWithYou received global attention.

The hashtag invited Muslims to ride with others on public transport to combat anti-Muslim sentiment. However, what’s not known, is how many people actioned the sentiment of the tag in the days following the siege.

If the #IllRideWithYou hashtag eliminated even one person’s fear and allowed them to go about their daily life feeling a little safer, then maybe it doesn’t matter whether riding with someone actually occurred.

Yes, creating a sense of solidarity is important, but encouraging real behavioural change is rarely achieved by simply following a social media trend. If it was that straightforward and creating a hashtag was all that’s needed, we would have already solved the issue of religious discrimination and found the 200-plus kidnapped girls in Nigeria.

Reality is far more complicated.

Resolving issues, particularly those embedded in cultural disunity, involves building awareness and fostering ongoing dialogues among groups on both sides of an issue, to ultimately create a change in attitude and behaviour.

Pesel & Carr’s campaign, ‘Violence Doesn’t Discriminate: Her name was Tracy and she was loved’, for the not-for-profit St Kilda Gatehouse, effectively changed the way the media reported on the death of Tracy Connelly in July 2013.

Although Tracy’s murder had similarities to the murder of journalist, Jill Meagher 10 months earlier, Tracy’s tragedy received little media coverage. The coverage that did appear, however, identified her by her profession not by her name. Tracy was a sex worker.

St Kilda Gatehouse, which operates a safe house for sex workers, believed the media’s lack of interest and respect was because they considered the attack a normal risk for women of her profession.

As part of our awareness campaign, we sent Tracy’s photo to targeted media outlets and journalists. We did this in order to humanise Tracy and present her as someone with which other victims of violence could identify. Tracy appeared on the front page of major dailies and her story was told on television networks.

A candlelight vigil to celebrate Tracy’s life and bring attention to the issue of violence against women was attended by 500 people. Most were members of the public that did not have a personal connection to Tracy.

This shift in public attitude and the acts of compassion that followed, including members of the community walking street workers to their homes and engaging with them in conversations without judgement, is not something that is achieved through social media alone.

If we had created a hashtag for Tracy, would we have received the same response as from the photograph published in the newspaper?

And, could a social media trend have encompassed the same feelings of solidarity as the physical gathering of people at a vigil?

In the case of telling Tracy’s story, the use of a symbol (#) may have added to the cause, but what our campaign needed to do was to humanise her story and present a different view of street workers. The use of an image and name struck a chord that a trending topic could not have.

The jury is still out on just how loud a hashtag can be.

One thing is certain though, they are here to stay and with the right hashtag, you can use them to create awareness for issues that matter.

Awareness campaigns that are simply about highlighting an issue can do very well with the sole use of a hashtag to capture the attention of the masses. However, when changing behaviours and attitudes, the use of a hashtag needs to be integrated with tangible actions and community engagement.

In the case of Tracy’s story, we wanted to create a visible change that would make a difference to the lives of street workers, even though Tracy was no longer with us physically.