Didi Hirsch & Alive together
Since 1942, Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services has provided free mental health, substance use disorder, and suicide prevention services in communities where stigma or poverty limit access to help. Thankfully, more than 150,000 children and adults throughout Los Angeles and Orange counties benefit from these services each year. On November 14, 2021, Didi Hirsch hosted Alive Together: Uniting to Prevent Suicide, an event to support survivors of suicide loss and attempts worldwide.
Alive Together rallied supporters to walk 2.160 steps (approximately one mile) at Exposition Park in Los Angeles or in communities around the world in remembrance of the 2,160 people lost globally to suicide each day. After missing a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Didi Hirsch’s Suicide Prevention Center needed a push to bring awareness, participation, and donations back to a worthy cause. In response, CAP SOC created a team to participate and fundraise for this event, recruiting guest speakers and celebrities to share their stories and support this cause in person and on social media. I developed a messaging strategy and social media toolkit for registrants, supporters, and influencers to use in promoting the event and the vital work Didi Hirsch does to prevent suicide.
Approach
Suicide prevention is a necessary but heavy topic and it was essential to approach the materials with care and intention. I set three goals for the assets:
Provide a balance of information, encouragement, and respect for those who have been impacted by suicide and suicidal ideation
Make the assets easy to share as is and easy to customize for users who prefer to add a personal touch
Make assets both eye-catching and skimmable
Tactics
With these three keys in mind, I developed a messaging and social media strategy, a social engagement plan, and a social media toolkit used by registrants, supporters, and celebrity influencers. The toolkit included:
Twenty-seven images designed for Instagram stories and grids, LinkedIn, Twitter, and more
Sixteen captions that users could copy, paste, or customize across social platforms
Guidance for how to use the kit, download the images, tag Didi Hirsch, and use the #AliveTogether and #walkwithme hashtags
Results
650 participants in the US, France, Asia, and Australia used the social media toolkit, amplifying the event and the mission
The messaging and content strategy garnered 1.1 million impressions, 29k engagements, and 3200 followers
Celebrity influencers such as Amanda Seales, Selena Gomez, Jameela Jamil, and Lance Gross shared the information in the kit with their audiences, spreading information about the event and suicide prevention as a whole
Relatable content and amplified influencer strategy on social media were responsible for 60% of visits to the event site, converting audiences into registrations and donations that helped Didi Hirsch raise $490k