Using Social to Speak Out

Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie, Ashley Judd, Alyssa Milano… and the A-list goes on.

When the New York Times broke the most recent aticle of sexual assault with fingers pointing at the powerful Harvey Weinstein, it just went viral from there with allegations from A-list celebrities speaking out, sparking a movement and finally, shed light on his horrific behavior of years of sexual assault on woman.

Giving the spark a bright and wild flame, Alyssa Milano created and pushed the hashtag #MeToo and women across Twitter, Facebook and other social channels voiced their pain. This wave of women detailed stories of sexual harassment allowing hundreds of women across the world to finally speak out.

The PR lesson here?

Social media can be a strong voice. If used effectively, you can raise awareness for issues you care about. The Weinstein scandal’s shows the world, social media is powerful, hashtags can create #trends. A Tweet 140 characters, a hashtag can move mountains.

It's been said the hashtag #MeToo was mentioned over 1 million times on Twitter alone.

How do you get something to trend? Clarify your message; create shareable content, connect with influencers, reach out to your friends, family and coworkers encouraging them to share it, too and keep tweeting.