DAY EIGHT | A SECRET BLOGMAS 2025

“Statistics: The only science that enables different experts using the same figures to draw different conclusions.”

Evan Esar

Welcome to A Secret Blogmas 2025!

Today is Day Eight and this eighth post is all about the beneficial impact social media insights and statistics can have for content creation. In this post, I’ll discuss the different stats you can look at and use in your content creation strategy to evaluate how successful and popular your content is, as well as how you can use them to inspire and shape the content you create next. Keep reading to find out why and how insights and statistics can impact the success and popularity of your content and/or your platform…

THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO NETWORKING | IN COLLABORATION WITH TYNESIDE CATS PROTECTION | SUMMER OPEN DAY 2025

“Social networking is playing a huge role in creating awareness and mobilizing support for all kinds of common interests. What better way to use this remarkable tool than to change the world?”

Natalie Portman

You may remember a few weeks ago, I published a blog post titled: ‘The Importance of Peer Support in Mental Health’ (you can read it here) as pre-event content in the run-up to the Summer Open Day of my local Cat Protection’s Adoption Centre (Tyneside). Well, I promised you all another collaboration piece after the event so that you could see the photos and videos from the afternoon and read more some of the cats that the charity said myself and my two best-friends (Jack and Spencer) could visit. In this piece, I realised that – according to my search in my content archives – I’ve actually never done a blog post completely about networking (it’s typically just been mentioned in other posts) and I thought it was a great angle to use that would also work in introducing you to the three cats we actually networked(!) with too… Ps. There’s a YouTube video at the end of the piece too!

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW TO BUILD A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY | WORLD SOCIAL MEDIA DAY 2025

“Social media is the ultimate equaliser. It gives a voice and a platform to anyone willing to engage.”

Amy Jo Martin

Having now been blogging for over twelve years (it’ll actually be thirteen in January!) I have developed a huge passion and interest in the communications and marketing industry. This is why I’ve now had a number of voluntary roles in that sector – with my new one being announced on my start date of July 8^th – as well as having also completed a number of online courses relevant to it too. Over the years, my career experience, and education, I’ve learned how to create Strategies in this industry: particularly around marketing and branding, but I’ve also picked up how to create a Social Media Strategy and I thought with today being National Social Media Day, it was the perfect opportunity to share this knowledge and understanding…

THE ULTIMATE GUIDANCE TO WORKING WITH AN INFLUENCER

“No one else knows exactly what the future holds for you, no one else knows what obstacles you've overcome to be where you are, so don't expect others to feel as passionate about your dreams as you do.”

Germany Kent

A little while ago, I wrote a blog post titled: The Most Transparent Blog Post I’ve Ever Written (which you can read here) and in it, I talked about being given – numerous times now – the label of ‘influencer’ by others. I decided to do some research at the beginning of the post, in the hope that it would provide me with evidence to fight me meeting the definition of the label, but instead, I found (in this article) that due to the following of I’m NOT Disordered (2.3 million readers) I’d be deemed a ‘Mega-Influencer!’ And on talking to my Waythrough Recovery Worker, I agreed that my blog is at a standing in terms of both popularity and reputation, that I can no longer demean or deny it. So, here I am(!) agreeing to be an Influencer! Now, this blog post was actually inspired by a recent meeting with a few of Waythrough’s Communications and Marketing team, where the idea of the organisation working with Influencers was discussed. The Manager said that I was the ‘perfect person’ to have involved because of my ability to bring actual, lived insight into this world, and so, here’s the blog post which provides guidance to working with an Influencer…

YOU MAY HAVE NOTICED...

You may have noticed a ‘slight’ change to I’m NOT Disordered! This change would be the logo and colour scheme!

There’s going to be a full blog post about the decision to do this, but in the meantime, there’s some lengthy, detailed content about it on my social media…

Twitter: @aimes_wilson

Instagram: @aimes_wilson 

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH & LEARNING ONLINE | INCLUDING ALL THE COURSES ON MY WISHLIST

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”

Dr. Seuss

I actually began my first distance-learning course way back in 2014 when I was a sectioned inpatient of a specialist psychiatric hospital in Bradford. Since then, I have completed a whole range of courses online too and after having recently enrolled on another one (which I’ll talk about later in the post); I was inspired to write this blog post. So, I’ll be talking about all my thoughts on learning, the benefits you can experience when you’re learning online, some tips for both completing your course and managing your mental health whilst you learn, my education journey, my Wishlist on my three favourite online learning sites, and so much more…

WHY LOCKDOWN 2021 IS MAKING THE DIGITAL WORLD SO MUCH MORE IMPORTANT

Regardless of statistics, the UK lockdown and Coronavirus pandemic have become controversial topics of discussion and controversy is something I like to try and stay away from on I’m NOT Disordered… However, since the Prime Minister announced the new 2021 UK lockdown restrictions and guidelines a few nights ago, I’ve felt that I needed to do something on my blog just to recognize the momentousness of the situation…

I was asked a little while ago how the new lockdown was affecting me and I said that the only real difference to my life was that it’s meant losing my sessions with my Richmond Fellowship support worker. I can still do my weekly food shop, collect my medication, do tasks online for St Oswald’s Hospice, and have my Carers over. Most importantly, I can still do the one thing that I put the majority of my energy and time into: blogging.

Of course, I recognize how incredibly fortunate I am to be able to say all of that when there are so many people out there who are less able – or completely unable – to keep to their own, usual routines. However, I’m definitely a believer that you shouldn’t compare your own hardship to another person’s. Everyone is different, and each person’s struggle has the right to be regarded as equally important to any other person.

I think that whilst everyone is having completely different – sometimes even opposite – experiences of lockdown 2021, a mutual beneficial source has been the digital world. As a blogger this is very obviously a great thing, but not only because it raises my audience numbers! It’s also because I feel that I’ve spent the eight years since I started blogging trying to encourage more people to use social media and access the digital world in general. There’s always so much negative publicity around the industry; largely because of the number of instances of trolling and online bullying leading to someone committing suicide.

Another factor around the criticisms and drawbacks on the digital world is that there’s a lot of content online that can be deemed as encouraging and inspirational of some aspects of mental health; particularly self-harm and eating disorders. Regarding this, I always believe that if you search for that sort of unsafe content, then you’ll find it. If, however, you search for support groups and help and advice, you’ll find an abundance of that too!

BLOGMAS 2020 WITH I’M NOT DISORDERED | RECOMMENDATION SIXTEEN: MY TEN FAVOURITE APPS | IN COLLABORATION WITH O2 | AD

Hello and welcome to recommendation number sixteen of Blogmas 2020 with I’m NOT Disordered!

Today, I’ll be collaborating with O2 to recommend some of the apps I use the most…

 

MY TEN FAVOURITE APPS:

*in no particular order*

Twitter

I’ve found that you’re so much more likely to get a response from an organisation if it’s on Twitter rather than through their customer service! I think it’s because of the publicity aspect of it… particularly when the individual has more followers than the organisation! So that’s the superficial side of Twitter. But it’s like I always say; social media and the internet is what you make of it. If you want to see negative, triggering content then search for it. If you’re looking for support or help, there’s plenty of that online too! I particularly enjoy the hashtag chats where, at a certain time on a certain day, people with something in common use the same hashtag to create a conversation amongst themselves. Sometimes these chats are actually fairly structured with an ice breaker and a theme; and I think this illustrates the huge potential Twitter has to create a safe, comfortable, and supportive forum for users to feel they can be unapologetically and unconditionally themselves.

FIVE FAVOURITE PERSON ACCOUNTS:

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE MEDIA & MENTAL HEALTH | IN COLLABORATION WITH TIME TO CHANGE STORYCAMP 2020

The latest theme for Time To Change StoryCamp 2020 is mental health and the media and I thought it might be a good opportunity to talk about my own experiences with the topic, the positives and negatives I’ve discovered, and my advice on dealing with those negatives of the media…

My first memory of the media

I guess that my first real recollection of the media and the impact it could have on the world was when my cartoons were paused to break the news of the death of Princess Diana in 1997 – when I was just six years old! I guess this meant that the first thing I learnt was that horrific stories could put a stop to fun and laughter. They could over-rule them, take priority and become the focus for everyone. I also saw how media can influence your feelings in projecting emotions appropriate to the content. Finally, with the circumstances of the Princess’s death being around photographers chasing her car (I realise this is debateable!) I saw the impact the media can have on a more practical level and that once you’re in the ‘spotlight’ you can almost completely lose any sense of privacy.



The lack of content on some topics

My next thoughts on the media have come through the abuse I experienced when I was 15. In 2006, when the abuse started, I felt that there weren’t a whole lot of stories in the media about abuse and rape. The lack of this content meant that the only reason I suspected what was happening to me was wrong was because it hurt so much! The absence of these stories also meant that I felt so alone in my experiences and thought I was literally the only person in the world who had ever been raped or abused. Feeling lonely with something like that can be so debilitating because you’re thinking that you can’t talk to someone as they won’t be able to empathise, understand, or identify in any way.

There was also a huge lack for content on mental health, suicide, and self-harm back then which meant that I was absolutely terrified when I started experiencing hallucinations and thoughts to self-harm and attempt suicide. I think that it stemmed from the fact that without any information to the contrary, I thought if I told anyone what I was experiencing and feeling I’d be locked away in a psychiatric hospital and medicated! I also didn’t know who I would even talk to in terms of professionals. Like, I didn’t realise you could speak to your GP or even that you could have therapy on the NHS.

HOW TO COPE WITH TRIGGERS ON SOCIAL MEDIA

“Is there any way that you can stop it from happening?”

“I’d have to delete my entire Twitter!”

I like to think of myself as quite a fair and balanced person so that whilst I stand by the fact that I’m NOT Disordered has been hugely life-saving in many different ways, I’ll also talk about the fact that social media can sometimes be very negative and harmful. And it is my recent experience of this that has inspired this blog post…

A few accounts I follow on Twitter, follow an account that is largely connected to my abuser and so occasionally that account’s content will appear on my newsfeed. Last week, a photo appeared. It was of my abuser back at work and in a position where he could re-offend. So many difficult emotions came to the surface; ones that I hadn’t felt in a very long time and I reverted to old coping mechanisms. I felt frustrated that no matter what I – and others – say, he seems untouchable. Invincible. I had to go through so many obstacles and challenges in order to finally report the abuse to the Police; and the fact that CPS are refusing to prosecute, just makes it feel so frustratingly pointless. It was like: ‘why did I bother working so hard if it was all for nothing?!’ I was so blinded by these overwhelming thoughts and feelings that I didn’t stop to consider how I was responding to them. I didn’t use my Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) skills or ring someone to talk it through; I just turned all of the frustrated anger on myself. I knew I wasn’t the right person; I’ve learnt that I don’t deserve to be in pain or to be going through everything I have experienced; and that suicide isn’t the best revenge. My Nana and Mum always brought me up to believe in karma and that what goes around comes around, and if this is true then I want to – and need to – be alive to see him get his comeuppance.

SOCIAL MEDIA & MENTAL HEALTH

Initially, I was worried that lots of readers will think that it’s quite wrong of me to write a blog post about the most recent celebrity suicide because I’ve actually heard of the celebrity (Caroline Flack) this time; but it’s more about the assumed cause of the suicide; trolling and social media in general. I’m not weighing in on things because I won’t pretend that I know a lot about the entire situation, it’s just that it has inspired me to write a blog post about social media, coping with trolling, thoughts on suicide, and why I promote social media despite all of this negativity and this horrific influence it can have on a person’s life.


I think that a lot of people will assume I might never have had a bad experience with social media if I’m so determined to tell people how great it is and convince others to utilize all of the good it holds; but that isn’t true. When I was fifteen, a group of girls at High School began bullying me and one of their methods was through MSN messenger (bit of a throwback!) because it meant that the bullying could continue even into the comfort of my own bedroom. They weren’t limited to snide, spiteful comments in the corridor or spreading rumours among the other pupils. Social media meant that they could harass me when I was just sitting at home or playing on the computer, where I thought I was safe from them. Somewhere that – I thought – was my only escape, actually turned out to be at their easiest reach.