I have noticed that my article on The Mighty,
For the Teen Contemplating Suicide and Looking for the Strength to Reach Out
has gotten ranked on Google for certain search terms related to suicide. And Sam left a comment above.
Sometimes they come to my site and that’s linked to that Mighty article and I imagine many go to the article directly from Google. So in other words, they plug in the words in Google and sometimes land on this article which I linked to The Mighty article.
I like leaving breadcrumbs in the form of links to give people, teens in this case, more direction and information because I know they are starved for it. If I can’t get into to more schools, I’ll capture them this way.
Honestly, I don’t give a rat’s ass how they get there, I’m just glad they do.
I see a lot of searches on how a friend could help another friend because that’s who they want to talk to first. So I want to empower that teen and I know they go to Google to find answers. And from talking to teens and parents they worry about their friends and worry that they need to fix it. Which they can’t, of course. That’s too big a job. But they can help.
I wanted to capture the teens who wanted to tell a parent but weren’t sure what to say or expect and realized that is a perspective from which I could speak given I am a parent. I often get a lot of ideas on what to write and how to capture certain audiences when I look at my stats. I see things they look up. Then I create a post based on what I see.
So for example, I saw that there were a lot of searches for “template to write a suicide note” so I wrote a post on it and linked to the post where they usually land. My goal, of course is not to give them a template but encourage them to write the letter to a parent asking for help.
I can also go back and add bread crumbs to add more information given the amount of traffic it gets and the search terms they use. (tags really since Google is stingy with sharing the keywords.) If I were a big deal I might be able to coerce them into letting me know given my goal.
And given that this now has a comment that it worked is likely to influence other teens to tell before they kill themselves.
Of course this comment made my day. So sweet of Sam to come back and update me on the result. I don’t always get that. It worked! Yay!
Yes!!!..Anne Moss…this is brilliant and reaches these kids at their lwvel..one thing I have learned in my field is you have to figure out where they are and then work from there…not often easy but so important…never want to lose that ‘moment’ of opportunity when they are willing to be engaged!!!!
Exactly Connie. I will say that as a marketing professional for so many years I knew that to reach people and sell stuff that’s what you had to do.
Thank you Anne for all the information you spread about suicide prevention. How I wish I knew then what I know now. Today would have been my husband’s and my 47th. Anniversary, but he died by suicide on July 28th, 2014. Despite many friends and relatives knowing that he suffered from severe depression, no one ever asked him how he was. With physical illness, people show love and support often. I would have called and asked them if I knew how important support would have helped him. Everyone loved him, but we never talked about the mental illness. Hopefully things are changing now with people like you promoting discussion. Thank you so much Anne.
You are so welcome. Thank you so much for sharing that story because it was what we ran into as well. No one ever asked how Charles was doing or how I was
Fantastic! I’m so glad Sam reached out to their mom. Your work is critical, AM. ❤️
Thank you Amy