Hashtag Our Stories
Going global with mobile storytelling
Hashtag Our Stories is a storytelling agency with a global network of citizen journalists. Hashtag Our Stories used its time in SAMIP to grow its team, expand its reach from Facebook to Instagram, SnapChat and TikTok, and bring its brand of mobile storytelling to an ever-growing global stage.
Hashtag Our Stories is a storytelling agency with a global network of citizen journalists. Hashtag Our Stories used its time in SAMIP to grow its team, expand its reach from Facebook to Instagram, SnapChat and TikTok, and bring its brand of mobile storytelling to an ever-growing global stage.
Founded by Yusuf and Sumaiya Omar, Hashtag Our Stories was one of the first organisations to enter the South Africa Media Innovation Program, after successfully applying to our Innovation Challenge in 2017.
SAMIP initially supported Hashtag in growing its network of storytellers in South Africa, through a social-media-based training of citizen reporters across the country to produce stories for Facebook communities.
SAMIP also worked with Hashtag Our Stories to develop its successful pitch to join Snap Inc’s inaugural Yellow Incubator program in 2018. This resulted in an equity deal with Snap worth more than R2 million, turbo-charging the team’s global expansion.
They have gone on to train mobile storytellers in dozens of countries, creating innovative content for their own audiences as well as some of the world’s largest news platforms.
In 2020, Hashtag Our Stories launched First Person, a climate-change docu-series broadcast on Snapchat, shot entirely on Snapchat Spectacles smart-glasses.
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