When Nicole Weir?s dog, Rico, went missing last weekend after a drunk driver hit her car, her friends took to the streets ? and the computer.
?My adrenaline was going because I was kind of shocked by what happened,? says Weir?s best friend, Portland artist Julie Davis. ?I started thinking, ?OK, I can?t sleep, what can I do???
It didn?t take long for Davis, a self-described ?social media nerd? who owned a small marketing company, to answer that question.
She put her social media skills to use by creating a ?Find Rico? Facebook page. By Sunday morning, the page was up and quickly attracted hundreds of ?likes.? Its ?total reach,? tracked on the page?s insights summary, hit more than 55,000 people.
Facebook?and Twitter are becoming a popular and effective means of reuniting owners with lost pets, an updated take on the traditional approach of posting flyers on telephone poles or storefronts.
Davis was pleasantly surprised at the immediate effect her efforts had. A friend of a friend who saw the posting alerted a contact at a local television station, and the story was soon featured on media outlets throughout Portland.
On Monday morning, retired Oregonian employee Connie Petersen recognized the missing dog after seeing him on news reports, and Rico and Weir were reunited.
While Facebook?and Twitter help reunite owners with lost pets, nonprofit animal shelters also rely on the venues to ?find adopters, foster volunteers or engage with supporters.
At the Oregon Humane Society, about 15 percent of adoptions are a result of social media posts, estimates Barbara Baugnon, the shelter?s public relations and marketing director.
Some of the adoptions are a direct result of the posts. Recently, two cats were adopted after their photos depicting silly poses attracted prospective adopters almost immediately.
?The photos are definitely what draw people in,? says Cara O'Neil, the shelter?s e-communications coordinator.
O?Neil considers a variety of criteria to determine which animals get posted, including compelling pictures and pets that have been at the shelter for a long time.
?A puppy or kitten doesn?t really need the extra help,? says O?Neil, who manages the shelter?s popular Facebook page, ?but an older dog or one with special needs often needs that extra boost.?
The shelter also posts YouTube videos of pets on Twitter that are often shared, sometimes by national organizations.
Cat Adoption Team in Sherwood has also built a loyal following among its more than 4,800 Facebook fans.
The all-feline shelter?s public relations manager, Kathy Covey, conducted a survey of the shelter?s newsletter readers to reveal what they wanted to hear about.
?Most of them wanted to see happy adoptions and what we were doing for the cats in our care,? she says. ?It kind of translated into how we treat our Facebook page as well.?
Covey tries to offer diverse content on CAT?s Facebook and Twitter feed to keep fans engaged well after they?ve adopted from CAT.
Readers can now expect consistent content on set days of the week: adoptable tabby cats on Tabby Tuesdays, cat care tips on Wisdom Wednesdays and other featured cats on Furry Fridays.
Covey points out that in order to view all of any shelter?s page notifications, page visitors must click on ?show on news feed? when they hit a shelter?s ?like? button.?
Cat Adoption Team continues to advertise adoptable cats in local newspaper classifieds. While she doesn?t have quantitative data to compare how many adoptions result from social media posts, Covey is convinced that every little bit helps.
?Facebook and Twitter are just another tool in our tool belt to find homes,? she says.
Each time someone shares a picture of an adoptable cat on their own page, it increases that cat?s chances of being adopted. Sometimes, it?s simply the halo effect - someone may not be interested in a particular feline, but the postings may pique interest in cat adoption in general.
An online presence also gives a shelter an important opportunity to brand itself, says Deborah Wood, animal services manager for Washington County.
Many shelters struggle against a notion that animal shelters are depressing places, and the shelter's Facebook page offers an important opportunity to shift that perception.
?When people go to our page and it has a happy tone, and lots of animals getting adopted, that?s going to make people have a different view of our shelter,? Wood says. ?We believe that personality helps animals get adopted.?
The Bonnie L. Hays Small Animal Shelter relies on volunteer photographers to take compelling photos of adoptable pets, accompanying them with funny commentary to appeal to prospective adopters.
The page is also a reliable way to solicit needed supplies, such as pet food or Kuranda beds. Staff members don?t use it often for that purpose, but ?if there?s something specific and easily doable, it?s actually great way to get a need met,? Wood says.
For nonprofit animal rescue the Pixie Project, a simple Facebook request provides an easy, effective way to find a foster volunteer, rather than having to call a long list of people, says executive director Amy Sacks.
It also serves as an educational tool.
?If people are never going to go to a shelter, I can still educate them about the great animals that are in shelters,? Sacks says.?
--Monique Balas
Source: http://www.oregonlive.com/pets/index.ssf/2013/01/pet_talk_social_media_offers_o.html
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