Hot Topic

How Social Media Helps Animal Rescue and Advocacy

Tuesday, July 20th, 2010

Written by: Guest Blogger

By Guest Blogger: Maggie Marton

A neglected Chinese Shar-Pei, her skin destroyed by mange, waited in the Wichita City shelter in Kansas. Because of the severity of her condition, she had little hope and was scheduled to be put down. Her rescuer sounded the alarm on Twitter, posting frequent updates and calls for help. “I had been seeing her post for a couple of days. Her sad little face touched my heart but I was new to Twitter and wasn’t quite sure what to do as she was in Kansas and I’m in California,” said Joni Moore. “Then one day, the plea was a lot more urgent, so I put out the tweet that ‘I would love to give here a forever home.’” With a flood of frantic phone calls and tweets, the aptly-named Angel was pulled from the shelter just four hours before she was to be euthanized. Angel was transported to Moore and her forever home where she’s now happily recovering.

Angel is a social media success story. Considering the number of people using social media networks – for instance, over 75 million Twitter users – it makes sense that shelters and rescues are starting to utilize those tools to create success stories like Angel’s.

But do the same tools work for advocacy? Without a tangible goal (i.e. adoption) does social media still pay off?

Nichole Heilbron is board member of the 501c3 Indy Pit Crew (IPC), a pit-bull advocacy group based in Indianapolis, IN. “Facebook and Twitter are really great because they’re short, sweet, and to the point,” she said. She launched IPC’s Facebook page in February 2009, and the group is closing in on 2,000 fans, which is more than Heilbron anticipated.

Through social media, IPC’s message has spread beyond the Indianapolis area. Heilbron noted that they have Facebook fans from every state and several other countries. More than that, though, utilizing social media increased attendance at their events. The IPC’s capstone event is the annual Luv-a-Bully March held in October. The 2009 march had twice as many attendees as it did in 2008, an increase Heilbron credits to social media.

While there are measurable benefits to utilizing social media tools, Heilbron mentioned some challenges. Any social media tool requires a time investment, a limited resource for most nonprofits. “The drawback is that I have to monitor the Facebook page religiously,” she said. “I have to monitor the page to make sure the posts are appropriate and monitor the comments for profanity or links to inappropriate material.”

In addition, she pointed out that these outlets provide organizations the ability to disperse their message, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into action. “I think we’re having the same challenge that a lot of organizations are: We have sympathizers and supporters, but changing them into volunteers or activists is still a challenge. We’re still trying to figure out how to bridge that gap between providing people with information and inspiring people to act.”

To read more from Maggie, check out her website: Maggie Marton

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Tags dog friendly, dog news, dogs, pet friendly, pets, social media

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 20th, 2010 at 1:28 pm and is filed under Hot Topic. You can leave a response by clicking here.