About a year ago, I started at Boone County Animal Shelter as a Kennel Technician. My job duties include cleaning, feeding, sanitizing kennels, assisting with adoptions and pretty much anything else that needs to be accomplished on a daily business to keep our animals happy and healthy. I love my job. My weird need for cleanliness is satiated, I get to work with animals every single day, I get to help animals find forever homes..it is perfect.
Another important aspect of my job isn't listed in my job description. When I started, I had managed social media for a few small businesses in the area. I voluntarily took over the shelter's Facebook page and Twitter account. The Facebook page had around 189 "likes" (followers) and honestly, wasn't very active. Today, we hit a huge milestone: 5,500 likes. I am not an expert, but I thought that I would do a semi-informative post about how I manage our page in the interest of helping other shelters/rescues achieve the same success that we have at Boone County Animal Shelter.
Regular. Regularity is one of the most important words to keep in mind when managing a social media site for an animal organization. Creating a page and neglecting to make regular posts does your organization no good, and can actually end up hurting you. If people are searching for local animal organizations and stumble upon a totally inactive Facebook page, they are going to move on to another organization. I make at least one update per day. The caveat here is not to overdo it. Each and every post needs to be worth the space on your followers news feed. On days where we have made 4-6 posts, we usually have a few "unlikes." But remember to balance the "unlikes" with new likes. If 5 people unlike your page, but you get 10 new likes, don't worry about it too much. Stressing over the little things can make social media overwhelming for anyone. You don't have to post every day, but keep it regular so you stay in the thoughts of your followers.
Visual. Social media should be a mostly visual medium, specifically for animal welfare organizations. The majority of social media users will respond to a picture in their newsfeed, but may skim over a huge block of text or ignore it completely. Using my page "insights" (an analysis of page statistics) I can see that any post with a picture is interacted with by users much more than any text-based update. I don't care if you are asking for donations of paper towels, find a picture of a paper towel and post it with your status update! This is one of the MOST important things to do as far as garnering more "likes" and interactions on your page.
Quality Pictures. Going along with the visual aspect, remember that quality is much more important than quantity. In fact, a bad picture can hurt an animal's chances of garnering interest from potential adopters. Personally, I cringe when I see pictures taken of animals through chain link, in dark kennels. I realize it is a quick way to snap a picture, but I promise you that taking the extra 5 minutes to put the dog on a leash and stand outside in the sun for the picture will pay off tenfold. People need to see the personality of the animal, they need to be able to imagine that animal in their home. If the animal is timid and you can't capture their true personality, then ask a volunteer to pose with them, comforting them. Showcase the fact that the animal in the pictures is loving, not scared. I can't emphasize quality enough.
Interaction. Simply posting pictures and walking away from the computer isn't the way to increase your support and adoptions. I see many rescue/shelter Facebook pages that don't respond when people post very relevant questions about animals posted. The person who takes 2 minutes to ask a question about an animal might be the same person who comes to adopt it if they could get a response to their question. I won't lie, it can be overwhelming. Specific examples would be posting an animals picture complete with age, spay/neuter status, good with dogs/cats/kids etc. and then answering questions about all the information that is clearly posted! It can become frustrating, but consider the time taken to answer those questions well spent. Even if the questioner doesn't adopt, if they say to one person, "Hey, you know where you should go to adopt your new pet? This shelter, they are on Facebook..." then the repetition is worth it. Every interaction counts.
Honesty. Be completely honest, even if you think that your response to a question may cause someone to lose interest in that animal. If you know without a doubt that a certain animal wouldn't be great with kids, then say that. But try to keep it positive. In that particular situation, I might say that Sparky wouldn't do well with small children, but we think he would be great in a home with kids 12+ years old. Always pad a negative with a positive. You never know, the commenter with the small children might have a friend or relative who would have a more appropriate home for little Sparky. Never set up unrealistic expectations for an animal, because that almost always equals an eventual return. It's not just about getting an animal a home, it's about getting an animal the right home.
Criticism. As you gain more followers and your page gets more attention, you will invariably receive some criticism for a variety or reasons. Whatever your policies are, this is inevitable because of the ease of communicating via social media. I can't tell you what to do, but I can tell you what I do, and also that it works. First, I don't censor. If someone has a legitimate complaint, we don't ignore it, nor do we try to deny it via social media. The complainant is referred to our shelter director immediately, and I comment on the post saying that so that anyone who sees it understands that we do take complaints seriously and will do whatever we can to resolve the issue. Let me repeat--don't argue with people via social media. In my experience, people can become more volatile on social media because important things like tone are lost on a computer screen. Refer them to the person who can help them so that everyone knows that you take complaints seriously. That doesn't mean that you can't reply to criticism at all, if you feel you need to. But in general, I don't get into talking about policy on Facebook. However, I do not allow foul language. Our page is followed by many different people from many different walks of life and I don't believe that any of them want to see four letter words all over the place. When I delete a comment like that, I post a follow up comment stating that I deleted it and why.
Keep it Current. I find that this is one of the hardest things to do, particularly in a high-volume, open-intake shelter. But I try my best to keep the pictures of animals and their descriptions as current as possible.
Wow, that was a long entry, and I think I missed a few things. Hopefully this will help if anyone wants to ramp up their social media use. Feel free to ask any questions!
