I’m not alone…being followed. Someone always watching what we do…
From the song “Being Followed” by Duran Duran
In this day and age with all of the social media platforms out there it’s easy to feel like you’re being followed. I feel tremendous gratitude toward all of you that decided to follow The Shelter Shack on Facebook, Twitter or Google+ page. I know the incentive for many of you to follow was to try and win the Social Media for Social Good raffle. I appreciate the follow and hope you’ll stick around now that the raffle is over. Congratulations goes out to the winner of the raffle, Kristi W. and her charity of choice which is the Leon County Humane Society in Tallahassee, Florida.
So what does the quote from the Duran Duran song above have to do with all of this you might ask? Well, outside of a shameless plug for my favorite band, it serves as a lead in to talk about how those in animal rescue are not alone, and being followed on social media sites can only help to get those homeless pets adopted!
If you’re involved with a shelter or an animal rescue group and you don’t have a presence on a social media site…get one! They’re easy to set-up and they’re free to use! It’s one of the quickest ways to send out information to the masses about your adoptable pets. It’s also a great way to build community support.
It gives you the opportunity to connect with your supporters in a way unlike any other before. Outside of showcasing adoptable pets, you can announce upcoming events, share content from others about animal care tips or current animal related news, post happy tails of previous adoptions and post requests for donations.
A word of caution on the donation requests, keep those postings to a smaller percentage from everything else. People know you need donations and a gentle nudge every now and then will suffice, but requesting on a daily basis could cause you to come off as too needy and you will lose followers.
As a general rule of thumb, keep your postings fun and informative and you’ll keep your followers engaged. An even bigger rule of thumb is to respond to your followers comments. Even if all you’re doing is “Liking” their comment, that can be enough. It shows that you are paying attention to what they are saying. So animal rescuers…go forth and be followed!
Since I started this post with a shameless plug for my favorite band, I might as well end the same way. Here’s the music video for the song quoted above. It is from the album All You Need Is Now. Enjoy!
