I use Facebook to help the dogs we foster find their forever homes. Or at least that’s my hope. But sometimes I wonder if the effort I put into them is well spent or wasted.
I’ve tried building a separate page for each dog. That has the advantage of making it easy for interested parties to find a whole collection of pictures, videos, and descriptions that help them learn about that dog’s personality and temperament. The drawback is that each time I launch a new page I start from scratch in trying to build traffic to that page. That can take time.
I also have a Facebook account for Cochise: our 95 pound American Bulldog who was our very first foster dog. We adopted him and he has become a mentor to the other fosters. I’ve also hired him to be the spokesdog for Piney Mountain Foster Care. The advantage of posting doggie adventures on Cochise’s page is that he has a steadily growing audience to which all new dogs are easily introduced. The drawback is that someone going to Cochise’s page may have to scroll through many screens of posts to find all the posts about one particular dog.
The question must be asked occasionally, “Does any of this do any good?”
Out of the 23 dogs we’ve fostered as of March 20, 2015 (when I wrote this) only one of them was sent directly to a forever home because that family saw him on Facebook. The rest of them (aside from Cochise and Blondie, who we adopted) ended up going to one rescue or another and that rescue found forever homes for the dogs. One rescue is very active on Facebook and does use my pages as they start their sharing campaigns trying to find homes. Whether this is a determining factor in any of those adoptions is hard to quantify because they also do many adoption events. The other rescues use Facebook to post their own articles but have not been interested in utilizing the materials I put up about the dogs.
Until now.
One of the dogs who has been in a rescue for an unusually long time has finally been adopted. I asked if her Facebook page played any role in the adoption because traffic to her page had spiked recently, and it seems it did not. But, my contact sent me this reply to my query:
Everyone loved watching all her videos that you so wonderfully created. It really got us here at EHR all involved in talking about Babe and promoting her and what she needed. I know it takes a lot of time, but it’s amazing to see and know more about the dogs, and in turn we can provide this to potential adopters who are always interested in the dog’s “story.” I think your videos connected us all Doug. I Iove Cochise and hope you continue posting all about the dogs on his page.
I think it was that “I think your videos connected us all” statement that took me by surprise. I was aiming at getting info out where potential adopters would find it and connect with a dog. I had not thought that this material might actually motivate the rescue staff. After all, they HAVE the dog, wouldn’t they know what she’s like?
Rescues often have a lot of dogs. Many do not keep the dogs in a central facility the way a shelter does but in foster homes. In those cases, the staff may have very little contact with the dogs they are trying to place. Something like Babe’s Facebook page can bring home what a personality-filled little doll she is and then they work harder to find her a home.
I had not seen that effect coming. Social Media can be used not just to promote a single item or idea, but to galvanize a group of people into a team that works together to accomplish something. I guess I should have known that: I’ve seen a lot of political and social calls to action, but they are mostly “sign our petition”, “send a donation”, or “call your congressman” sorts of thing. This is a little different, and I am glad it worked out as well as it did.
UPDATE
As of January, 2017: four dogs have gone directly to adoptive homes after leaving us and many of them are accepted into rescues because those rescues see the photos, videos, and blurbs that I’ve posted on Facebook. More and more, Facebook is becoming the information exchange for the rescue work we’re involved in.
I’ve also started a new tactic. I post photo’s, short video clips, and brief updates on Facebook and link them to a doggie diary page here on Random Thoughts. Each foster dog has one page. New info is added to the bottom of that page, creating a chronological collection of that dog’s story. The blurbs on Facebook serve as entertaining teasers that pull the truly interested here for the full story. I’ve received comments saying what a great idea it is and that they want to copy it.
