April 16, 2010Comments are closed.marketing, new media
With most organisations now recognising that social media is vital, a new animal welfare related Facebook page or Twitter account is appearing daily. But not all groups have the same levels of success. What makes a group become a viral phenomenon? And what makes it all go wrong?
Thinking of starting a two way conversation with your public? Then check out these case studies to help make your own steps into social media graceful, rather than painful.
Pets Haven
A grassroots organisation, feeling the love
Pets Haven in Victoria has found an enormous boon in their Facebook page, growing from a few hundred members to over 7,500 in less than a year.
The secret to their success? Constant and personal update about the pets entering the care of the group. By keeping it very real and very genuine through hastily shot action pics and heartfelt commentary, and allowing supporters to track both their successes and their failures, they’ve created an online soapie for pet lovers that is both as addictive as it is bittersweet.
More than 2,000 photos have been posted to the page by the group and its supporters, along with adoptable animal videos, events and topical advocacy. There is a whole lotta love being shown for the work of Pets Haven.
AWL QLD
Big but not bureaucratic, opening the doors to the public bringing huge rewards
One of the most effective ‘tweeters’ on the web, the AWL QLD has developed an army of followers on Twitter and Facebook which allow it to achieve such remarkable results as 84 pets rehomed on the Easter weekend and huge promotions throughout the year focusing on traditionally ‘hard to place’ pets like adult cats.
By tapping into people’s love of animals and taking a witty, upbeat approach to their promotions (check out this Australia Day promo and this deaf dally) they have created a true fan club rooting for their success.
PIAS Australia
Cementing themselves as a knowledge base
With such excellent daily tidbits as “56% of women and 41% of men say their pet is more affectionate than their partner”, the ‘drip, drip, drip’ approach of PIAS Australia’s twitter feed ensures that followers are entertained, but not bombarded. Showing that you can’t build a community overnight, but that you have to love it a little every day, this twitter feed also generously contributes to the success of other organisations by showcasing their pet friendly initiatives. Sing with me – You’ve got to give a little love, take a little love…
Australia Says No to Puppy Farms
People care
This is one of PetRescue’s projects, but the success of this page has left us all astounded. With over 8,500 members and an active contributing base, it supports the Seth Godin notion that the most impassioned tribes are those advocating for change.
I also think the title ‘Australia Says No to Puppy Farms‘ is key to the success of this group. Remember bumper stickers? It’s what everybody had before Facebook. Bumper stickers stood for something; ‘vegans make better lovers‘, ‘save the whale‘, even the ‘Jesus fish’ all say something about the car’s owner. When naming your Facebook group, expand beyond the name of your organisation (which is all about you) and look at what unites your supporters. Make it all about them.
Pets Paradise
When transparency is your enemy, best stay off the interwebs
When an organisation starts astroturfing, the ‘pants down’ honesty of social media can be disastrous. Pets Paradise, the largest seller of pet shop puppies in Australia, created a Christmas campaign purporting to support rescue pets. Except that rescue groups reacted badly to them using rescue’s ‘halo’ for their own promotions. This was followed up by an equally phony donation drive to support a sick puppy being sold by a PP store. Again, rescue groups were outraged that this $80 million dollar corporation were using rescue group techniques to elicit sympathy, and the business’ Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hallam-Australia/Pets-Paradise/22200944937) was targeted. It was taken down last month.
The lesson for this business was simple; when you don’t want people to talk about your business practices, social media isn’t for you. Unless you’re willing to accept criticisms openly and take the time to explain the reasons for your actions, then people will rapidly become incited by you lack of transparency.
The Lost Dogs Home
Accountability’s a bitch
After years of holding back its statistics from the public, the Lost Dogs Home was finally pressured into formally releasing them when the results from council data collection exercise was released to the media. The online community began criticising the operating procedures of the organisation, who responded by denying responsibility, limiting access to the shelter and closing open membership to their facebook page.
By going to ground, rather than addressing people’s concerns openly, they guaranteed that the conversation would go nuclear. Websites, anti-LDH Facebook pages and blogs sprung up overnight, demonstrating that when your community turns, the worst response you can make is to try and quell dissent. If you don’t allow people to have a discussion with you, you almost certainly guarantee they will have a conversation about you.
Because the RSPCA’s all operate independently of each other, some are going great, while others are bombing.
The RSPCA ACT excel; their Facebook page is professional and responsive, their web videos and e-newsletter are some of the best I’ve ever seen and they blog. Queensland is also doing good Facebooking (though their ‘pet of the week’ seems to have died) and their Twitter is appropriately pithy and relevant. The RSPCA SA has a locked Facebook page which is a automatic fail and the RSPCA WA’s page hasn’t been updated since August 09 and is covered in spam.
The future response to these inconsistencies will likely be a standardising the RSPCA social media policy and maybe reconciling the accounts into one corporately managed one, however the nature of social media actually calls for less restriction, not more. No one wants to talk to a corporation.
The ideal way to move this forward would be to allocate every person in the RSPCA organisation a Facebook identity (just like you would an email) and require that everyone participate. By blowing the lid off who can contribute, they could empower all in the organisation to speak to their communities.
In the spirit of walking the talk; follow me on Facebook here and Twitter here.
