Social Media Portfolio: Halifax Humane Society
Halifax Humane Society is a private nonprofit organization servicing the Greater Daytona Beach area in Volusia County, Fla. As an open-door animal shelter, HHS receives more than 17,000 animals annually through city contracts and owner surrenders. Kennels and cages can comfortably house about 350 animals at a time and are usually full. However, if the shelter identifies a dog or cat as adoptable, all efforts are made to shelter that animal until a forever home is found.
In the fall of 2009, HHS had more than a dozen medium-sized dogs in the kennel that had been sheltered for 7 months or more. Most were short-haired mixed-breed dogs that were overlooked time and again by families attracted to puppies or popular breeds like labrador retrievers.
Write Result created a social media campaign to shine a spotlight on these hard-to-place dogs. The campaign, called Operation Plain Brown Dog, utilized the HHS Web site, the HHS e-newsletter, an e-mail campaign, and most importantly a blog.
The PlainBrownDog blog featured posts written from the perspective of one of the longest-time HHS residents, a boxer-pit bull mix named Misty. They detailed Misty’s day-to-day life as she went from being a long-term shelter resident, to getting a home through a foster family.
The blog shared photos of Misty and descriptions of her life, her dreams and her foster experience.
HHS created a link from its Web site to the blog. The HHS e-newsletter featured the blog and included a hot link to the site. An e-mail campaign informed people of the blog and the campaign to find a home for Misty and plain dogs like her.
Within two days of the blog’s going live, the site received several hundred visits. Four different individuals inquired about adopting Misty within 48 hours of the blog’s launch. A total of seven people inquired about adopting Misty after reading her “blog.” Within 7 days Misty was adopted by her new family who found Misty’s story through one of the campaign’s e-mail links.
The PlainBrownDog blog continues to be utilized as a resource for finding homes for hard-to-place animals, to attract foster volunteers, and to raise awareness and funds for Halifax Humane Society.