Sara Kate Nash

Professor Maria Katrien Heslin

JOUR-J431

30 April 2014

Strategic Communications Campaign Plan for the Bloomington Animal Shelter

Situational Analysis

Currently, the Animal Shelter communicates with its public through their

website on the Bloomington Government website. They also use Facebook very well,

posting specials and pictures of animals waiting to be adopted and pictures of

animals and their new owners. They are very good at communicating with their

public through Facebook, and their website is very informative and easy to navigate.

There is a page that shows all of the animals that can be adopted along with a

description. Those are their two primary tools of communication – their website

and their Facebook page. Their brand is very obvious, the goal is to get as many

animals adopted into good homes as possible, while reducing the amount of animals

that are euthanized each year.

Focusing on the college demographic, their biggest communication challenge

is using the mediums that college students use. College students are straying away

from Facebook more and more, and don’t tend to look up websites to find

information. They check Twitter and Instagram for updates and information more

than anything else. Currently, the Animal Shelter does not have a Twitter or

Instagram account, so they are not reaching college students as much as they could.

There are many college students who want a pet, and who would be great pet-

owners and would also enjoy helping the shelter out, but a lot of them are not

reached by the Animal Shelter’s current communication strategy.

In the next 6 months, the idea is to get more college students involved with

the Animal Shelter. This can be students who are responsible animal-lovers

adopting animals, students coming to work for the animal shelter, older students

fostering animals until they find a permanent home, or students volunteering their

time to help out at the Shelter. Any of these things would help the Animal Shelter

immensely raise their number of adoptions and, in turn, decrease their number of

euthanizations. There would also be more hands on deck to help take care of the

animals, people that actually want to do productive work at the shelter. A lot of

current volunteers just want to play with the animals, this would also give extra

volunteers something to do. Volunteers are needed to run the campaign. Currently,

the Animal Shelter does counseling and background checks for students adopting

animals, so the animals would still be going to good homes, but more students

would be aware of the Shelter & the adoption program. There is also currently a

foster plan in place, where animals go to foster homes for a while before the y are

adopted, and if students who can not take animals long-term can help with that,

more animals would be trained, and in turn, more likely to be adopted into homes.

By using Twitter and Instagram as prominent communication mediums, the

Shelter will be able to connect more with college students, therefore getting more

animals adopted and even more help with the shelter in general. Potential pet-

owners will also be able to learn more about specials, like Free Feline Friday, the

program Pets Alive allows pets to be neutered or spayed for cheaper prices, and the

fact that all of the animals from the Animal Shelter are previously spayed/neutered.

All of these things are very important in making the decision to adopt, and if

students are made more aware, responsible ones may be more likely to adopt

animals. They will also be able to connect with potential volunteers, who will do

hard work at the shelter, because they believe in the good that is being done there.

Not just because they want to play with the animals. A good portion of the college

demographic can be very helpful and work hard, and also wants to do things to help

the greater good.

Tools of Influence

Right now, the Animal Shelter uses feedback as a way to entice people to

adopt animals. They post pictures of animals with their new owners on Facebook,

showing all the animals that have been adopted recently and thanking people for

giving these animals homes. This shows people that good things are being done, and

entices them to do the same. This can be taken a step further by posting pictures on

Twitter and Instagram of people adopting new pets. This way the younger

demographic will see more of these pictures and want to do the same, or want to do

good things for the Animal Shelter, like volunteer. They will be more influenced

because those pictures will be seen no matter what, if people follow the Shelter on

Instagram. This is because every picture posted is on your feed, not just some of

them like on Facebook.

The Animal Shelter also uses stories over stats to entice people to adopt

animals. On their site, there is a link to a page that has each animal that the shelter

has up for adoption, with a little blurb about them. These stories of what has

happened to these animals or where they came from/where they are now and how

they are as pets makes people remember them and feel more connected to the

animal. This makes them more likely to adopt. This can be implemented on Twitter

and Instagram as well; pictures can be posted of animals up for adoption along with

their story underneath. This will ensure that the younger demographic will see the

stories of the animals and they will want to adopt them. They can also take pictures

of new pet owners and their new pets early on in the campaign, and then at the end

of the campaign they can contact the same people and take a new picture of them

and their pet. They can place these pictures alongside each other in a collage and

write a little story about the pet and its owner and how they have grown together

and how happy they are. This will resonate with the college demographic because it

will show that pets can really make your life better, and that these people are

making the animals’ lives better as well.

Something that the Animal Shelter could start doing more of on Twitter and

Instagram is showcasing college students and their adoptions of animals or their

volunteer work. They could post pictures of younger people with their pets that

they’ve adopted or doing any type of volunteer work, showing that college students

are doing this, and it’s a good thing to do. This will make it seem like a social norm

for students to adopt pets, if they are deemed responsible by the Animal Shelter , or

volunteer. This will make more college students want to adopt animals and help out

the animal shelter.

In order to make college students more likely to volunteer for the Animal

Shelter, they should try to increase volunteer loyalty, and make better use of their

volunteers. This can be done by letting volunteers know that they are appreciated,

by either telling them in person, mentioning them on Twitter, or posting a picture of

them helping out on Instagram. This will make college students more likely to come

back and help more, and will make their friends want to help out because they will

see that they have been appreciated for their help. It will also incorporate social

media by connecting with college students on Twitter and Instagram. They can

make better use of their volunteers by taking volunteers they currently have and

having them put this plan into place. Both Twitter and Instagram will need about

five or so people working on the site – tweeting and posting pictures. This will put at

least 10 volunteers to use very well. In turn, this will make volunteers want to come

back.

Finally, another thing that the Animal Shelter would benefit from is giving the

public facts over falsehoods. If they post information about animals on Twitter, or

information about vaccinations or specials or the PetsAlive program and pet

fostering programs, more people will be aware of these things. If they have the facts

and know that animals from the shelter are spayed/neutered, and there are specials,

and if they know about all the different programs, they will be much more likely to

help the shelter out or adopt an animal. They will see that the work they are doing is

very good and important, and will want to be a part of it. They will also see that the

animals are very well taken care of and that it is not as much of a hassle to adopt a

pet as they might have thought.

Public Relations Campaign Plan

The goal of this campaign is to create a Twitter and Instagram account for the

Bloomington Animal Shelter and increase their social media following. The hope is

to get college students more involved with the Bloomington Animal Shelter, whether

it is volunteering, working, acting as foster homes, or adopting animals if they are

deemed responsible enough. This campaign will also help with their volunteer

overflow and misuse of them, because there are two whole new social media sites

that need to be run. The objective is to increase the social media presence of the

shelter and connect more with college students so that they will feel more enticed to

participate with the Animal Shelter. They should also notice more hard-working

volunteers coming in, and they should be utilized better. The campaign will be

considered successful if the Shelter can get at least 1,500 Twitter followers and

1,000 Instagram followers over the 6-month time period. Another stipulation is that

over the time period, the volunteer rates at the Shelter should go up about 30% and

adoption rates should go up about 15%. It is more difficult for college students to

adopt animals, however, if they are made more aware, the ones who are responsible

enough and have the money to raise an animal will be more likely to adopt.

However, it is easier for students to go and volunteer at the shelter, so if they have

more information, more people will be likely to either work or volunteer for the

shelter.

The only real competition for the Bloomington Animal Shelter is the pet store

in the mall, however, it is not really much competition because the animals at the

pet store are much more expensive and there are a lot less animals to choose from

there. Right now, the Animal Shelter is definitely seen as a good thing in the

Bloomington Community, but it is not super well known to college students. For

instance, I did not know there was an Animal Shelter in Bloomington until I started

this project. A lot of students that I informally asked questions to did not know there

was a Bloomington Animal Shelter either. I think that the shelter should be made

more prevalent to college students. This campaign does not really need any funding,

seeing as running a Twitter and Instagram is free, and having students adopt or

foster animals will help the Shelter.. Volunteers will work for free, so no funding is

needed for that. There will need to be about 10 to run the Twitter and Instagram

profiles, and because there are already college-age students working and

volunteering at the shelter, who know those social mediums very well, they could

run the sites. That will not be an issue. This campaign will be very easy to

implement. The only challenge the shelter may encounter is students adopting pets.

One of the main issues that the shelter currently has with college students adopting

pets is their responsibility, their income, and students going on vacations for spring

break and not having anywhere to take the animal. However, they have already

implemented a counseling service and background check to make sure that students

adopting the animals will be able to take care of them. They make sure the students

have enough money to pay for food and necessities, they make sure they are

responsible enough to care for an animal, and they make sure the animal will have

somewhere safe to stay. They let students know how big of a responsibility it is to

take on a pet, so, for the most part, that challenge will be solved through the

counseling program. They also might notice that some students just want to

volunteer to play with the animals, but the audience that this campaign targets is

responsible and hard working. That issue should not be too prevalent.

The most important audience that the Bloomington Animal Shelter needs to

reach with this campaign is college students. They are 18-22 years old, both male

and female and they go to IU. They are of all ethnicities and races, people who will

be adopting animals are employed, people who will be volunteering or working

there may not be, they live in apartments or houses that allow pets. These students

value responsibility, they care for animals, they are hard working, they believe in

doing the right thing and they enjoy being independent and caring for other people

and things. Currently, most of these students are not very aware about the

organization and the programs it implements. These people also feel strongly about

helping animals and most of them disagree with euthanization of animals in animal

shelters.

The main concepts of the messages being sent to college students are to let

them know that the Animal Shelter is a prominent organization in Bloomington and

that any help or adoption will save an animal. Using pictures of people adopting

animals or volunteering at the shelter will do this. Pictures show that the shelter

appreciates any help and adoptions and how much it helps the shelter and the

animals. Pictures are more informative than words, and will resonate more with

college students. Additionally, using pictures of the animals that can be adopted and

telling their stories will also resonate. Focusing on posting pictures as messages is

important in showing that college students can be very helpful. However, it is

equally as important to use simple language to tell followers on Twitter that there

are specials coming up, or to remind them that every animal is spayed/neutered.

The idea is just to let followers know what the shelter does, what programs it offers,

and how much good it does. These messages will convince followers that the shelter

is a prominent organization, but that it can always use help in reaching it’s goals of

increasing adoptions and decreasing euthanizations. This will convince the college

public to act and volunteer and possibly adopt.

The two social media sites that will be used in this campaign are Twitter and

Instagram. These sites are the mot efficient way to reach college students, because

they are using Twitter and Instagram for sources of news and updates more and

more in comparison to Facebook and regular websites. Another issue is that the

shelter’s website is very hard to navigate. It has all of the information you could

want to know, but it’s hard to find. However, we are not focusing on their website

for this campaign. If they can follow the Animal Shelter on Twitter and Instagram,

they will have daily updates and daily reminders about the Shelter , and links to

pages on their website that may otherwise be hard to find. The tools feedback,

stories over stats, social norms, volunteer loyalty, and stating facts over falsehoods

will be useful for the shelter. These will all be done over Instagram and Twitter.

Feedback will be shown in Instagram, each day, a picture will be posted on

Instagram of a pet that was adopted and its new owner. This will show that the

Animal Shelter appreciates what these people have done, and it will make students

want to adopt an animal more. The animals’ stories that are posted on their website

will be posted on Instagram and Twitter along with a picture of the animal, showing

which animals are available for adoption. These will resonate with college students

and make them want to adopt. If the Shelter posts pictures on Instagram and

Twitter of college students adopting animals and volunteering at the shelter, it will

seem like the norm. More students will want to volunteer or adopt because they are

seeing that other students are doing it. The shelter can increase volunteer loyalty by

mentioning volunteers on Twitter or posting pictures on Instagram thanking them

for their help, in hopes that they will come back because they feel appreciated.

Finally, if the shelter posts facts on Twitter about the shelter and the programs

offered, people will be much more likely to adopt animals. They will see all the good

work that the shelter does and want to help out. Doing these things will improve the

following on Twitter and Instagram, by mentioning people and getting their name

into the Twitter and Instagram worlds, and will improve the overall adoption and

volunteer rates.

August: On the first day of the month, a Twitter and Instagram account will be

created for the Animal Shelter. At the same time, a link will be posted on the

shelter’s website and Facebook page, asking people currently connected to the

shelter to connect on Twitter & Instagram. Current employees of the younger

demographic will follow the shelter on both sites, and will retweet them, or post a

picture of them at the shelter, mentioning them, to get their friends to follow as well.

During this month, Tweets will be posted daily with facts about animals at the

shelter, what the shelter does and any specials coming up. There will also be one or

two pictures posted each day of either animals up for adoption, animals and their

new homes, or volunteers at the shelter. The idea for this month is to get the

Bloomington Animal Shelter’s name into the Twitter and Instagram world, so that

college students know they are there.

September: By the beginning of September, the goal is to have at least 150 followers

on Twitter, and 100 followers on Instagram. This month, the Shelter will connect

with local restaurants on Twitter, and ask for a shout out to gain more followers. At

this point, more college students will be aware that the shelter is on Twitter and

Instagram. This is when the shelter can start implementing tools of influence. They

can mention volunteers on Twitter, post pictures of volunteers and people adopting

pets, showing that they are appreciated and that people are doing good things. In

mentioning volunteers and posting pictures, the social media following will grow,

because more volunteers and their friends will follow the shelter. The shelter will

also be tweeting facts about animals at the shelter, statistics about animal

euthanizations, and other information that will resonate with followers. Hopefully,

followers that are passionate about animals will retweet these tweets to get more of

a following.

October: By the beginning of October, the shelter should have about 400 Twitter

followers and 300 Instagram followers. This month, the shelter will connect with

BEAD and Downtown Bloomington Inc. to get a shout out to increase their twitter

following. At this point, the shelter should start noticing a slight increase in the

number of college-age volunteers. They should also notice a few more college

students coming in to potentially adopt an animal. Their following is larger, so now

they can start using stories and social norms as tools of influence. They can post

pictures on Instagram showing college students adopting their new pets, and the

story behind the pet and the student and why the student chose the pet. They can

also mention college students on Twitter who volunteer or adopt animals, and post

pictures of them doing these things, showing that it is something that more and

more college students are doing.

November: The goal for the beginning of the month is to have 800 Twitter followers

and 600 Instagram followers. At this point, there should be a steady number of

student volunteers coming back regularly, and more new ones coming in to help out.

There should also be a significant amount of college students wanting to adopt

animals at this point. There should be more and more pictures being posted of

students adopting animals or volunteering, to make it seem like the norm is

growing, and entice more students to do the same. The social media following will

grow with the number of mentions and people who are connectors telling their

friends about the shelter and all the good that it does.

December: At the beginning of the month the shelter should have about 1,200

Twitter and 800 Instagram followers. There should be a very significant number of

college volunteers and adoptions, and more people will be aware of the shelter and

everything that it does. These numbers will continue to increase because of the tools

of influence being implemented, and because of connectors in the community.

January: By the end of the month and the end of the campaign, there should be 1,500

Twitter and 1,000 Instagram followers for the shelter. The shelter should have

noticed an increase of volunteers of about 30% and an increase in adoption rates of

about 15%. The volunteers should keep coming back, if the shelter has increased

volunteer loyalty. The volunteers should also be utilized better if there are less of

them because many of them are helping run the Twitter and Instagram. The shelter

can now go back and talk to new pet owners to see how they are doing and post ne w

pictures of those pets and their owners alongside an old one with their story. That

will show people how good of a thing it is to adopt an animal, and how much they

enjoy it. If the shelter keeps the Twitter and Instagram accounts running, they

should notice their followers continuing to grow after the campaign, and more and

more college students will be aware of the shelter and want to help out.

BONUS

Two-Week Twitter Messages

Day 1: “Bloomington Animal Shelter is now in the Twitter world! Follow for

information about animals, volunteering & adoptions”

“8 million animals are euthanized each year, help save one by adopting a pet

today!”

“Thanks (twitter name) for volunteering for the shelter today! Everything

you do helps!”

Day 2: “Meet Sandy! She’s a sweet, loving puppy that needs a home! (picture link)

Learn more about her at (website link)”

“We are getting some new cats and dogs this week! Come to the animal

shelter to meet them!”

“If you’re worried about spaying/neutering a pet, all of our animals already

have the procedure done! #PetsAlive also does it for cheaper prices!”

Day 3: “Meet Clyde, a playful little kitten looking for a mom or dad! (picture link)

Learn more about her at (website link)”

“Want to see more of our pets? Follow us on Instagram, go like us on

Facebook or check out our website!”

“Don’t forget, #FreeFelineFriday is coming up! Come adopt a cat today!”

Day 4: “Sadie got a new home with (twitter name) last week! Look how happy they

are! (picture link)”

“The Bloomington Animal Shelter believes in saving animals from

euthanization, learn more about our cause at (website link)”

“We’re looking for volunteers for the weekend! Go to our website to learn

how and what you can volunteer for! Retweet this to spread the word!”

Day 5: “Today is #FreeFelineFriday! Come meet Simba and Nala, brother and sister,

(picture link) and adopt them for free today!”

“We’re super busy for #FreeFelineFriday! Come check it out, or sign up to

volunteer for next week!”

“Look at how happy Shaye is with her new mom! (picture link)”

Day 6: “Thanks to all our awesome volunteers who came in yesterday to help us

with #FreeFelineFriday, we really appreciate it! (picture link with tagged

volunteers)”

“Want a good resume builder, and a great reference? Come volunteer for the

animal shelter once a week!”

“Have a lost pet, or found someone’s lost pet? Contact the

#BloomingtonAnimalShelter, we connect lost pets with their homes!”

Day 7: “Love animals, but can’t take a pet long-term? Learn about our foster

program & see if you qualify to foster a pet! (website link)”

“Need information about pet care? Come to the #BloomingtonAnimalShelter

or check out our website for information!”

“Meet Polly, a talkative, beautiful parrot! (picture link) Adopt her today!”

Day 8: “Have a disobedient pet? Fill out our behavior consulting form to get some

help from experts at the shelter!”

“Need a companion that will love you unconditionally? Come see the pets we

have up for adoption at the #BloomingtonAnimalShelter and take one home today!”

“Marley is the perfect Labrador retriever puppy, come meet him today!

(picture link)

Day 9: “Thanks so much to (twitter name), an IU student who came out to volunteer

today at the shelter!”

“Love animals? Want to do something to help them, but can’t adopt? Work at

the animal shelter! Check out our website for details!”

Henry and his new dad are so cute together! (picture link)

Day 10: “Last year the #BloomingtonAnimalShelter had the lowest number of

euthanizations and highest number of adoptions ever! Come help us lower and raise

the numbers even more!”

“Adopting an animal will not only make you happier, but will give them a

much better life too!”

“Check out our awesome volunteers playing with our cats up for adoption!

(picture link) Aren’t they great?!”

Day 11: “Among our adoption programs, counseling programs, PetsAlive program,

and helping out lost pets, we also take in strays!”

“Maggie is a sweet golden retriever whose previous owners couldn’t take

care of her anymore, give her a new home today! (picture link)

“We love our animals! But we’d love for them to have homes even more!

Come adopt a pet today!”

Day 12: “Learn about our foster program on our website! (website link)”

“Want to adopt a pet but aren’t sure if you can handle it? Check out our

website for pet owner tips and guidelines for all you need to know about owning a

pet! (website link”

“Come in today and meet Ralph, and possibly take him home on

#FreeFelineFriday! (picture link)”

Day 13: “Meet our newest volunteers (twitter name), (twitter name), and (twitter

name)! We seriously appreciate everything they did for us today! (picture link)”

“How cute are Dexter and his new owner?! (picture link)”

“The animal shelter works very hard to decrease animal euthanizations and

increase adoptions, come learn how you can help today!”

Day 14: “This week we had over 30 cats adopted on #FreeFelineFriday! Thanks to

everyone who welcomed a new pet into their home and helped us save some cats!”

“Meet Casey! Our newest dog to the shelter! She would love a new home!

(picture link)”

“Thanks (twitter name) for coming to volunteer today! We appreciate all the

help we can get!”