We were so thrilled when the effort to connect those managing social media for animal shelters across the country grew into a very active Facebook community of a few hundred individuals. The intent of the group initially was to be a place for those managing social media for a brick and mortar animal sheltering facility or GFAS accredited sanctuary to share their knowledge, support each other professionally in the effort to save lives, and it expanded into a safe place to have discussions or share resources related to sheltering that are not social media specific. What started as a group getting a dozen requests to join a week, the group is now getting several dozen to 100 a week, many of which are requests from foster based rescues.
The social media needs of foster based rescues can be quite different from shelters, and additionally, we have to acknowledge the Great Dane in the room: sometimes rescues and shelters are at odds with each other for a variety of reasons. So, we’ve made some changes that we hope will continue to help the Animal Shelter Social Media group thrive, as well as provide the same resource to those in the animal rescue community:
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- First and foremost, we have created a Facebook group for the rescue community!
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- In an effort to ensure only those who actively want to participate in the group join, we’re limiting organizations (national or local) to having three people in the group.
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- We’ve created a form for those requesting to join, where you can indicate if you’re interested in signing up for a soon to be launched quarterly newsletter.
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- The form will also help ensure everyone is aware of the group rules as well as opportunities such as being listed in the directory of experts on this site and writing guest blogs.
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- Only individuals will be allowed to join the groups, not pages or profiles with the organization’s name. This is to continue to foster a safe space for those working in the animal welfare community by having it be clear who we are communicating with.
With that, please fill out the below form (promise it will take less than a minute) and we look forward to having you join the conversation!
If you haven’t already, make sure to request to join the appropriate group after filling out the form:
Animal Shelter Social Media: New members must manage or help with social media either at a shelter, or a rescue, that has a brick and mortar building. Members who are with non-companion animal (dog, cat, rodent, horse, reptile) groups that have brick and mortar facilities, such as sanctuaries, are allowed if they are accredited by GFAS (Greater Federation of Animal Sanctuaries).
Animal Rescue Social Media: For those who manage or help with social media either at a foster based animal rescue that is a registered non-profit, or manage social media presences that are not affiliated with animal shelters in an official capacity (such as an urgent page, or friends of page).