But for a hacker with just a bit of skill, it’s not too difficult to worm their way into an unprotected WordPress site and cause all kinds of trouble! I just spent most of my Thanksgiving weekend cleaning up a site that was hacked about 3 weeks ago. I thought it was all cleaned out…but it wasn’t, and the database was totally corrupted and malicious scripts were putting out phishing information on the site (like asking for peoples’ credit card numbers, paypal logins, etc.). This is a HUGE problem!

Of course, all sites–no matter how they are built–are vulnerable in some ways. Just like our homes. But we can do simple things to protect our homes, like install a burglar alarm, lock our doors and windows, and not leave a key under the mat.

We can do simple things to protect our WordPress sites, too. And luckily there are SOME programmers out there who are using their powers for good instead of evil, and they’ve written some great (free) WordPress plugins that you can use to protect your Internet real estate.

Take a few minutes and install these plugins on your site, activate them and go through the steps they outline. It will take 20 minutes or so, and will save you a world of hurt if your site is ever hacked.

One really important tip that this doesn’t cover–Make SURE that in WordPress, you NEVER use the “admin” login. In fact, just delete it (make sure you have some other account with administrative privileges created first, of course!). What hackers use to break into your site is a program that repeatedly guesses random combinations of letters and numbers until they lock onto your password. So if you are using “admin” as your user name–the default WordPress user name–then they already know half the combination to access your site!

It goes without saying to make sure your password is as complex as possible–more than 8 characters, containing letters, numbers and symbols, as well as capital and lower-case letters.

So here is that list of a few critical steps you should take to protect your WordPress site. (caveat: this only works on a self-hosted wordpress site. if your site is hosted on wordpress.com (if your URL is something like yoursite.wordpress.com) then you can’t install these plugins.)

Create a new administrator user with a new login name. Delete the default “admin” user.

Use random gibberish passwords of at least 12 characters. Here’s a helpful random gibberish password generator.

Install and activate the Login Lockdown plugin.

Install, activate, and run the Secure WordPress plugin.

Install, activate, and run the WP Security Scan plugin. Run its File Permissions check, and change your folder permissions accordingly.

If you are creating a new website, install, activate, and run the Maintenance Mode plugin to create a landing page and “cloak” the work in progress.

Also, be sure to keep your WordPress install and  your plugins updated to their most recent version at all times. Usually the updates to the system and to plugins are to address new security vulnerabilities. Hackers are always developing new ways to attack, so the WordPress developers must respond with enhanced security.

I sure don’t want to scare you away from using WordPress–like I said, ANY system is vulnerable. I sleep much better at night now, knowing my sites are protected. I hope you will, too!

Big thanks to the Idea 15 Blog for providing some of these links and information!

Here I am, signing the pledge to "Be the Change" for animals in my community. Check out www.blogpawsbethechange.com to learn more!

I’m writing this on my way back home from Denver, CO where I spent the weekend in the company of hundreds of other pet-related bloggers at a conference called Blogpaws. I had originally shied away from attending this conference, because I thought it would be filled with eccentric “cat ladies” who sat at home, blogging from their cats’ perspectives all day…breed elitists who extolled the virtues of Cavalier King Charles Spaniels over all other dogs…generally, folks who don’t have anything to do with animal welfare.

Boy, was I wrong! And I’m happy to admit it.

Sure, I met some eccentric folks (aren’t all of us, in some way?!). But I learned a lot more about writing and about how to focus the content on this blog to better serve my audience. (That’s YOU!)

I’ve got a lot of new ideas. New things to write about, new ways to bring you more content that is valuable to our industry of animal shelter and rescue. New ways to promote this blog so that more of you will find it and share it with people you know in this industry. New ways to incorporate contests and giveaways to engage you.

If anyone from Blogpaws is reading this, I want to thank you. I want to tell you how great the conference was, how much I learned, and how happy I am to have met those of you I met. For my readers, this is great news because I’ll be able to bring you lots of content from a variety of different experts.

Expanding my readership starts by asking you for help! If you find the information here to be valuable, I’d ask you to pass it along to a friend or colleague. I think most of the stuff I talk about is applicable to nonprofits and other companies, not just animal welfare. So spread the word!

Also, talk to me. Tell me if there are things you’re having trouble with. I can find answers on just about any topic, even if it’s not something I personally am an expert in. Let me know what you want to learn—we’ll do a webinar! We’ll make a video!

Our main goal is to bring you the content you want to learn about—it’s that simple.

So thanks for reading, and thanks for providing feedback. Be sure to subscribe via email (look in the sidebar on any page of this site) or RSS feed so you can be sure to catch all the content that’s coming your way soon!

p.s. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out Be The Change for Pets. I know just about everyone reading this blog is doing incredible things to make a difference in the lives of animals. Tap into this community and share ideas, victories, news and more–all celebrating the things we can ALL do to “Be the Change” for pets!

I’ve met more of you this summer at the HSUS Taking Action for Animals conference in Washington, D.C., and on the free social media webinars we’ve put together through TheSocialAnimal.com. I really hope these have been helpful to you, because they are SO much fun for me, and I want to keep doing them! If you think of any topics or specific things you’d like me to cover in a webinar, just let me know and I’d be glad to work it in.

What I’m writing about today, though, is a really cool conference that is coming up in September in Denver, CO for pet bloggers. It’s called BlogPaws and I’m really excited about going! But the only way I can go is if I win a video contest. I’ve entered a video, and I’m a finalist! But I need the most votes to win.

The video features me and my three dogs, Oliver, Rocky and Champ. It’s pretty funny and they are, of course, incredibly adorable and clever in it (okay…I am biased). It’s only 2 minutes long. I PROMISE it will make you laugh! Would you take a couple of minutes and vote for my video so I can attend this conference?

Click here to visit the BlogPaws site and vote for me and my dogs!

Thanks, everyone. I sure do appreciate your help with this, and I appreciate all you do every day for the animals!

Disclaimer: You might want to grab a snack…this is pretty long!

SB 1712 is the Commercial Pet Breeder Bill, also known as the “Black Market Breeder” bill. Its purpose was, overall, to make it more difficult for irreputable “puppy mills” to operate in the state of Oklahoma.

Introduced in January 2010 by Rep. Mike Jackson and Senator Patrick Anderson in the Oklahoma State Senate, the bill had two main facets. The first was to require anyone with 11 or more breeding female dogs to register with a state licensing board. This would subject them to licensing inspections. They would also have to pay a license fee on an annual basis, which would generate income for the state.

The bill, if passed, would also create a “Commercial Pet Breeder Board” which would serve to administrate the licensing and inspection, and would also compile a database and registry website which would operate as sort of a better business bureau for breeders (a BBBB if you will). Breeders could register online, and members of the public could research breeders online, rate them, etc. If someone initiated a search for a breeder that was not listed, it would trigger an alert to the board, which would locate and inspect the breeder. Since most irreputable breeders would be unlikely to voluntarily register, this would be the way to find most of them—from the public, searching for information about the source of animals they had purchased or were considering purchasing online.

Read lots more about this bill here.

From the very beginning of SB1712, the Central Oklahoma Humane Society had been involved in getting it passed. This required us to mobilize a large number of people, all across the state, with recurring frequency, to take various specific actions, often with only a day’s or so notice.

Social media was instrumental in this venture and getting this bill passed. Without social media, we could not have reached people in a timely fashion nor enabled them to easily take action and given them the information they needed to do so.

The first step was getting people to contact members of the Senate Appropriations Committee; the bill would have to make it out of this committee before it could be heard in the full Senate.

We published blogs (and corresponding updates on all social media sites directing people back to the blogs) with information about the bill—in plain English, as well as providing the full text of the bill—and gave the name and contact information of committee members. We urged everyone to contact committee members and ask them to support the bill, but especially people who were constituents of those committee members. We only received about 2 days notice before the committee was going to review the bill, so we had to mobilize quickly.

Keys: we followed up with people whenever they posted questions. We gave them answers. We found out if we didn’t know the answer. We said thank you. And we followed up—when the committee met, our president was there, texting me updates, which I posted on the blog and social media. So they were able to tune in almost live and see the result of their efforts play out in real time. The bill passed out of committee, so we thanked them again!

We then urged them to contact the committee members and THANK them for voting in support of the bill. Those that did not support it, we encouraged people to ask them (politely) to reconsider and support the bill when it came before the full senate.

Next, we knew the bill would be going to the full senate. We had no idea when this would be—it could be the next day or in the next few weeks.

We were sure to follow up again on our blogs and social media and tell people what the next steps would be. Most people just are not at all familiar with the legislative process, so making sure they understood what was coming next was key to keeping them engaged and not getting bored with the whole thing. We explained that it would be within a few weeks that we would need them to take another action—this time to contact their specific senator—and we told them how to find their Senator and how to contact him or her. We also provided a sample letter and talking points, but encouraged people to use their own words when contacting legislators.

Over the next couple of weeks, we waited and we posted other types of updates, but we kept people in the loop by saying every now and then that we were still waiting, too. Finally we got word that the bill would be heard by the full senate the next day. We had no time to lose!

We immediately wrote a blog that reiterated the information we’d already posted: who to contact, how to do it, suggested talking points, etc. We exploded in social media, asking for people to not only contact their senator but to help us spread the word. This time, people from all over the state could be involved, contacting their own senators. We needed all hands on deck!

Keys: Again, we were present at the hearing to post near-live updates as the votes were coming in. We also provided a link where people could listen in live (the Oklahoma legislature live streams its meetings). We kept the excitement going; we were not at all sure that this bill would pass the full senate, so we were nervous—and this turned out to be a great way to keep people engaged. Those people who sent an email or letter, or made a phone call or visit, they were very invested in the outcome of this bill. They wanted to know as soon as possible what was happening and what they could continue.

SB 1712 passed out of the full Senate, so it was time for it to head to the House Economic Development and Financial Services Committee. It had been several months at this point, and we didn’t know when the house committee would get to hear the bill. Again, we kept up with other news, tasks, promotions, etc. via social media, but every now and then we’d give people an update on the bill. People often drop in to check on things infrequently; we had different people asking every few days, “So what’s going on with that bill? Did it pass?” To avoid posting the same information over and over again, we’d just say something like “still waiting to be heard in the house committee—click here for the latest updates!” and we’d add a link to the blog post with the latest information.

Social media seems to be about groups of people, but at its heart it is all about individual expression, and every individual who makes a comment or asks a question is connected to one or more groups. Family, friends, social organizations, churches, clubs, workplaces…all can be places where that person can access MORE individuals who will embrace our cause and recruit others. This is the very definition of “viral,” and it’s what every organization hopes will happen with their message or cause!

So a few weeks later, we heard that the bill was going to go before the house committee the next day. We had been asking people all along to contact committee members and their own representatives, but we renewed our push for eleventh-hour pleas.

Because many people don’t really understand the difference between house and senate, representatives and senators, we had to make sure to direct people to the correct person each time. For example, many people were contacting our federal legislators, not the state legislators. It’s easy to get confused, so we wanted to make sure people had easy access to the correct contact information and could contact us for help if they didn’t understand who to contact.

We knew our “competition,” as it were—the breeder lobbies and AKC groups, to name a few—were very actively campaigning to legislators, just as we were—so it was critical to show at least equal support for the bill as they were displaying opposition.

Once again, our network of supporters stayed the course and delivered letters, emails, phone calls and visits. The bill passed out of the house committee and then was on its way to the full house of representatives. The pattern of events is hopefully becoming predictable now: updated our supporters, thanked them, informed them of next steps and gave examples of what to do next.

Once we got word the bill would be heard in the full House, we deployed the masses again, encouraging everyone in the state to contact their own representatives. Again they delivered. The bill passed out of the full house of representatives, but with a few minor amendments, which meant it had to go back to the Senate for approval.

As soon as we had the news, we let people know that we had once again succeeded (with their help!) but that there was another hurdle to overcome. We explained why the bill had to go back to the senate, what the amendments were, and answered a lot of questions. We were always patient, always helpful, because it is our belief that when people are fully informed and completely understand situations, they feel much more ownership; they are fully empowered to take action. It becomes THEIR mantle, their cause—they’re not just doing something because we asked them. If we relied on that sense of obligation to us over and over again, we would have lost a lot of supporters due to attrition and boredom throughout the journey of this bill. But we didn’t—in fact, the numbers of supporters kept growing!

After SB 1712 successfully got its amendments approved in the full senate, we thought victory was ours at last! Of course we spread the word and celebrations ensued online, with much gratitude on our part. But then we got some last-minute bad news.

Any member of the Senate had the right to call for a recount within 3 days of the bill passing. This basically means that someone who deeply opposed a bill that passed can call for a recall, and then he or she has 48 hours to convince his or her colleagues to change their votes.

Senator Jon Gumm did exactly this. And we knew he would exercise every resource he had to get his colleagues to change their votes—enough to overturn the passage of the bill.

So we had the very difficult and disappointing task of going back and telling our celebrating supporters that it was NOT actually over after all, we were NOT yet victorious.

We explained the process of what had happened (without ever vilifying Senator Gumm, as tempting as it was). We explained that even if they’d already contacted their senator, they needed to again, and if they hadn’t already, then now it was more important than ever. The only thing that would sway these senators from changing their votes if they were ambivalent on the issue would be the collective voice of their constituency.

The response was fantastic. Our supporters, having had a brief period of celebration at what they thought was victory, were enraged at this turn of events and contacted their senators with renewed energy, making last-minute empassioned pleas to continue their support of the bill.

Legislators reported receiving an average of 1200 calls and emails that day urging them to support SB 1712. They were amazed at the outpouring of support for this legislation.

So on May 7, 2010, SB 1712 was passed into law in the state of Oklahoma. Our governor is now in the process of appointing members of the Commercial Pet Breeder Board and things hope to be up and running by December of 2010.

NONE of this would have been possible without social media. Certainly, political change has occurred for many years without Facebook, Twitter and blogs—but we could not have generated the support we needed in such volume, with such geographical reach in such short time frames without social media. Each person felt empowered, through his or her own Facebook page or Twitter account, to be an activist. This is the power of social media—that it allows people to be engaged in ways and at levels they never would have been in the past. People who don’t consider themselves “political” or “activists” are taking action because it’s easy and accessible, and it’s in a medium they have embraced.

If you want people to carry a message for you, you have to carry it to where they are.

General notes

During all these months of the progression of this bill, we had a great deal of activity on our blog posts. We discovered that many opponents of the bill (breeders, etc.) were actively following our blog because it was the most current source of information on the status and location of the bill. We were always very careful to remember that anyone, anywhere, could be reading our blog, and we maintained a professional tone throughout. We simply presented the facts and hoped they would speak for themselves.

Censorship was something we kept in mind, but didn’t ever have to enact, because what we discovered is that our audience regulated itself. Some irate opponents of the bill posted very inflammatory comments about “animal rights nuts,” and totally inaccurate information about the bill (there was even a false copy of the “language” of the bill circulating at one point, with portions that implied that agents of the state could raid any house and arrest any person they felt might be breeding dogs, without any cause or warrant!). But we didn’t have to swoop in, remove the comment or be heavy-handed, because other people regulated those extreme comments (and there were some from either direction—some crazy “rescue people,” too!).

We have found this to be the case pretty much with every topic we’ve ever addressed. Even if someone posts something pretty crazy in response, the median normalcy of the group conscience will regulate itself. I believe this is very important to mention, because it is my strong belief that censorship destroys the credibility of an organization in social media, where transparency is an important standard.

In all situations where we wanted people to contact legislators, we provided the contact information for those legislators. We also provided a one-button email link in all our blogs, where people could click on one button and it would auto-populate a new email message with all the legislators’ email addresses already in the “to” field. We made it EASY for people to help.

We also asked very specifically what to do and when to do it. Specificity is key when asking for anything: money, items, actions.

It might be quite bewildering and you might think it’s difficult to coordinate all messages across all the different social media platforms. I can explain the strategy that worked best for me. Our blog was the central information headquarters; it’s where I posted everything first and where the most information was contained. All the social media sites—Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, etc.—all steered people back to the blog where they could get more information. I can write a 1000 word blog update, but I don’t want to put that whole thing on Facebook. So I simply mention it on Facebook, with a couple of pertinent points (and attention-grabbers) and provide a link back to the blog post.

I also ASK people each time to go read more on the blog. It’s surprising how often people really do take an action simply because someone asked them to.

On ocassions where we had video, we posted the video on Youtube and then embedded it in the blog post or elsewhere on our web site (like our home page “news” section).

Summary and key take home points:

• Keep people engaged through frequent updates.
• Be transparent—provide all the information and let people make up their own minds.
• When you ask people to take action:
  • Be specific: what to say, who to contact, in what time frame, how much to donate, what type of XYZ you need donated, etc.
  • THANK them after they do it.
  • Be responsive—answer questions and help people to do what you’ve asked them.
  • Follow up—tell them the results of their participation, good or bad, and tell them what they can do next.
• Let digital crowds (commenters) regulate themselves. Set a policy. (ours is we will only remove comments that contain profanity, or that directly attack an individual)
• Don’t be afraid to say “I don’t know.” (you can always find out and get back to them)
• Customer service applies online, too. Don’t type anything you wouldn’t say in person.

You really have two choices if you have decided not to do it yourself (and believe me, that is OKAY if you can’t/don’t want to do it yourself!): hire someone, or find a volunteer to do it.

If you find a volunteer, that person is ideally going to be interested in your organization, engaged in your activities and invested in your success. A volunteer is great to do this, too, because he or she will be aware of what you’re doing. Is there an adoption event this weekend? Do you need cat traps donated? Are you having a fundraiser for a special needs animal? Did you recently have a great adoption that you want to tell everyone about? These are things that a volunteer will (hopefully) be pretty tuned into, and can share via social media without you having to do much prompting.

On the downside, though, volunteers can sometimes get burned out. You can’t be TOO critical if they are slow, make mistakes, etc. because, after all, they’re volunteers. They can be moody and fickle. But they’re free!

If you hire someone, you get a level of professionalism that you don’t get with a volunteer. You have some control over the quality of their work, because you are paying them. If they don’t deliver a satisfactory performance, you can fire them! However, finding a person who is truly qualified can be difficult. Just about anybody will say “sure, I’ll do your social media for money!” I mean, what could be easier, right? Just play on Twitter and Facebook all day and get paid?! However, to have a good strategy and really do it effectively, it’s not as easy as it would seem to be.

The main problem with paying someone to do social media for you (besides the fact of having to pay them!) is that they may not be tuned in to what your organization is doing. They may not be in the same state or city as you are, and they may not be familiar at all with your organization. How, then, can they accurately and effectively represent you via social media, if their finger is not on the pulse of your organization?

Good social media firms make an effort to become familiar with your organization, and stay connected, so that they can accurately represent you via social media. For example, I do social media for several clients whose organizations I have never even visited. But I have spoken with them extensively, I’ve become very familiar with what they do, and I stay on top of it. I’m dialed in. My biggest challenge is making sure their staff remembers to keep me in the loop on stuff, so I can promote it! I have to be able to represent them in social media as if I AM them, as if I’m on the inside.

Most of us in the animal welfare world are conditioned to not pay for ANYTHING unless we absolutely have to. We try to get everything we can for free. And that makes sense because we don’t have very much money, usually! But sometimes, it’s true that you get what you pay for. The key is not to look at it like you are “losing” money, but that you’re spending $1 to make $10. And the key there is in HOW you pay your consultant or provider.

If you pay someone $500 or $5000 or $5 a month to do your social media, just a flat fee, then there’s really no accountability, is there? What I prefer to do, as a provider, is tie my performance into your profits. What I do is take an agreed-upon percentage of all donations that come through the web site. Therefore I know that if I do a really great job, and generate a lot of money for that shelter, then I can make more money, too. Everyone is happy! If I sit around and be lazy, and don’t actively campaign to raise money, however, then they don’t make any money…but neither do I. It’s kind of like being on a comission-only sales job. I only get paid for how smart I work and how good a job I do.

I also only take clients, in general, in fields that I’m familiar with—and usually that means animal shelters, because that’s the are where I’m most comfortable. I can talk about being in an animal shelter because I’ve spent a lot of time in animal shelters! If you were a biotechnology company, or a fashion magazine, I probably wouldn’t do a very good job at doing your social media, because I don’t know much about your business. Not even enough to fake it!

So, back to the original question: where would you find someone? If you’re looking for a good volunteer, make contact with your local community colleges or universities. Most marketing departments teach social media (or they should), and your nonprofit organization would make a great test project for a class. Often PR/marketing classes will divide into groups and each group will take an organization for the semester. This is a great way to get talented people for free, AND often they will stick around after the class is over and keep helping you, if it’s been a good experience. Colleges in general are a great place to find people. Sure, some college kids can be flakey. But this generation, called the Millenials (born after 1980), research is showing that they are extremely interested in volunteer work and “making a difference.” So don’t discount young people. Even if you get someone for a couple of months and then they quit, well, at least you have had someone for 2 months!

If you already have a Facebook page, twitter account, etc. then that’s a great place to find people. Advertise there! Tell your fans you’re looking for someone to maintain your social media presence. Chances are your most active fans live and breathe social media…and they’d be thrilled to do it on your behalf.

If you want to hire someone to do this, contact PR firms or agencies; they may have reduced rates for nonprofits. I also have availability for a few more clients and can give you some pricing information. I have a few other people I can recommend as well.

It also comes down to trusting someone. Many of us started our own rescue; it’s our “baby.” Let’s be honest: we have a hard time delegating and trusting anyone to do anything for us…because we only know it’s done right if WE do it ourselves, right? Well, sooner or later we have to accept that we CAN’T do everything ourselves. There are too many dogs to walk, too many litterboxes to clean, too many emails to answer, too many applications to check on.

So we think we CAN’T do something new like social media, even though it will help our organization so much in the long run. Help us to grow, get more donations, more volunteers….but do we really WANT that? It’s a valid question. As much as we always say we want volunteers, we want more help…if we had it, what would it mean? It would mean a loss of control, to a certain extent. We’d have to trust other people to do things that we currently struggle to get done ourselves.

I talk to so many people about this technology, and they say they wish it could go back to the way it used to be, to a simpler time. But things can’t go back to the way they used to be. This is the world we live in. These are the tools we have available to us, for good or ill.

So what are we going to do with the tools we’re given? And who will we enlist to help us?

Sometimes the hardest thing is just asking for help—but it can return the greatest rewards.

Have you found solutions for getting someone to do your social media? Share your success with us here! We’d love to hear your stories and ideas.

This is the first conference I’ve been to where the majority of attendees are from nonprofit animal shelters and city/county animal control services, NOT small, independent rescue groups. To see the animal control officers and personnel here in such great numbers is truly inspiring. These are the people who deal with the heartbreaking issues of pet overpopulation, abuse, neglect and euthanasia every single day. They can offer a perspective that no one else can, and to see those folks here, participating in this dialog, is really a step in the right direction.

The second impressive thing is that all these organizations are here together, talking to each other, sharing ideas. Represented here are small “mom and pop” rescue groups, breed rescues, big humane societies, small humane societies, city animal control, county animal control and everything in between. And they’re actually talking to each other!

I had to steal a picture of Sharri Boyett's dog...he was really enjoying the seminar today!

I want to thank everyone who came to my seminar today at the conference. You were a fantastic, attentive, engaged audience, and I feel like it’s one of the best seminars I’ve had so far! Many people think we aren’t going to be able to accomplish the tough but worthy goals of reducing (or even eliminating) the euthanasia of healthy, adoptable animals in the southern states. I’m from Oklahoma, so I hear it too.

But after talking to many of you today, and seeing your willingness to be open to new ideas and (most importantly) put aside personal or idealogical differences and WORK TOGETHER, I think we’ll prove the Yankees wrong!

Thanks also for the great suggestions you gave me today about things you’d like to see blogs on. You had some great suggestions about adding information about Craigslist to my coverage of social media. You’re absolutely right; this is a tool that many individuals and shelters are using to rehome animals. I am going to do some research on tools that would most benefit us and help us in our outreach on Craigslist and get back to you.

I also will present some information on photo editing software and techniques, as well as some information on video format conversions for uploading to Petfinder and other sites.

My goal is to give you information and tools that, if you use them, will make your life and work easier and more efficient.

We talked a bit about the crazy stuff going on behind the scenes with Petfinder/Petango/Petpoint and your frustration with not being able to automatically or batch upload your animal updates into Petfinder if you are using Petpoint software. I am talking to both groups about a solution for this. It really only hurts the animals in the long run if you can’t get these pets seen by the largest number of potential adopters. That’s what it’s all about! I will keep you updated on these conversations and let you know what is in store. We are going to figure something out to make this work.

Thanks again, Texas! I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Austin and will come back soon for a more recreational visit. I enjoyed meeting each and every person I met this weekend. If you weren’t able to attend my seminar (there were many other good ones going on at the same time!) feel free to drop me a line and I’d be glad to send you my notes.

As is the tradition with TheSocialAnimal, please continue to come back. Post your questions and ideas and musings. The purpose of this site is for us to learn together. I may be “the expert” on this particular subject, but we can all learn from each other. And I don’t know what will help you most if you don’t ask. So comment, post, write me an email and we’ll walk through all this new media together!

Hope everybody has a great week.

Facebook Strategies

It’s very important for your organization to have a facebook “fan page,” not a “profile.” if you have a “profile,” which is reserved for real people, Facebook will delete the profile if discovered or reported. You can also use a Group if you wish.

Facebook is almost more engaging than Twitter because you often know the people you’re talking with, and at least they use their real names. They are able to post longer messages and also photos and or video.

• Facebook, like Twitter, is very real time. If you have a lot of followers, chances are SOMEONE is online all the time, whenever you post.
• Don’t post and get off right away. Be there in case someone has a follow-up question.
• SAY THANK YOU.
• Comment back. If someone posts a photo of a pet they adopted, comment on it! Just takes a second, but it makes their day.
• Even if someone is not your “friend” on facebook, you can send her a private message. If the situation warrants it, message that person privately.
• Resist the temptation to “police” people and comments. Chances are, your fans will self-correct each other.
• Have a personality! Even though you need to be professional, you still need to be a person. You can be funny and personable. Keep in mind your personal profile (if you’re an admin) is not tied to your Facebook page at all.

What other questions do you have about Facebook?

So it seems like it would be a lot easier to get people to do the stuff we want them to do if a) we KNOW what we want them to do, and b) we keep that goal in mind as we consider HOW we are going to best use the resources available to us to get them to do it.

Social media is such an attractive tool for this manipulation (it’s an ugly word, but really, that’s what we’re doing!), because it’s free, readily available, pretty easy and pervasive.

So I’d like to give you a case study in progress, if you will, to show you how I’ve used social media to get people to take action on something specific.

Right now a bill (SB 1712, known as the “Black Market Breeder Bill“) is moving through the Oklahoma state legislature. This bill would enact steps to make it a bit more difficult for puppy millers to operate in the state of Oklahoma (my home state) where, unfortunately, puppy mills are a big business. The Central Oklahoma Humane Society, for whom I manage all social media, is very interested in seeing this bill become law. We knew we would need to enlist the support of regular citizens all across the state to educate them about the bill and get them to take action.

A bigger problem is that we knew we wouldn’t have very much time. Sometimes we would only find out one day (or even a few hours) before a bill would be heard. So the situation was pretty urgent. The first thing we knew was that the bill was being presented by its author (a state Senator) to the Senate Appropriations Committee. It would need to make it out of this committee; that was our first hurdle.

So we knew that we needed to contact people who were residents of the districts of senators on the Appropriations Committee. But we didn’t have any idea who those people were, among our supporters, fans and friends.

Luckily, we have a well-established fan base and network of supporters on social media–Facebook, Twitter, Myspace,  Youtube and the OK Humane blog. We had made the ongoing effort, throughout the months and years preceding this bill, to establish a relationship with those people. So when we needed them to ACT, they were ready and available.

If someone saw our blog post and didn’t live in a district represented by someone on that committee, maybe they knew someone who did–and they sent them a message. They posted on their Facebook page. They tweeted and retweeted. They used our “Support SB 1712″ graphic on their blogs and profile pages. They were fired up and ready to help, even if they couldn’t–at this point–call their own senator.

So that was our first hurdle, and the bill made it out of the committee (with only one dissenting vote!). The two things we did next are really important.

We kept everyone informed. We told them about the successful vote as soon as we heard the news. Our fans and supporters were now invested in this bill and its outcome, because they had helped in some way. They were waiting to hear the news. If we hadn’t bothered to share the results, it would be like saying we needed their help, but didn’t care enough to thank them for it. It would have been a slap in the face.

So we kept them informed with what information we had, as we got it. We also asked them to THANK the Senators on the committee who had supported the bill, and we listed contact information for all those Senators.  (And we asked them not to send hateful emails to the Senator who had voted against it, too!). Another key point: we made it easy for them to do as we asked.

Just as it is important for all of us to thank our volunteers and supporters, we felt it was very critical to thank these Senators for their support. After all, now that the bill had passed committee, it would be going to the full senate for a vote. They would get the chance to vote again!

Now it was really time to gear up. EVERYONE in the state of Oklahoma could take action now, because everyone has a Senator and every Senator would be voting on this bill.

Luckily, since the bill had been on the table for this session of congress, we had been talking about it. A big part of getting peoples’ support in this case was education. Hardly anybody wants to read the full text of a bill (they sure don’t make them easy to understand) but we didn’t want people to just take our word for it on what the bill would do if enacted. So we blogged about it, we answered lots of questions, we spoke to media whenever possible.

We found that even the opponents of this bill were coming to our blog to get information, because it was the most up-to-date, comprehensive source of information about it.

We didn’t have long to wait before the bill was heard in the full Senate. This was good, because we had momentum; if a few months had passed, people might have forgotten about it. So now we enlisted everyone’s help, asking people to call or email their senators. Again, we made it very easy to find out who your senator is (lots of people don’t know; I didn’t!), and how to easily contact him or her. I even created a button that would allow people to email all senators at once!

We made sure that people knew what they were talking about when they wrote or called. The last thing we wanted is a bunch of “crazy animal people” emailing congressmen about animal cruelty or roadkill or their neighbor’s obnoxious barking dogs…when that wasn’t what this bill was about at all. We provided basic, sample letters, but encouraged people to write and talk in their own words.

What we found had happened the last time we supported a bill (last spring, HB 1332) is that people would tweet or retweet, or they’d post it on Facebook, but they wouldn’t actually call or write their representative. This was not good. Congressmen don’t care what you write on your Facebook wall, they care if they get a letter from you, their constituent. So this time we really pushed that message. Don’t just retweet–actually make that phone call!

I’ll be honest, it was hard, even for me. I’m a total technology freak, so it’s SO much easier for me to tweet than pick up the phone. I even kind of have a phone phobia! But for this, I did it, and it turns out, so did other people. Lots of people.

Once everyone knew SB 1712 was being heard in the full Senate, people really got into gear. We got emails from people in other states asking what they could do to help. We had a plan in place and suggestions to give, and people turned their energy into action.

We gave them talking points. We encouraged them to create phone trees to get people to call their Senators (phone calls have the most effect with legislators). We gave everyone a task. Everyone made a difference.

Again, when the bill was heard by the full Senate, we had someone there, reporting back on the action. We kept people informed via our social media sites so they could follow along, even while they were sitting at work or on their lunch breaks.

People got involved because they felt invested.

And that is where the story ends…for now. The bill passed out of the full Senate last week with only 8 “no” votes. Again, we published the vote record and encouraged people to thank the Senators who supported the bill. We are keeping people informed of what the next steps are (it will go to the equivalent House of Representatives Committee) and what they can do now in the meantime (contact their Representative if he or she is on that committee). It should be a few weeks before the bill is heard in the house, so we have to maintain momentum until that happens. People have very short attention spans for news on the web!

Even if your organization does not participate in legislative advocacy, this is a message that applies to ANYTHING you want to ask people to do. If you need anything, from foster homes to Saturday dog walkers to paper towels to copy paper, if you have an established relationship with people on social media, they will provide it for you. And the more people you “know” on social networks, the bigger your circle will grow.

At our humane society, if we need anything, we can ask on social media and generally we will get it. We needed three digital cameras, and we asked. Within 2 weeks we had four new cameras donated. The odds are pretty good that with three or four thousand followers and fans on social media, someone is going to have whatever you need.

So have conversations. Build relationships. Spend the time–invest the time–in social media. Then, when you have a need, you can call on those established relationships. If you wait until you have a desperate need to make the call, you can’t be surprised if there’s nobody there to answer.

Some people have told me that “fans” is not a good word to use to describe your organizations friends/followers on social media. But I think that what I want for my humane society more than anything else is fans! Superfans, in fact!

Do you remember the band you were crazy about in junior high? Didn’t you spend all your time thinking about them and telling people about how great they were? Wouldn’t you have done ANYTHING if they had asked you?

Yep. I want superfans for my humane society. Those are the people who will be there when we need them.

And then, if they are “convinced,” what is the action plan? Your organization might already have a PR person, but most likely not. And if that person is already overwhelmed, or doesn’t have the skills, what then?

What I’ve found is that convincing is the first step. Once you get your administration to the place where they are saying “Yes, okay, let’s invest some personnel resources into this, or at least find a good volunteer we can trust to do it,” then what is the next actionable step? How do you go from “let’s do it” to actually DOING it?

Someone needs to learn the skills, and create a plan. Even having the skills isn’t enough unless you have a plan.

Maybe you’ve said that you’re going to post on Twitter and Facebook three times a week, and write one blog post a week. Great! But you have to define it a little better. What are you posting about? Will you post about current events in the area? Dog training tips? Behavior info? Split weeks among dogs and cats? What about legislation? Obviously you know what your shelter focuses on more than I do, but there are TONS of subjects, so it’s good to plan it out. You might want to focus on topics that correspond with national initiatives, such as adopt a shelter cat month, adopt a senior pet month, etc.

I think it’s a good idea to make a spreadsheet of dates you are going to post, and what you’re going to write about. Of course, if something earth-shattering comes up that is current news, you can deviate from your plan, but this makes it SO much less stressful than having to lie awake at night wondering what your next blog post will be about. This way you can schedule different people in your organization to write guest posts (so one person doesn’t have to do it all), and you can get them scheduled out, so you can take a vacation (don’t laugh, it might happen someday! and still make a scheduled post.

This is also a good plan in case something happens to the person in charge.

Death, firing, resignation, illness…these things invariably happen, and if one person is the only one possessing certain knowledge, your organization can be up a creek. Making a spreadsheet (and including all relevant login/password information for social media sites) for your social media marketing plan is a great idea to keep your message going during times of crisis or change in your organization.

And before you create this plan/schedule, it’s good to come up with your goals! What are your goals for social media? What do you want it to accomplish for your organization? Be specific. This will inform your entire plan, and if you can always go back to these goals, it will keep you from getting off track and distracted.

If you’re investing money in your social media campaign or tools, it’s even more important. Think of your web site, your Twitter posts, your Facebook page, as an employee. You pay for an employee, and you hold that person accountable for certain tasks and duties. The same should be true for your web site. Its job is to perform certain functions. What are those? How does it accomplish those goals? What do you do if it doesn’t?

I suppose all these questions could seem a little daunting, but it really is going to save you SO much time in the long run if you take some time up front to plan before you jump into social media, even if you are already very proficient with the tools (and even more so if you’re not). Have a giant brainstorming session with your whole team, and you could define your marketing and social media goals and outline for the whole year! Then all you have to do is execute, and keep everyone posted on the progress.

Of course, TheSocialAnimal is available for consulting to work with your staff to establish these goals, define your strategy and outline your plan.

Any ideas? What have you tried? Any recommendations for other groups who are just getting started? All of us would love to hear from you—since you’re the ones actually in the trenches doing the work every day. What has worked for you? Please post comments, ideas and questions here!