Today, our Charity Spotlight has turned to Best Friends Animal Society, an organization who aspires toward the goal of “No More Homeless Pets”. We’ve had the pleasure of speaking with Jon Dunn, Social Marketing Manager for BFAS, who celebrated their 25th anniversary last week! They are doing a lot of innovative things on the Web, and have done a great job of harnessing social media as a method of connecting with their supporters. Read below to find why they have been successful, how they plan to grow and how you can too.

Happy 25th Anniversary! Please tell us a little bit about Best Friends Animal Society and what the organization has accomplished over the past quarter of a decade.

In 1984, a group of friends who were rescuing animals found our current home in Angel Canyon, the heart of red rock country in Southern Utah. The Sanctuary was born. At that time, more than 17 million animals were dying needlessly every year. It wasn’t long before they realized you could never build a Sanctuary big enough. Over the last 25 years, we have cared for thousands and thousands of animals that have come through our Sanctuary, and led the No More Homeless Pets mission. Many came to know Best Friends recently with our work with the dogs from the Michael Vick dog fighting case.  These were dogs that even other animal organizations doubted could be rehabilitated. We just had our first official adoption – Halle, is now living happily with a family and another dog!

Best Friends Animal Society is doing a lot of great things with social media. Where did you start and how did you get to where you are today? What was the most important step in reaching where you are online?

I think we started like a lot of organizations. We had our members saying, “Hey, how come you aren’t on _____ (insert social network here).”  Many within the organization were personally on Facebook, Myspace etc. Some of our members had even created un-official pages for us in lieu of us officially being there. We began to realize that it was a great way to connect with our supporters and reach out to new folks too.  When it came to choosing someone to take on the job of social media, my boss said, “Jon Dunn already spends all day on those sites anyway, he should do it!” It was a perfect fit!

Although I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this as a strategy, I started out on the sites where I was personally comfortable. I got in touch with a member who was running an already successful MySpace site for us, and asked her if she wouldn’t mind us jumping in. I started a Facebook fan page not long after and for the first few months (and even to this day) I spend a fair amount of every week learning! I read blogs like Beth Kanter’s and try to see what other organizations are doing successfully.

What have you found to be the most effective social media channel (or channels) for your cause and what do you think has made it so effective? What kind of return have you seen?

I think each channel has its own benefits – and I think in their own ways each has been effective. For example we have been using YouTube for some time now and the response has been amazing. Obviously, YouTube is less of an immediate, direct contact channel, whereas Twitter serves that purpose. I personally LOVE Twitter. It is the highlight of my day to be able to connect so directly with others who also care for animals!

What new media channel do you feel has the most untapped potential for Best Friends Animal Society and how do you think it can be leveraged to further your mission?

Honestly, right now, ALL of them! I think very few organizations have figured out how to maximize ROI on social media constantly. Maybe one campaign is a big hit and then another is a big dud. Why? There’s a big difference between a bunch of friends and really being super engaging and fundraising or receiving tons of support for an online initiative. I am definitely learning right now – we just recently launched a new Facebook application, inviting folks to send a birthday wish to the founders of our organization. The response off the bat hasn’t been what I had hoped, so we are about to change it up and see if a more action oriented message works better. That’s what it’s like right now – test, test, and test again. And be prepared to FAIL! I think that applies to all the sites we officially have a presence on.

How much involvement do you have throughout your organization within social media channels and at what levels? Who’s tweeting?

While we are not quite fully integrated, I would like to think we are certainly better than most. Many of our executives are at least tweeting, and many from across our organization take part in some form or fashion.  Our campaign folks here also have a Twitter.  As the general interest in social media grows, more and more of our employees are saying that they want to be part of it to help spread the word about their work. The biggest challenge right now is to make sure they are trained and understand the medium well enough to not just use it as a megaphone. Also like many other organizations we have so many aspects to our work – so to make sure we consolidate as much as it makes sense and not spread everyone out all over the place.  We recently started using CoTweet to try and help with that on Twitter.  But the bottom line is, I am very, very lucky at Best Friends to have strong commitment from leadership on social media!

How do you communicate with other shelters that you work with around the nation?

Social media obviously plays a part, and we are very well connected to many other organizations. I think there is definitely potential for us to use social media to do more of this.  I will definitely say that I have seen a big jump recently of animal related organizations taking the leap and getting on Twitter and Facebook. There’s strength in numbers, and I think the more we can connect, retweet, and repost each other, the greater the benefit to the animals.

How much time do you find that you have to dedicate to training team members who contribute to social media for BFAS?

It depends on the person. Like every other organization we have folks here who personally are rock stars on social media in their own right. They teach me a thing or two, LOL! But others are aware of the medium and want to do whatever they can to promote their work, but are not as astute. But sometimes social media simply just isn’t for everyone? So we have to sit down and take a look at what kind of commitment they are willing to make. Obviously it varies, sometimes we decide that taking time out of their day to tweet just isn’t the best thing. Whereas for others, it’s not at all an extra duty on top of their existing work. I think doing social media correctly takes time, and if someone isn’t willing to do it right, don’t do it!

How did you gain so much of a following on each of your social networks?

Not sure! We have been very lucky recently to have a television show chronicling our work within our dog department on National Geographic’s DogTown. I would like to think that I have done some things in social media correctly which has helped, and we are a national organization with good brand recognition across the country. We also have our social media linked from the bottom of every web page on our web properties. So maybe all of the above and more. But I think it’s also important to point out that the number of friends you have should never really be a true indicator of success. Obviously more friends/fans helps, but true committed to your cause is far more important. For that reason, I have never run a contest purely to achieve more friends. I think it cheapens the effort.

What can you say about the value of conversation and building relationships with your supporters through social media? How do you effectively keep up? Do you have any tips?

I think social media is all about the conversation. Too often I see organizations or for profit businesses just use the medium to blast press releases or stories. They don’t follow anyone back or respond. I try to make it a good mix of all of the above, but certainly put most of my effort into making real connections and putting a real face on the organization. Interestingly, we have the Sanctuary here in Southern Utah, and have more than 25,000 visitors a year. So we are already a very welcoming organization that people can interact with in real life, meet us, and meet the animals, so I try to make social media an extension of that.

How do you think the fact that you are benefiting animals, as opposed to humans, has affected your outreach efforts? What are the upsides and/or difficulties?

Interesting question! Who doesn’t love a puppy? There are an awful lot of people in the United States and the world that care about animals. In fact, I think animal lovers are one of the most active in social media, using the medium to market dogs that need to be saved. The difficulty, for me personally, is that currently in the United States there are more than 5 million dogs and cats killed every year because there simply are not enough homes. So to see so many animals in need constantly, and so many people working so hard to save them all – but knowing they all won’t make it – can be really difficult. But that’s what keeps us all going!

What do you think about all these cats and animals on Twitter? Do you have any of yours on Twitter or have you thought about it? And have you attempted to leverage any of the famous pets on Twitter, such as @Sockington?

I love it! I never thought I could speak “cat” but just follow some of the kitties on Twitter and you learn the language pretty quickly.  What’s so amazing about many of the animals on Twitter, is that many of them use their followings to also raise money to save lives too like Romeo the Cat. We certainly follow Sockington, but we haven’t been able to get him to follow us – he only follows other cats!

What about the LOLcat revolution? Can you “has a cheezburger”? But seriously - have you ever worked with them or thought about it? Any examples or favorites?

I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Ben Huh, CEO of icanhascheezburger.com, at a conference last year. I was a little in awe meeting the guy who runs that site, but when I gave him my card he was in awe of me! He was aware of our work with the dogs from the Michael Vick case. I have submitted some of our animal photos with funny captions, but I never seem to make the front page – I think maybe I am not as funny as I think I am!

Are there any final words that you would like to share with the CommuniCause crowd? Any sites that you’d like for them to check out?

Just come by, friend/fan us up. Would love to connect with you all!

http://twitter.com/BFAS
http://twitter.com/BFNetwork
http://facebook.com/bestfriendsanimalsociety
http://youtube.com/user/BestFriendsVideos
http://myspace.com/kindnessrevolution

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Thank you, Jon, for sharing your experiences and insight with us. We’re sure that whether you win our contest or not, Best Friends Animal Society will continue to do fantastic things to help our animal friends! We will be keeping our eyes on you and your team as you continue to grow.

It’s hard to believe, but there are just TWO full days left to rally supporters to vote for your charity. Dig deep into your address book and see who you haven’t yet asked. Or who might need a reminder? And remember, CommuniCause is by no means the end. Your charity will need your support long after we’ve tallied the votes, so keep talking!

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions, comments or just want to chat about social media. I am happy to have the opportunity to help in any way I can!

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Twitter:
 @At1MP
Phone: 407.756.1377

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