Animal Shelters Should Use Periscope

Social media helps save lives. Posting and sharing photos of adoptable pets on Facebook and Twitter, connecting with new employees on LinkedIn, and reaching out to donors with crowdfunding sites like GoFundMe and Razoo have all resulted in countless lives being saved in animal shelters.

Many social media websites have come and gone, mostly due to Facebook’s global dominance. Google+ was supposed to be Facebook’s #1 competition but its largely fallen off the map. Instagram, Twitter, SnapChat, and LinkedIn are the most well known social media sites/apps available today. A relatively new social networking tool is Periscope, brought to you by our friends at Twitter. While it probably won’t knock Facebook or SnapChat out of the game, it compliments the other networks that you are already using.

What is Periscope?

Basically, Periscope is an app that allows you to live-stream from your phone at anytime and form anywhere. Followers can join your broadcast and watch you live either on the mobile app. They can also interact with you by commenting or giving hearts (the equivalent of likes on Facebook).  

Periscope is everything that social media is about:

• Social sharing
• Connecting with people across the globe
• Dialogue
• Feedback
• Interactive

Once you are done with a broadcast, it is viewable for 24 hours. You can also save it to your phone and upload it on YouTube or other sites.

How Animal Shelters Can and Should Use Periscope

Animal shelters are always looking for ways to get their message out, whether it be for increasing adoption rates or soliciting for donations. To succeed, animal shelters need to be savvy marketers. Here are just a handful of ways that animal shelters should be using Periscope:

1. Get Animals Adopted

This is a no-brainer. Yesterday, I took my phone into the kennels at Helping Hands Humane Society and did a live broadcast (or a “Scope”) of the adoptable dogs. It received a lot of attention, hearts, and shares. What happens when lonely dogs in kennels looking for forever homes are broadcast and shared on social media? That’s right… someone out there will see them and go to the shelter to ADOPT. Now, you don’t have to show every single animal. You can feature just one or two and tell their story. Live video may be more compelling than a photo and story.

2. Show the “Behind the Scenes” Operations

It doesn’t matter how big or small your organization is, you have a story to tell. People don’t realize what goes on behind the scenes at an animal shelter. Most people coming in the front door only see what is on the adoption floor. Periscope gives you an opportunity to reintroduce your company to the community. You can highlight the story of an animal going from admissions to adoptions. You can show your medical center (if your facility has one). Livestream a spay/neuter surgery? You can even follow around a staff member or volunteer to show a day in their life. The possibilities are endless and your supporters will love seeing what goes on within your walls.

3. Increase Donations

Obviously, animal shelters are always in need of financial support. Imagine how powerful this tool can be for fundraising. Perhaps you’re in the middle of a capital campaign and you want to update your supporters on the progress or show them the current state of construction on your new building. Allowing your supporters to tune in from anywhere and interact with you is HUGE. Using Periscope to raise money isn’t as easy as sharing a link on Facebook or Twitter so you’ll have to fiddle around links (Tip: Use a link to your donation page on your Periscope profile). Everyone loves to see stories of how their support is working inside the shelter. Use Periscope to show them, especially if you have an animal that is recovering in your care. Make that animal an international star by broadcasting the story on ‘scope!

Bottom Line

Get on Periscope and start broadcasting from your shelter. Use it to promote the good work that you are already doing. You will be introducing your shelter to people all around the world and people in your community that might now know anything about you. You’ll also be connecting with your supporters on a more intimate level than Facebook comments and retweets. However, Periscope should not be used to replace any of your other social media networks. Use it in-conjunction with your marketing efforts to take your reach to the next level.

Bonus Tip: Live stream your events on Periscope! Show folks how much fun your fundraising events are or use it to compel people to come to an offsite adoption event. Follow me on Twitter (and Periscope) for more!