Spotlight: Edmonton Humane Society

Kwan, P. (2007). Adopt a Pet, Live Longer!
[Photograph]. Retrieved from http://www.
flickr.com/photos/sayheypatrick/1140020132/ 

For blog of my choice I’ve decided to focus on the Edmonton Humane Society (EHS), a registered charity that works to prevent cruelty to animals as well as find forever homes for animals in their care. The Edmonton Humane Society was first organized in 1907 as a welfare educator and then in 1910 it was established as a nonprofit organization working for the welfare of animals. The EHS has gone to great lengths to integrate themselves into the available online social media sites in order to get their message out to Edmontonians, Albertans and potentially all of Canada.

Salt Lake County Animal Shelter/Services (2010). Pit Bull

Hiking - Faulein ID# A331920 [Photograph]. Retrieved

from http://www.flickr.com/photos/maplegirlie/4411979229/

The EHS has an incredibly well developed, easy to navigate and informative web site. The site offers a side bar with bright easy to read headings for easy navigation. As we’ve learned in class, font choice is crucial when writing blogs or developing websites. All of the headings offer a large amount of information about adoption, donations, programs and services (such as doggie daycare), education on animal welfare and much more.  The website also has a link to their blog which offers viewers even more in depth knowledge into current issues and events occurring in the domestic pet world. An example is a blog post about pit bulls. This post is in response to the municipal government reviewing restrictions on pit bulls. The Humane Society points out that restrictions on certain breeds may result in unregistered dogs leading to even more problems. An informative web page is incredibly useful to a business or nonprofit organization as it encourages repeat business. People who can easily navigate a website and find information are more likely to return to that website and suggest it to others. As well, the EHS website has a “.com” domain which establishes it as a professional, stand alone website as opposed to if it were “.blogspot.com”. This may be noticed by website viewers and could add credibility to the website. As we’ve learned in class it is very important to remain professional and to have professional pages on several different social media sites to represent you. Potential employers (or pet adopters) will be able to judge professionalism based upon how well a web page, blog, etc. is used. 

The EHS has expanded to other uses of social media including Facebook and Twitter. Through the sites the EHS has been able to integrate themselves into the everyday lives of Edmontonians. Their Facebook page encourages people to share stories about their pets as well as comment on questions the EHS proposes. The page is also used to feature events occurring around the city and feature certain adoptable animals. Their twitter account @EdmontonHumane offers the most up-to-date information on the society. This site is also used to highlight pictures of animals and stimulate discussions about different topics. Through these sites the EHS has been able to feature certain animals which could potentially diversify the viewers they have to their site. I think it’s a great business strategy for an organization to be involved in Facebook and Twitter since the population uses these sites heavily. By having numerous tweets or posts per day the EHS stays in the forefront of people’s mind. By encouraging people to comment and share their stories the EHS becomes more personal and helps people to connect with their cause. They are also able to better disseminate information about adoptable pets by having feature pets on each site.

The EHS has come a long way from 1907. While they still maintain their nonprofit status and work for the prevention of cruelty to animals they, through their uses of social media, have been able to connect to Edmontonians like never before. This has been a great business strategy that can only continue to help them in the future. 

Another student in this class, Becky, has an interesting wiki article about double muscling in cattle and she also speaks about the uses of wikipedia, another online tool.