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.

Professional Pages for Professional People

Wheeler, J. (2012). Professional Page [Photograph]. Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/75258161@N03/7068201739/in/photostream 

This week's adventure involved creating a professional Facebook page for myself. I think it is very important these days to have a professional page somewhere on the Internet because the Internet has become our main form of communication. This means that potential employers (who probably use the Internet just as much as we do) could be tempted to search up our forms of social media (ie. Twitter and Facebook accounts etc.). The problem with this situation is that personally, I do not monitor my Facebook account to ensure it remains professional. I look at my Facebook account as being my place to express who I am and have fun with what I’m doing. I do not have my personal Facebook account to present myself to potential employers. Therefore, if I’m not ensuring my personal social media accounts are professional then the chances are that many other people aren’t doing it either. Therefore potential employers might be taking a peek into your personal life without boundaries and may come to judge you on criteria not pertinent to the job. So how do we fix this situation? We have professional pages we can direct potential employers towards. This way we are able to have an online page where we pay attention to what is posted and ensure the page remains professional. This is what the employer needs to see. Our private and social lives stay separate from our professional life, just as they would have been before the Internet was around.

What do we put into a professional page? Well a professional page is essentially the online version of your resume. However, on the Internet we can make it that much more interactive. By having links to other professional pages we may have allows a viewer to get a more complete picture of you. As well, by adding links to organizations in which you’re involved (as I did with Dogs with Wings and Green Hectares, two volunteer positions I’ve held/hold), you allow viewers to look into the organizations themselves and learn more about them. Having a professional page does not mean you can’t let your personality through. Adding pictures with professional content help to further personalize the page.

Personally, my new professional Facebook page will be my way to show potential employers my focus on an animal health related career. In it I’ve included the volunteer positions I’ve held, all of which are animal or agriculture related. I’ve given a work history as well as transferrable skills I possess. As previously mentioned, I included links to the organizations I worked with as well as some information on those organizations. This way I can show potential employers I don’t only promote myself, I promote the organizations I work for as well! I also included a few of the awards I've received throughout my university career which could help show employers that my efforts have been recognized by the academic world.

Kendra is also interested in an animal health related career so check out her blog here

My First Ever Blog Post!

Hi Everyone! I'm Jenn and I'm currently majoring in pre-veterinary medicine in the Agriculture BSc. I would really like to go on to become a veterinarian in the near future! Being an aspiring vet, I absolutely love dogs. Here is one of the dogs I've had in my life:

Wheeler, J. (2011). Tank [Photograph]. Retrieved from

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/75258161@N03/7006676961/ 

His name was Tank and he was a purebred Maltese weighing about 7 or 8 pounds. Unfortunately he recently passed away but he was a great dog of 14 years!

Currently communication has played a huge role in my life. Working to become a veterinarian is not easy and involves getting your foot into the door with other veterinarians, barns, clinics etc. However, social media as a form of communication has not had such a major role. Since I have never had a blog or a twitter account I’ve relied on my verbal communication skills thus far. However, in future work as a veterinarian, social media as a form of communication will become huge! Twitter and Facebook will be perfect forms of advertisement for veterinarian services. As well, a webpage for a clinic or blog would allow clients to read up on the clinic and become familiar with services offered and even pictures of the actual facility.

Communication is important all the time! In 2012 having your own designated spot in the world wide web is the perfect way to get yourself and your message out to potential employers. It’s also the perfect way to keep in touch with friends and families in other cities, countries or even just the next block over. Especially in this day and age everyone is busier than ever and sometimes all we have time for is checking our facebook page or a twitter update.

So, how will I use social media for communication here and now? Well I’ve been placed (by the community service learning program at the U of A) with Green Hectares which is a non-profit organization run by people with passion for agriculture. They are working towards bringing agriculture back to the forefront of people’s minds. I’m going to help them communicate their message to possible candidates for their program. I’m not too sure yet what that will entail but I’ll keep you posted! Here is a picture from their website.

Green Hectares. (2012). Growing Roots [Image]. Retrieved from http://greenhectaresonline.com/

I know Jami from this class who is also working towards becoming a vet, check out her blog!