RESEARCH 1.

SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY

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Brisbin, Freed, Holland, & Nitzberg

INTRODUCTION
Florida SPCA is a non-profit organization working as a veterinarian and animal shelter. The goal
of Florida SPCA is to eliminate the suffering of animals and to strengthen relationships between animals
and humans. They work at accomplishing this goal through animal adoptions and community awareness.
Although the focus of this project is Florida SPCA, the comparison/competition organizations we selected
are South Florida SPCA and the Georgia SPCA. We began by gathering information regarding each
organizations social media sites including: Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter.

FACEBOOK

SPCA FLORIDA
Overall, regarding the Florida SPCAs Facebook page, their voice/tone is friendly and welcoming,
professional yet playful and laidback. They are heavily involved in the community and publicly
supportive of the community. They find look for the good in everything and celebrate it. Their tone
is super positive and uplifting.

GEORGIA SPCA
Their voice/tone: Friendly, but more professional and business like than Florida SPCA. Their
posts are focused on getting animals adopted. They are professional in their posts and
comments. Georgia SPCA receives many more comments on statuses than Florida SPCA. They
are quick to replying to all comments and do so in a professional and business-like manner.
SOUTH FLORIDA SPCA
Their voice/tone: Friendly, but more informative and business like than Florida SPCA. Their posts
are focused on horse well-being, updates on horses and a push for horse boarding and adoption.
They are professional in their posts and comments. Profile picture changes roughly monthly:
pictures range from just puppies to SPCA logo. They replied to comments in a business-like and
informative manner.

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Brisbin, Freed, Holland, & Nitzberg

INSTAGRAM

SPCA FLORIDA
SPCA Florida does not always respond to comments and questions posted on its Instagram
account. This is a serious problem because sometimes the posts it ignores are important user
questions about whether or not an animal is available for adoption. Also, the posts with the
highest number of likes typically only earned around fifty likes, despite the SPCA having 1,000
Instagram followers. Many posts contain photos and videos promoting animal adoptions. SPCA
Florida also advertises its traveling wellness wagon medical services and any fundraising or
adoption events it organizes. Please see the chart at the end of this document for details and
rd

note that starting at posts 20 weeks old, I began auditing every 3 post instead of every post.

COMPARISONS
Florida SPCA boasts more Instagram followers than the Georgia SPCA and the South Florida
SPCA, even though the Georgia SPCA has posted more content to its account. Based solely on
an examination of this limited data, it may be hypothesized that a positive correlation exists
between the number of accounts the SPCA organizations follow, and the number of followers
they possess. While SPCA Florida has fewer posts than the Georgia SPCA, the SPCA Florida
has 135 more followers. However, this hypothesized correlation could be false since this is only
one data set that ignores a number of other factors, including the population in each SPCAs

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Brisbin, Freed, Holland, & Nitzberg

region. Please refer to the chart below:

Following

Posts

SPCA FLORIDA
INSTAGRAM

SOUTH
FLORIDA SPCA
INSTAGRAM

128

77

156
12

226

527

817

865

1,000

Followers

GEORGIA SPCA
INSTAGRAM

YOUTUBE

SPCA FLORIDA
The videos are mostly showcasing featured animals set for adoption. There are links included to
their home website, but there are no videos on the site. There are also more updates about
events in photo form on the website rather than in video. The YouTube channel did include links
to videos done from other organizations that have tagged the work and interviews SPCA Florida
has done. It also includes an introduction about the SPCA from Sheriff Grady Judd. The photos in
the header are also more updated, including a link to their website as well as social media sites.

GEORGIA SPCA
The videos are either a plea for donations or a story on one of the animals currently located at the
shelter. They do include links to their websites, but the link is broken when clicked on, showing
that this is a channel that is rarely, if ever, updated. When comparing this organization to their
home website, more events are posted on their website using photos. There are more updates on
the website than there are on the YouTube channel.
SOUTH FLORIDA SPCA

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Brisbin, Freed, Holland, & Nitzberg

The last time they were active on this account was one week ago, showing that they update their
YouTube account regularly. They have featured stories mostly on horses for adoption.
Surprisingly, even without a theme, music, or quality sound or picture, they average around 250500 views per video. The videos are shot most probably using a smartphone. Links are included
to their website, yet their website does not include any video.

TWITTER

SPCA FLORIDA
The strategy of SPCA Florida on Twitter is appropriate and thoughtful. The organization re-tweets
news stories and celebrity mentions of their organization, which is a good Twitter strategy
considering that Twitter is best known as a way for news outlets and celebrities to voice breaking
news and opinions. However, SPCA Florida lacks a good number of original tweets.

GEORGIA SPCA
Georgia SPCA takes the advertising approach versus a news approach. They consistently post
pictures of animals for adoption. However, that strategy is flawed based upon the reality that
primarily posting pictures belongs on picture-oriented social media such as Instagram or
Pinterest, and not on Twitter, which is meant as primarily a text and news based social media
platform. Their strategys flaws are evident in the number of follower they have versus SPCA
Florida.
SOUTH FLORIDA SPCA
South Florida SPCA does a good job from a public relations perspective. With consistent news
release information and interest stories about current happenings at the organization; they have a
particular focus on horses as an organization, However, a bit more diversity of postings could be
beneficial to grow followers.

FLICKR AND GOOGLE+

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Brisbin, Freed, Holland, & Nitzberg

SPCA Florida owns a Flickr account with a measly 28 followers and the SPCA hasnt uploaded
any new content since September 2015. Because Flickr is not currently a popular social media platform,
and because the SPCA would likely generate more public interest by posting content on other channels,
the SPCA should shut down its Flickr account and focus on growing its audience elsewhere.
Similarly, SPCA Florida hasnt posted content on its Google+ account since November 2014, and
the account only has 88 followers. Perhaps the 1,496,965 views it has received help it reach people
online, but SPCA Florida is not actively utilizing the account by posting new content.

BRAND CONSISTENCY
Consistent branding is foundational to executing a successful marketing strategy. SPCA Florida
could establish a more cohesive brand by eliminating several discrepancies across its social media
accounts, including an inconsistent visual identity and inconsistent descriptions of the organization. On
FaceBook the SPCA utilizes an image of its logo as its profile picture, however, on its Twitter and
Instagram profile images, photos of a dog and cat appear with the SPCA logo. The SPCA LinkedIn profile
displays a version of the company logo that features different typography and different colors than the
logo pictured on FaceBook, Twitter, and Instagram. Visual identity on YouTube, Flickr, and Google+
profile photos is also different and never features the same SPCA logo shown on the other sites.
Additionally, FaceBook, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr all feature a different banner image; only Google+
and YouTube share the same banner image. The organization is also given different names on some
social channels. The following chart displays each discrepancy category except the banner images:

CHANNEL

PROFILE IMAGE

NAME

DESCRIPTION

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Brisbin, Freed, Holland, & Nitzberg

FaceBook

SPCA Florida

Twitter

SPCA Florida

LinkedIn

SPCA Florida

Instagram

SPCA Florida

YouTube

SPCA Florida
Adoption Center
and McClurg Animal
Medical Center

Overview: Founded in 1979,

SPCA Florida exists to
eliminate animal suffering and
to enhance the human-animal
bond by engaging the entire
community in the welfare and
well-being of animals.
Mission: SPCA Florida
exists to eliminate animal
suffering and to enhance the
human-animal bond by
engaging the entire community
in the welfare and wellbeing of
animals.
SPCA Floridas mission is to
eliminate animal suffering and
to enhance the human-animal
bond by engaging the
community in the welfare and
well-being of animals.
Founded in 1979, SPCA
Florida exists to eliminate
animal suffering and to
enhance the human-animal
bond by engaging the entire
community in the welfare and
well-being of animals
SPCA Florida is a nonprofit
dedicated to helping pets
and the people who love
them. Adoptions. Veterinary
care. Community Programs.

Our organization's mission

is to eliminate animal suffering
and to enhance the humananimal bond by engaging the
entire community in the
welfare and well-being of
animals.

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Brisbin, Freed, Holland, & Nitzberg

Google+

Flickr

SPCA Florida
Adoption Center

Healthy Animals | Humane

Communities. SPCA Florida
exists to eliminate animal
suffering and to enhance the
human-animal bond by
engaging the entire community
in the welfare and well-being
of animals.

SPCA Florida

N/A

CONCLUSION
Overall, the SPCA Florida has a decent social media strategy. However, decent is not what an
organization should strive for; a successful organization should strive for the best. Through some
modifications to SPCA Floridas current strategy, they can take their social media engagement from
ordinary to extraordinary, enabling the organization to further their goals. Our research indicates that
through a more cohesive branding strategy, as well as a streamlined, targeted approach to their social
media strategy, SPCA Florida is poised to take their organization to even greater heights.

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Brisbin, Freed, Holland, & Nitzberg