Digital Differences, Inc.

8609 Tech Dr. Suite B

Portland, ME 43059
207-774-9567

November 20, 2017

Heartland Horse Heroes

Sprouses Corner Ranch, LLC
Attn: Ms. LaRue Sprouse Dowd
16680 W. James Anderson Hwy
Buckingham, VA 23921

Subject: Social Media Recommendations

Dear Ms. Dowd,

Heartland Horse Heroes is a non-profit organization that provides therapeutic horseback

riding for individuals with mental, physical, and emotional, and social challenges on a

broad spectrum, as well as at-risk youth. The organization is accredited by PATH

International (Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship International), the

parent non-profit organization which trains riding instructors to work with individuals

with special needs and promote equine-assisted activities for such needs. A prominent

social media presence is important for Heartland Horse Heroes to recruit volunteers on

a regular basis. Other needs for social media are to raise awareness for therapeutic

horsemanship, increase donations, share rider testimonials, receive feedback, and notify

of upcoming events.

Summary
At first glance, the website for Heartland Horse Heroes is bland, outdated, and uses a

.com domain extension, which is hosted by Yahoo. The domain extension .org should

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be used for better recognition. Additionally, the last time a newsletter was added to the

website was Spring 2015. Currently, Facebook is the only social media platform

Heartland Horse Heroes is using. There is a link to the Heartland Horse Heroes

Facebook page on the website. However, the eye-popping, clickable Facebook icon is

not being utilized. Instead, a bland, red hypertext link to the Facebook page is used.

In general, Heartland Horse Heroes posts are being made roughly once or twice

a month and are usually done so by a Heartland Horse Heroes board member and the

PATH International certified instructor. Figure 1 illustrates the lacking number of

Facebook posts uploaded by Heartland Horse Heroes over the past eleven months; on

average three posts a month were made.

Figure 1. The amount of Facebook posts over the course of eleven months.

Facebook Posts Per Month During 2017

3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0

Media Posts Per Month

When viewing the content of Heartland Horse Heroes Facebook posts, there are

typos and grammatical errors in a large amount of the posts being made. Whether the

posts are being made on a mobile device or on a computer, there is a spell check on

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both applications and therefore a spellcheck and proofread should be completed before

posting a status. The posts that are made to recruit individuals for the volunteer

sessions have the same bland text content, that could benefit from a change to a

professionally made attention getting flyer. The information regarding location or how

to sign up to volunteer is not clear, which causes individuals to ask in the comment

section of the post. There are some unique posts regarding previous therapy sessions,

newly recruited volunteers, raffles, and different events. Any flyers that are posted on

Facebook regarding events have a very basic style, with little information provided. In

addition, events that are being held are only in message post format, rather than

utilizing Facebook Events.

Since Facebook is the only social media platform being used by Heartland Horse

Heroes, it is pertinent that other platforms are used in addition to Facebook. In a study

conducted by Pew Research Center it was found that 79% of online adults use

Facebook, while 32% are using Instagram, and 24% utilize Twitter (Greenwood &

Perrin & Duggan, 2016). With Facebook being the most popular, and Instagram and

Twitter following suit, it is obvious that these two social media platforms should be used

by Heartland Horse Heroes as well. More potential volunteers and individuals whom

horsemanship therapy would benefit will be reached by doing so.

Assessments and Recommendations

It is recommended that the website be updated and polished professionally. Social

media icon links should be included at the top-left or top-right of the webpage for clear,

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ease of access. It is advised that the social media accounts be linked together, for

instance on the Twitter account there is a section to provide links to your other social

media accounts. The same goes for Instagram and Facebook. When posting on

Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, a great tool to utilize are tags. This allows the post to

be seen by more viewers in different areas by using a hashtag in front of a category per

se. For instance, if a user posts a picture of a student in a therapeutic riding session,

tags that could be used are such as: #therapeuticriding, #pathinternational,

#heartlandhorseheroes, #horses, etc. In a study conducted by Ames, a post-doctoral

scholar at the Center for Science, Technology, Medicine, Society and Policy, and

Naaman, associate professor at Cornell Tech, established that:

Two participants described ways of gaming the system

by using certain tags to attract more views. In some

cases, the participant also wants to promote the

subject of the pictureas well as the picture itself.

(p. 977)

Facebook Page Suggestions

In order to raise more awareness for Heartland Horse Heroes Facebook page, it is

advised to make posts on Facebook more often than three times a month, most

organizations post several times a day. However, as Heartland Horse Heroes only has

634 Page Likes and 614 Followers, it is critical for a smaller organization to post

conservatively as well. According to author of Social Media for Social Good, Mansfield

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(2012) declares, One status per day is fine, but four to six per week is better.

Mansfield further elaborates that failure to do so could result in the loss of an

organizations followers (p. 75). As mentioned earlier, utilizing Facebook Events, rather

than writing out a post about an upcoming event would be more beneficial. Using

Facebook Events would enable Heartland Horse Heroes to send out a notification of the

event to all followers, which would include: an event title, location, time, and contact

information. When the notification is sent out followers may select an option to notify

the organization whether they are interested, going, maybe, or cant go.

Testimonials are another great tool to include on a Facebook page to encourage

followers. Deakin (2015), writer of the Journal of Aesthetic Nursing states that, By

providing potential new clients with real-life reviews and informative and positive

comments, you are creating positive associations to your brand (p. 44). A donations

section should be included on the page as well as including different ways to donate,

like Bitcoin or PayPal. Ebay even offers the option to list an item for sale and choose a

percentage to donate to a beneficiary. Question posts are a great way to engage

members of the community in order to get feedback regarding volunteer or therapy

sessions, fundraisers or other events.

Instagram Account Suggestions

In efforts to bring more attention to Heartland Horse Heroes new Instagram account,

each week a picture of the particular Hero of the Week should be posted. There

should be three different types of Heroes: a horse hero, therapy rider hero, and a

volunteer hero. In addition, since each therapy session may include new volunteers, a

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photo of all volunteers together would make for another great post. In an Industry

Panel Q & A for Library Hi Tech News, authors Abbott, Donaghey, Hare, & Hopkins

explained that sharing a photo or video on Instagram of individuals engaging in an

activity, like volunteers during a therapy session, is a good way to make the individuals

less afraid to participate; because they are able to see what it is like to engage in the

activities (2013). Flyers for upcoming events may also be shared on Instagram, as they

are a type of image. If an individual donates some items the farm would find very

useful, they could post a photo of the items to help encourage others to donate. Finally,

inspirational photos with quotes in relation to horsemanship therapy are a surefire way

to lift your followers spirits.

Twitter Profile Suggestions

Like Instagram, inspirational quotes make for a good Tweet on occasion. While sharing

events and fundraisers on Twitter is a good idea as a reminder of the upcoming event,

it is important not to over use the same types of Tweets. Mansfield (2012) observed

that when most nonprofits open a Twitter account, they begin by Tweeting about their

events, fundraisers, etc.; in result, followers may get bored of these same posts very

quickly and might unfollow the organization (98). In effort to keep followers interested,

Tweets that include research data and statistics related to horsemanship therapy are

valuable to show why the organizations cause is important. Like sharing testimonials on

Facebook, Retweeting stories from therapeutic riders at other organizations, will likely

bring in more individuals whom horsemanship therapy might benefit. Sharing a post

from PATH International, Heartland Horse Heroes parent organization, is another

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excellent way to Retweet relative information. Lastly, inviting the public to come watch

a therapeutic riding session is a foolproof way to recruit volunteers; just watching what

Heartland Horse Heroes achieves, will get individuals to sign up for volunteering.

At Digital Differences, we believe in technological change for the greater good. Which is

why we want to help your cause grow for the better. Let us guide Heartland Horse

Heroes to become a more well-known organization with constant volunteers, increased

donations and awareness to your cause. Digital Differences would love a chance to

provide these beneficial social media changes for Heartland Horse Heroes. We hope you

will consider our company to assist with improving your social media presence to grant

opportunity for growing your organization. Please feel free to contact me directly with

any questions or concerns at the information below.

Sincerely,

Melissa L. Duffy
CEO, Head of Graphic Design
Ph. 207-774-9567 ex. 2020
melissa@digitaldifferences.com

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 References

Abbott, W., Donaghey, J., Hare, J., & Hopkins, P. (2013). An instagram is worth a

thousand words: An industry panel and audience Q&A. Library Hi Tech News,

30(7), 1-6. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-08-2013-0047

Ames, M., Naaman, M. (2007). Why we tag: motivations for annotation in mobile and

online media. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in

Computing Systems. 971-980. doi:10.1145/1240624.1240772

Deakin, B. (2015). How to use patient testimonials to your aesthetic clinic's advantage.

Journal Of Aesthetic Nursing, 4(1), 44-45. doi:10.12968/joan.2015.4.1.44.

Greenwood, S., Perrin, A., Duggan, M. (2016, November 11) Social Media Update 2016.

Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/11/11/social-media-update-

2016/

Mansfield, H. (2012). Social media for social good: A how-to guide for nonprofits. New

York: McGraw-Hill.