5 Social Media Tips to Promote Animals for Shelters or Rescues

Social media can help animal shelters and rescues promote adoptable animals, reach new audiences and increase adoptions. Use these practical tips to create engaging social media content and promote animals on platforms like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

1. Create Engaging Videos

Create engaging videos to showcase animals and help potential adopters see their personalities. So grab your phones and start filming! What better way to show a dog’s personality than by featuring videos of them in a variety of environments outside of the shelter? Consider taking videos of dogs trying a new treat, cat learning how a toy works for the first time, or horses working with a trainer. Whatever you choose, have fun and get creative!

Consult this easy guide for tips on recording and gathering compelling content using phones and tablets.

2. Use Instagram Stories to Promote Adoptable Animals

Keep your audience engaged through fun and compelling Instagram stories promoting adoptable animals, upcoming events, and other compelling visual updates from your shelter or rescue. You can also take your stories to the next level by using any of the various sticker options below:

• Add a hashtag to increase visibility
• Add a donate sticker to your stories to raise donations
• Add a location or create a countdown for an upcoming adoption event
• Create a poll to engage with your followers
• Animate a photo or video with a GIF
• Share your Instagram stories to Facebook for added visibility
• Use the questions feature to allow people to inquire about specific adoptables

Want to get even more animals adopted? Host a virtual adoption event using Instagram Stories!

3. Use Facebook to Promote Adoption Events & Specials

Facebook has many features, so make sure you’re taking advantage of them! Hosting a special adoption promotion or in-person event? Consider creating a Facebook event to help drive traffic straight to your shelter or rescue. With a Facebook event, people can RSVP or express interest in attending, and they’ll receive reminders, so they won’t forget. You can also see metrics by looking at your Facebook Insights and clicking in “Events.”

Once the event is created, you can increase your reach by creating a Facebook ad campaign using the event itself and setting the objective as “event response.”

You can try putting a small advertising budget behind this campaign and target pet lovers in your community. Check out these tips for social media ads.

4. Try TikTok

There has been a lot of buzz around TikTok, and now is your chance to try it! Use the platform to create short, captivating videos to raise awareness, speak to your fans, and reach a new untapped audience. Here are our top tips for using TikTok:

• Most TikTok videos are made to music, and you can leverage snippets of popular songs to showcase your animals
• Record vertical videos of adorable animals up to 15 seconds in length and then find a relevant song and add it to the video
• Humor is a major draw on TikTok, especially when what’s happening in the video correlates with the song
• Don’t forget to use relevant hashtags to increase visibility

Here are more reasons to join TikTok.

5. Use Hashtags to Reach More People

Use popular hashtags like #DogsOfInstagram, #TongueOutTuesday, #ShelterDog, #PitbullsofInstagram, #FosterDog and #DogOfTheDay to increase your reach. Research trends and local tie ins too.