Makenzie Alger

I chose to craft my social media story around the Humane Animal Rescue based in Pittsburgh, PA. I chose this topic for two reasons: first, because I love animals and would do anything to save, nurture, or protect them, and second, because this company expresses the cause that is essentially homeless animals.

 

The Humane Animal Rescue in Pittsburgh is the overarching company or brand, comprised of multiple shelters in the Pittsburgh area that care for animals until they can become adopted. With that being said, their main reason purpose is to care for animals and to increase the awareness of neighboring communities while proposing they adopt, volunteer, or simply learn more. This honest struggle implied here, for the animals, is whether they find a home or not. For the audience, also known as aspiring pet owners, the struggle is whether they decide to adopt from a shelter or not.

 

As far as formal choices, I chose Instagram to portray my social media campaign because I felt images would be the strongest way to get the stories of these animals across. My campaign includes the photos of only ten (chosen randomly from many) animals who are available for adoption at any given animal shelter in the Pittsburgh area. Each post/photo is accompanied with a short caption that lets the audience know a little bit more about the animal, such as name, likes and/or dislikes, and the shelter at which they can be found. I chose to include #SecondChancesNewBeginnings in each post to unify them as one, showing that they are part of a campaign. When the viewer sees one post, they are able to click on that hashtag through the Instagram platform and it will take them to other posts that have that same hashtag in the caption. This brings the audience back to my other posts if they had not seen them previously.

 

The language I chose to write my captions in is very informal. I did this on purpose because I wanted the captions to speak to the audience as if part of a conversation. The informality of my syntax reflects the ages of each animal. For example, I tried to make the word choices for younger animals reflect them in a different way than the older animals. I also chose to write the captions in the first person to give the animals a voice, something that they don’t physically have. I think this is also effective as the audience reads them because it builds a kind of relationship between them and the animal. I feel as though it is easier to understand something about someone, in this case, the animals, if they are the ones to tell you about it, not from a third person point of view.

 

As I mentioned briefly before, the campaign itself follows the elements of an effective story. There is an honest struggle naturally present, along with a list of characters, a setting, and a call to action (or arguably a lesson to be learned). The characters are represented by each of the animals in the ten posts in the setting of an animal shelter, specifically in the Pittsburgh area. The call to action I want my audience to understand is to “Adopt. Don’t shop” which is a commonly heard phrase around shelters. By stating the location of each animal and asking for the audience to come in to visit/meet the animal, I am trying to yield a conversion from my post to the shelter. Once they reach the shelter, we can reach the bigger meaning of adopting a lifelong pet.