Type of industry: Animal Rights and Welfare/Pet Industry
I chose the ASPCA and PETA organizations, as both of them have an overlapping social media presence.
Organization 1: ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals)
Describe the tone and language used: The tone of their social media posts is direct and personal, and the language used is simple. They’re “straight to the point” and speak directly to their audience/make a personal connection, using words and phrases that the average person can understand.
Who do you think their audience or audiences are? How can you tell?: Their website specifically states that they’re mission is to aim at an “affluent and compassionate audience.” More specifically, I think their audience consists of fellow animal advocates, and adults/families who have pets or are looking to adopt a pet. This organization promotes the protection of animals and fight to decrease animal cruelty, as well as posts about animals for adoption; they also keep their followers updated on news pertaining to animal welfare and job offerings in their industry.
What do you think the primary purpose is on social media?: I think their primary purpose is to inform the public about the amount of animal cruelty that takes place, and how it can be prevented. I believe they also want to appear empathic to animals/”an organization who cares” about the welfare of animals. They tend to go “above and beyond” with their posts and seem to intend on covering everything related to the subject.
Find a post that you think is particularly successful or unsuccessful; Describe the post and why you think it succeeded or failed: This post on their Instagram from October 15th seems particularly successful. It received a lot of positive feedback and engagement (over 6000 likes) and appeared to be a “different approach” compared to their previous, more serious posts (which seemed to be a good thing).
Organization 2: PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals)
Describe the tone and language used: The tone of their social media posts is honest and humble/thoughtful , and their language is simple. Throughout their posts, they don’t “shy away” from the gruesome details of animal abuse and cruelty. Rather, they describe the subject matter and not only describe how their audience can help in making a change, it also tells them how to take better care of their pets to ensure their health and safety. Their language is simple and uses basic language making it easy for everyone to understand.
Who do you think their audience or audiences are? How can you tell?: This organization’s audience is similar in how it appeals to animal advocates, but I also believe this organization could also appeal to vegans/those who want to become vegan. While ASPCA advocates for mostly pets, PETA’s social media mainly advocates the use of farm animals (such as cattle and sheep) in products such as clothing and leather. They also post a lot about “going vegan”, sharing vegan recipes and gruesome details about how meat and animal byproducts are treated and packaged.
Find a post that you think is particularly successful or unsuccessful; Describe the post and why you think it succeeded or failed: This post from their Tik Tok on October 16th is extremely disturbing and heartbreaking, however at the same time it was very successful in getting their message across. The post shows animals screaming as their hair and skin are removed for the making of animal-based products, such as cashmere. This post had over 1000 shares, 13 thousands likes and was viewed over 212 thousand times. The engagement on this post shows how it was successful in reaching it’s audience, and just this post alone could demonstrate what this organization stands for. (The caption also makes the post even more successful in it’s raw and honest attitude.)
Which organization (organization 1 or organization 2) do you think is more successful in achieving their purposes and reaching their target audiences? Why?: Overall, I believe Organization 2 (PETA) is more successful in acheiving their purposes and reaching their target audience. Compared to Organization 1 (ASPCA), their posts have more engagement, and their platforms have more followers. Furthermore, their types of posts play a vital role in how they are viewed: while ASPCA is informative and provides more oppurtunity for people to help, PETA takes a more “gut wrenching” turn and plays more off of emotional appeal than oppurtunity. ASPCA does better commercial/advertisement wise, while PETA is more relevant in social media. For example, on Tik Tok, PETA has 212.9K followers with 5 million views overall; ASPCA has 174K followers with 172.5K views. On Twitter, PETA has 1 million followers, compared to ASPCA’s 505.7K followers.
