WAY WITH WORDS: MAKING A CLEAR POST, AD, OR POSTER

Whether or not you use our Facebook page, consider these guidelines when making an ad, post, flyer or poster. 

All of this may seem so obvious, but I see ones which have clearly not been thought out from the perspective of your counterpart (the owner if you’re the finder, or vice versa. ) Your post doesn’t have to be a literary masterpiece, but it does have to grab the attention of a reader and get the most important points across right away.

1. Your first word… this is critical. Which word expresses YOUR status with the animal? LOST (you’ve lost your pet), or FOUND (you have found and secured a lost pet not yours, or SEEN/SPOTTED(animal roamed by but you were not able to secure). You would be surprised, but finders often post the notice as “LOST” and an owner could overlook that one. 
2. SPECIES (dog/cat/other), BREED (if known). On a poster, parts 1 and 2 should be big enough letters to be seen from a distance. 
3. Basic description: SIZE, ADULT/PUPPY/KITTEN, COLORS, GENDER. [lost/found] on DATE (date you found or first went missing), from/at (NEIGHBORHOOD/MAIN INTERSECTION, CITY, ZIP.) (COLLAR? MICROCHIP? TAGS?) (SPECIAL MEDICAL NEEDS?) For purposes of searching boards, location and date are key. If Fido goes missing on 3/1, you can eliminate any similar posts for dogs found before that date. 
4. What not to say? Many advise leaving a few specific markings OUT. If someone claims to have found Fido, demanding a reward, you can ask for a description of his tail, or color of his harness). We will refrain from advice as to whether or not to offer a reward, but if you do, be prepared to weed out anyone trying to scam you. In general, be kind and clear, and assume any person who has found your pet is acting out of concern. Blaming them for keeping it from you is not going to foster the goodwill you need. Likewise, if you have found a pet, unless there is evidence of abuse, please don’t assume the pet wasn’t cared for. Good pets can get away from good owners. 
5. How to contact you. If publicizing your phone number worries you, or your cell phone is an out-of-town area code, consider setting up a Google Voice number you can have forward to your line. (If you need help with this, contact me.If you use Email, make sure you are able to check it frequently. 
6. A good photo can be very helpful. Compile a file with a good closeup face pic and a standing shot, maybe collage those two into one JPG, and keep it handy on your computer or phone, with a record of your pet’s vitals.

Read it over. Do the first three words grab the gist?  Did you check your contact info for typos? Did you spell “chihuahua” or “papillon” correctly? (I’m not just being a word prig; any misspellings could mess up a web search. )

Some thoughts on this project so far

I started the Facebook page about four weeks ago. Part of me wishes I’d thought things through for a while longer, but a large part of me wishes more that I’d started a while ago. Like, the moment it occurred to me. I mean, between the lost and found pet stories of friends of friends, and the fact that I’m still discovering more and more decentralized sites people are posting their info to, it seems like I should be able to help a few people.

And, thankfully, known pets lost in College Park have been few. I do see posts for pets in other neighborhoods, and I’ve enlarged the scope enough to enfold situations over in 32803 in the Lake Formosa area behind Orange Avenue, and up in the Fairview Shores/32810 area. It is close by so people who live here probably pass through there regularly anyway.

I want to get some info printed up on business card or postcard size paper, to leave on community bulletin boards, at all the local vet offices, groomers, and to share with anyone else in the community. But this may be a slow build. After all, it is a very localized project, which is why I think it has a chance of doing some good.

What’s discouraged me the most is I keep finding more and more sites, and Facebook pages, dedicated to lost and found pets. Some are national in scope – who has time to scan through 99% out of state animals in order to find the one or two close enough to help? I found at least four semi-overlapping Facebook pages recently. All great well intentioned people, but they are clearly not thinking as I do – as a systems person, I think of ways to make information flow more efficient. And on Facebook, it’s difficult to search posts by age, location, and date lost or found.

Another discouraging thing is a poorly written message. People confuse the intention of “Lost” versus “Found” even. If your post begins Lost, I assume you are the person who lost the animal, but some will post a found animal under Lost, because, well, it is Lost, but your relationship to it is you’re the finder, so it’s Found.

More on this in the next post.