I wonder if animal shelters around the country noticed an uptick in traffic and adoptions when this campaign launched earlier this year?  After watching these Pedigree Adoption Campaign videos (and reaching for a tissue), I immediately searched and clicked on my local shelter to see if there was an Echo, a Maggie or Walter waiting for someone like me.  (I already have three dogs, but there is room for a cat in our menagerie.)

The second thing was to try to find one animal shelter that linked to YouTube or the Pedigree website or the Donald Trump “Apprentice” episode. If there is a link or example before page 12 in Google, I couldn’t find it.

Why not? Are there really entire market sectors untouched, uninfluenced by social media?   If there was ever a time for an animal shelter to turn to Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, the social web to build awareness of important issues, to build a community.  Who is more passionate than pet owners? What are they waiting for?

If you know anyone that works at an animal shelter, serves on a board, manages the website,  forward them this blog post and encourage them to rethink how they use digital media and the tools available to them.  If you know of a shelter that is embracing social media, please tweet it out. They deserve a “woof!”

P.S.:  If you didn’t see the follow-up video called “Echo Gets Adopted”, scroll down or click here!  It will make you smile and cry all over again.