Amazon wish list - An opputunity for supporters to buy presents for shelter cats

[Tiggy's Mum]

  SamMewl - I just posted the Wish List on the Paws Inn facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/pawsinncatrescue if anyone wants to join) and already people have bought stuff  I must admit I waited til payday as if other people are anything like me then it's been a looooooong month!

I wasn't too sure whether an update every day would put people off as I know it comes on your newsfeed (I have a dummy FB account for catbook!) and didn't want to annoy people by over posting but sounds like once a day isn't a problem.

I think I will have to pass on twitter for the moment as like you I have no idea how it all works!

[SamMewl]

snaffle away! Good luck

facebook is our way of comunicating with online supporters. so we make an effort to put something up every day as it keeps people coming back to the page. we are registered as a 'company' as the rescue and also as a person as 'haworth cat'. people and companies can do different things. 'people' can have friends and others post here more often. each time we post it goes onto both. we have over a thousand friends on one and over 2000 likes on the other. it has proved really beneficial when we have needed support/votes for campaigns (like the animal friends insurance but others too). only yesterday we homed a cat Juno entirely down to her facebook post. so even though it seems a bit of an effort and a drag we keep up our presence always. we also have a buisness card with our facebook page asking people to follow us that goes into every homing pack. when i rehome a cat i always ask them that if they are on facebook and if so to post a picture of the cat in its new home as people like to see that. that gets us more followers too. we twitter aswell. posting on a yorkshire hour got us more support (and an article in a paper about our upcoming charity shop), but I am not on twitter myself so  about how that works.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Haworth-Cat-Rescue/24720682524?ref=mf   the rescue
http://www.facebook.com/haworthcatrescue  the cat
https://twitter.com/haworthcatrescu   twittering

we have just had a bunch of the cat nip laced cardboard scratching pads come in. the cats love them, tabitha is using hers as a sun lounger!

[Tiggy's Mum]

Such a brilliant idea  - hope you don't mind but I've snaffled the idea and am going to give it a go for Paws Inn Watch this space...

Do you have any tips for how to increase online supporters in general? I have set up a FB page for them with has 116 'likes' but I'm not on FB myself so not really sure how best to increase the online presence?

[Dawn F]

what a great idea

[Sue P (Paddysmum)]

What a fantastic idea Sam - really simple, but very effective 

Simba's a bit of a looker, isn't he?      He looks very comfortable. 

[SamMewl]

We decided to make an Amazon wish list of essential and 'treat' items that we could use at Haworth cat rescue. The response has been amazing and i would recommend any shelter that has online supporters trying it out. We only put it up a couple of weeks ago and as you can see we have had a response. Compared to what we have asked for you may think we haven't had many items, but here at the shelter every day has seen a box arrive with a food parcel or a bed or food maze etc.
 
http://www.amazon.co.uk/registry/wishlist/293DEWO3WJRVZ/ref=cm_wl_sortbar_v_page_1?_encoding=UTF8&page=1

We advertised it on our facebook page and i think a lot of people enjoy buying a present for the cats. Often we advertise cats needing homes and if our supporters are not wanting more cats there is nothing they can do to help but seeing a photo of a cat enjoying its presents is rewarding to them. The cats are being really spoilt too, knibbling on cat grass, playing with food mazes and lounging in their new beds. Letting supporters buy cimicat for orphan kittens coming in has also proved popular 

Photo - Simba a grumpy boy whose been here a while having a moment of 'who me grumpy' whilst he relaxes in his new bed.