Facebook For Catteries
BY MOLLIE SHUTT
The House of Meow
Published August 2013
Photos copyrighted by the individual photographers
Article copyright © PandEcats.com. All Rights Reserved.
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In the first article in this series, Facebook Tips For Cat Fanciers, I discussed some of the basics of Facebook — arguably the Big Daddy of all social media.
Facebook can be a fun place to show off your cats and highlight their show accomplishments. Also, a Facebook page requires no HTML or other technical expertise to create and manage, so if you lack the time and technical knowledge to maintain a cattery website, then a Facebook Page may be a viable option for you.
Facebook Pages are designed for businesses or entities. It is a way to connect with both the people you know and the people you don't know. Anyone can see and "like" your page. Your page will also show up in search engine results. A Facebook Page brings your information to a large online gathering place of people, as opposed to a website where you may need to work harder to draw viewers to your site.
Some people choose to use Profiles (individual pages) for their catteries. This is not recommended as it technically violates the terms of agreement with Facebook — and that means that Facebook might remove the profile and content at any time. |
Creating a Facebook Page
If you are ready to create a Page for your cattery, see Facebook Help Center Getting Started (Pages). When creating your Page, you want to keep a few things in mind:
- Use the same cattery name for your Page name and URL as you use everywhere else. You likely already have this standardized, but it is an important reminder so search engines can find the right "you".
- Use high quality pictures for your Profile Picture and Cover Photo. The Cover Photo can be a bit tricky to get right the first time. It is sized as 851px x 315px. It is helpful to resize your photo before uploading it to Facebook, so it will look exactly as you want.
- Pages are free, but you will certainly come across Facebook promoting their "boosting" services, which aren't free. This can be ignored, unless you have a desire and the wallet to do some heavy marketing.
- Make sure you let your friends know about your page! You can do this through Facebook (easiest), or send the link through email to friends.
Posting To Your Facebook Page
If you now have a page, but aren't sure what to post, here are some suggestions:
- Litter announcements
- Show results
- Announce new cats in your breeding program
- Announce available adults
- Announce available kittens
- Candid pictures
- Show pictures, both candid and formal
- Fun cat things
- Funny or unique things about your breed
- Name the kitten contest
- Introduce the cats in your breeding program
Photos
Photos add visual interest to the page. Who doesn't want to see a photo of a beautiful cat! To show off your cattery, create albums for Males, Females, Grands, RW/NW, Kittens, Fun around the cattery, etc. The higher the quality of the photos, the better.
Share photos of your cats in the show ring along with their accomplishments
Your Facebook page is a great avenue for sharing professional photos of your cats
You can add many individual photos and create Photo Albums to group similar subjects together
Share your sense of humor by adding interesting captions to your photos
For more information on Facebook pages, see Facebook Help Center Page Basics.
 About The Author
Mollie Shutt started her blog, The House of Meow, to chronicle the adventures of her British Shorthair and her adopted shelter cat. Her blog has also become a place for information about being a cat show newbie as well as do it yourself cat projects.
Outside of cats, Mollie is an accomplished bassoonist and avid cyclist. After working full time for many years in online community management and website administration, she opted to take a new job as a full time mom and cat servant. |
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