Four Free, Easy Ways to Increase the Reach of Your Lost Pet’s Social Media Post

Social media can be an effective, free way to get the word out about your missing pet but it requires some commitment and know-how on your part to have the best effect.

Every lost pet who is listed with the free service, Pet FBI  is posted by one of our volunteers on a corresponding state or provincial Facebook page. You can greatly increase the social media “reach” of your flyer by doing a few simple steps.

  1. After you have filled out the report, go to the corresponding state Facebook page and comment on your pet’s flyer. Example: “Fido is our dog and we miss him terribly. Please share his flyer to help bring him home”. Please allow some time to see the post, it may take several hours depending upon the time of day and number of volunteers available.
  2. Share the flyer to your personal Facebook page and ask your family and friends to share it also. The more shares and comments your flyer gets, the more likely it will be to appear in other peoples’ newfeeds. Comments, shares and “likes” on your flyer is called “engagement”. High engagement will result in high visibility.
  3. Share the flyer on any neighborhood pages, shelter or vet clinic pages, rescue pages, and local buy and sell or lost and found pages and groups in your area. You can find these by entering key words into the Facebook search bar at the top of Facebook.  Use your city or town name and another key word (example Riverdale vet clinic) to see what will pop up.  Go to these pages or groups and politely explain that your pet is missing.  Example:  “Please help me! Our dog Fido is missing.  Will you share his flyer to your main newsfeed to help bring him home safely?  Thank you!”
  4. Comment under your pet’s flyer when it is shared on a Facebook page or group.  Keep a list of where you have posted it so that you can monitor for comments and update your pet’s status.

Beware lost pet services who claim they will “boost” your Facebook post for a fee and send alerts to local shelters. We receive many complaints from unhappy customers who were charged a fee and have not received the service they were promised.

Although we LOVE social media and it has resulted in thousands and thousands of lost pet reunions – the NUMBER ONE way that lost pets are found are by hand delivering flyers in the area where the pet was last seen.  Don’t rely totally on social media because there are many people who don’t use it or don’t have a computer.  Get out there and hand deliver those flyers!  Generating sightings is the key to bringing your pet safely home.

Create your free flyer and social media links from our partner, Pet FBI at www.petfbi.org. A volunteer will post your listing onto the appropriate state or provincial page.

4-23-22