Social Media Campaign: A Report by Fix at Six

Samantha Lara, Zicong Zheng, Kunheng Cai

Professor Lynda Haas
Writing 39C
9 August 2015
Social Media Campaign: A Report by Fix at Six
The social media campaign is a week long endeavor that aims to raise awareness on a
certain issue on animal studies. Each group creates a homebase and uses two additional social
media platforms to connect to the audience, UC Irvine students. In addition to advocating a
certain issue, groups learn to use rhetoric in different types of media to create an argument. Our
campaign, Fix at Six , is focused on the importance of spaying and neutering. This report will
summarize the actions we took throughout the week, evaluate the response of our actions, and
explain what we have learned from the campaign.
The homebase (http://fixatsix.weebly.com/) serves as a website that focuses on the
campaign issue and provides navigation to the other platforms. We determined that our
homebase should have a minimal appearance that focuses on the information or knowledge
offered to the audience. Following the principle of less is more, the homebase strayed from
flashy colors and scattered images. When a lot of images were needed, such as on the homepage,
a slideshow was implemented. Using the Easy Furry Text in Photoshop tutorial from
Abduzeedo.com, a website on graphic design, we created an original logo. As Figure 1 indicates,
the logo is masked in a brown dog fur texture. The logo gives Fix at Six a sense of individuality
and professionalism. In addition to the default menubar navigation, we added footer navigation
as a way to incorporate graphical elements to the website. The buttons were made using

Social Media Campaign: A Report by Fix at Six

photoshop, illustrating drop-shadowed words under a puppy. Specifically, puppies were used in
this instance because the campaign message is to spay or neuter pets early.
In order to raise awareness, we shared different aspects of the spaying and neutering
process. Since the homepage has no character limit, we created three pages to share information:
a blog, a Get the Facts page, and a Get Involved page . The blog page
(http://fixatsix.weebly.com/blog) has several posts explaining the importance of spaying and
neutering, post-surgery care, statistic of adoption and euthanasia with regard to neutered dog in
Sacramento county and Yolo county, and an overview using an infographic. Get the Facts
(http://fixatsix.weebly.com/get-the-facts.html) is a page that provided more information about
spaying and neutering in a condensed format. It gives visitors a quick view of some important
points that we want to cover without becoming too verbose or overwhelming. Get Involved
(http://fixatsix.weebly.com/get-involved.html) is a page that is dedicated to sharing ways that the
audience can take action and provides links to the external sites mentioned. Both the facts and
involvement pages are inspired by whentospay.org, a social media campaign that is also has the
same goals as Fix at Six. The Twitter account (https://twitter.com/six_fix) is used to share links
to videos, articles, and sites. The articles posted on Twitter provided cases where communities
took action, information on spaying and neutering, and related issues such as overpopulation.
Instagram (https://instagram.com/fixatsix/) is used to post infographics and images that appeal to
pathos, which includes facts related to the image in the description box.
The Get Involved page on the homebase listed actions the audience could take to get
involved. Because people have different levels of concern on the issue of spay and neuter, the
page provided different options based on how much effort each task would take. We suggested
that people who are not as invested can use social media to spread the word. On the other hand,

Social Media Campaign: A Report by Fix at Six

we suggested that people who are more invested to share images of their own pet and host their
own campaign. On Instagram, the last few days of the campaign requested user participation. At
the end of each image description, we asked the audience to fix their pet in order to prevent an
issue described in the image. The Twitter account did not ask for user participation except for
one instance. That tweet let the followers know about World Spay Day and suggested owners
should not wait until then to fix their pet.
Hashtags are an important element of social media to gain traction for beginning
campaigns. We tried to incorporate the hashtags #39canimals, #spay, #neuter, #dog, and
#fixatsix in every Twitter and Instagram post. Depending on the content of the image, additional
hashtags were added, such as #overpopulation and #shelter. Clicking on these hashtags or
inputting them into the sidebar allowed us to find and follow users who had similar interests and
goals as us.
The three rhetorical appeals - logos, ethos, and pathos - are essential to a social media
campaign because it helps persuade the audience that our argument is valid. Each post on all of
the platforms tried to utilize at least one rhetorical appeal. The homebase appealed to logos. The
website and blog format was ideal for posting longer text that incorporated statistics and data.
Information that was shared on the homebase is targeted toward the individual that wants to read
more in-depth information that cannot be adequately shared on Twitter and Instagram.
Our tweets appealed to mostly logos and occasionally ethos. Most of the tweets were
links to websites that provided information on spaying and neutering, from medical benefits to
community work. Website updates were also tweeted, as a way to gain credibility. These updates
are essential because it directs the audience to the homebase, where more detailed information
can be found. At the same time, the updates reflect our interest and efforts for the campaign we

Social Media Campaign: A Report by Fix at Six

are supporting. When the audience sees that a new blog post or a feature page has been added,
they see how important we think the issue is. Instagram utilized logos and pathos. We started out
by posting infographics; however, nobody was responding to those images. An appeal to pathos
was more effective and gathered more response. Images such as Figure 2 that appealed to
emotion - comedy and sorrow - along with commentary in the description box gathered more
likes.
When we started the campaign, we only tried to appeal to logos in all of the platforms
with the goal to share information. So, we posted infographics and links to informational
websites such as the ASPCA or the Humane Society. However, we quickly realized that there
had to be adjustments because the posts were not getting much of a response. Based on the
medium (Weebly, Instagram, or Twitter), the rhetorical appeals had to change. With the
knowledge of the audience as college students, we wanted our posts to appeal to their interests.
We found out that appeals such as pathos worked well, especially when paired with logos or
ethos. Short, but informative posts on the homebase seemed to be well received based on the
amount of retweets.
The infographic was created using the online generator PiktoChart. We did average in
incorporating graphics and text because it was mostly text. The most impressive use of text and
graphics was the first block of the infographic, seen in the Appendix. But the varying fonts helps
with the readability of the infographic because it is not monotone. The infographic was our
overview of what we learned during the campaign and what we thought were the key points the
audience should remember.
For Twitter, the campaign ended with 35 following and 32 followers. Hashtags were used
to find organizations to follow. For Instagram, the campaign ended with 8 following and 8

Social Media Campaign: A Report by Fix at Six

followers. The homepage was used to find organizations to follow. The most popular post on
Instagram was the original meme with 7 likes. Explained previously in Figure 2, the post was an
image of one of our members dog. The appeal to pathos is popular for the audience in Instagram
because it is a place to post images; in other words, people initially look at the image and then
the text. For Twitter, The update on our website that provided a Get the Facts post was the
most popular with 8 favorites and 3 retweets. Providing our own updates appeals to ethos and
lets the audience know that the campaign members are actively trying to share information.
In hindsight, there are many more actions we could have taken to gather more interest for
our campaign. Ethos is a rhetorical appeal that should have been utilized more in all the
platforms. Demonstrating our own ethics and questioning the ethics of the audience can pave the
way to suggest action on our issue. We could have added more videos in order to make the
information on our website more visual and easily digested. For both Twitter and Instagram, we
should have followed way more people because it is a way to give the campaign some traction.
Personally contacting individuals to share our mission and ask for support is another action we
should have taken. Overall, we could have posted more on both platforms to make the campaign
more visible and demonstrate more participation and activeness. For Twitter, we should have
shared every website update so that the audience could find and read the posts because they
wont know themselves when the website updates.
We have learned a lot through the experience of doing our social media campaign.
Working together without meeting up is difficult, especially when everyone has different
timezones. Although we were not able to discuss with each other face to face, we still
communicated and worked effectively by using different internet tools. Communication is key to
success in a group setting. Monitoring the work of others is key to make sure that nobody forgets

Social Media Campaign: A Report by Fix at Six

to do their work. But our collective research mainly shed light upon the issue of pet
overpopulation and the high rate of euthanized pets as a result. In addition, we gained knowledge
on the more intricate details of spaying and neutering. There are medical benefits if pets are
spayed and there are many myths that prevent owners from fixing their pets. Conveying this
argument to the audience can be supported through many kinds of evidence (anecdotes, statistics,
data, etc.) and in many different ways (Twitter, Instagram, Weebly, etc.). But it is crucial to keep
in mind the purpose of the argument to prevent baseless information from being shared. As a tool
for 21st century, social media is more efficient and adapted to the current era; it has the potential
to create change across the world and in large volume. Very popular users do have an impact on
peoples actions and the popularity of other websites. After all, it is quick, easy to use, and free.
Anybody can make their own account on a platform and begin the process with themselves, as
active participants with a goal to make a difference.

Social Media Campaign: A Report by Fix at Six

Works Cited
Abduzeedo. "Easy Furry Text in Photoshop." Abduzeedo Design Inspiration. N.p., 17 Sept.
2012. Web. 09 Aug. 2015.
"Create Easy Infographics, Reports, Presentations." Piktochart Infographics. N.p., n.d. Web. 07
Aug. 2015. <http://piktochart.com/>.
"Home." Fix At Six. N.p., 7 July 2015. Web. 09 Aug. 2015. <http://fixatsix.weebly.com/>.
"Spay & Neuter Early." Spay and Neuter Early a Humane Alliance Campaign. Humane Ohio,
n.d. Web. 09 Aug. 2015.

Social Media Campaign: A Report by Fix at Six

Appendix
Original campaign infographic created by Fix at Six