The campaign to end bear bile farming is set to make exciting progress in 2015 – and we want you with us every step of the way.
Animals Asia founder and CEO, Jill Robinson MBE said:
"The campaign is powered by animal lovers. Their support allows us to do our work and we work for them. We report back our progress and it reaches a wider audience thanks to supporters' sharing via social networks."
"Awareness builds progress. Progress builds interest. Together we are building a movement - day after day."
Here's how to not miss a single update on one of the biggest animal welfare issues of our time and how to play your part.
Facebook is an exceptional tool for reaching a mass audience, but sadly, it is constantly becoming less efficient for those without an advertising budget. Last year, the average reach of a post on the social network fell well below 5%, meaning that of Animals Asia's 100,000 followers, less than 5,000 will automatically see our updates.
However, you can still make Facebook work for you. Firstly, to receive more updates by Animals Asia go to our page and make sure you have selected "Get Notifications" from the dropdown menu of the Like button.
Secondly, Facebook's algorithms mean that the people and pages you interact with most are more likely to be seen in your feed. So to boost your chances of catching all the latest news on Animals Asia's programmes make sure you like, comment and share.
Better still – bookmark www.facebook.com/animalsasia and check in everyday. We try to ensure that Monday to Friday there's at least one update a day.
How to help:
Share, share, share and help us raise awareness.
Direct mail is still a great way to share information. To receive Animals Asia's monthly e-newsletter, go to our website and sign up to My Animals Asia.
How to help:
Forward to friends or print out and pin up for friends and colleagues to read.
If you want to be first with the news then use RSS. Using an RSS reader such as Feedly will alert you as soon as news is updated. Both our main news page and Jill's Blog is RSS enabled.
If you consider yourself an RSS ninja you could even use it to follow our Flickr and YouTube pages too.
How to help:
Share the news via your own social networks.
Outside of Facebook, Animals Asia can also be found on Twitter, Instagram and Flickr – and each of these platforms has its own benefits.
With Twitter, not only will you receive 100% of Animals Asia's updates (unlike Facebook), but you can also follow our celebrity supporters such as UK Ambassador Peter Egan, US Ambassador Matt Sorum as well as our founder Jill Robinson.
Please RT & take the pledge http://t.co/s8WqMGdO7G moonbears in the care of #animalsasia need support. Thank you :) pic.twitter.com/em8GD0ToFe
— Ricky Gervais (@rickygervais) September 7, 2014
If you're not sure where to start with Twitter, here's a list of some of the people we enjoy following.
The visual platforms of Instagram and Flickr are great for following us too. On Instagram you can receive exclusive content only for our Instagram followers, while Flickr allows you to download thousands of high-resolution Animals Asia images for free. We believe that in the hands of our supporters, these images can be effective tools to spread awareness of bear bile farming far and wide.
How to help:
A retweet helps us reach a new audience or use Twitter to share any of our stories from any platforms – or our images. If you have any questions – feel free to ask.
Animals Asia's Youtube channel hosts nearly 200 videos of our work. Whether browsing at leisure or watching one of our collated playlists, Animals Asia supporters enjoyed nearly a million minutes of footage last year and by subscribing to the channel you'll be told whenever new material is available.
Subscribe and you'll get the films first.
How to help
Embed the movies in a blog post or share them via social media.
It's rare that we can tell you beforehand when a rescue is coming. Any advance publicity could jeopardise it. But, once it's underway we'll share as much as we can to all the above channels.
But if you want the best overview of all those updates – check out our Storify page where we collate the updates into one place.
As an example – here's what happened when we rescued Ti Map.
How to help:
If there's a rescue happening then we need as much support as possible. Tell everyone and then settle down to follow the news blow by blow. Use the comment boxes on Facebook to cheer on our dedicated team and we'll make sure they get the message.
If your dream is to join the Animals Asia team, then follow us on Linked In. We'll post all available jobs with the organisation here so you can either apply, or help us match a dedicated individual with a life-changing employment opportunity. Alternatively, see our jobs page on the website.
How to help
Follow us on LinkedIn and use it to inform your own professional networks about our work and how they can help.
We believe that 2015 is going to be a big year for animal welfare and we want you with us. Together we are so much stronger and our voice – speaking on behalf of Asia's voiceless animals – will be heard.