PETA2
Benefits
Social networking is peta2's primary source of Web traffic and advocacy participation. Shannon says, "By posting bulletins and messages on MySpace to promote our various Web features and campaigns, peta2 is able to get tens of thousands of young people motivated about speaking-up for animals. And thanks to the nature of social networking, our peta2 staffers are able to spread our message virally through 'friends' lists by posting Web banners on friends' pages about our campaigns or by blogging about why they've chosen to have a vegetarian Thanksgiving."
Whereas previously peta2 gained about 900 Street Teamers per month, that number has increased to over 5,000 per month since the MySpace effort began. By December 2006, there were more than 200,000 participants, and peta2's e-news list had grown from 40,000 to more than 765,000 subscribers.
Not all of that increased success can be credited to MySpace, because PETA has also honed its approach to direct outreach and other recruitment methods, according to Shannon. "But MySpace has made a huge impact in our ability to recruit new members," he says.
Social networking has also been a significant help in winning campaigns for PETA. For example, in 2005, a MySpace "chain-letter"-style bulletin was circulated about peta2's campaign to convince fashion retailer Wet Seal to stop selling fur. In just a few days, more than 350,000 visitors came to peta2.com to learn about the campaign and watch undercover video footage of what happens to animals raised for fur. Within weeks, Wet Seal was negotiating with PETA to end the campaign.
In 2006, peta2 — along with the help of some of its more popular MySpace friends — circulated information about cruel experiments conducted on "gay sheep" at two universities in Oregon, driving more than 50,000 visitors to peta2.com and generating more than 20,000 letters to each of the schools. Overwhelmed by the outcry, one of the schools contacted PETA in less than a week, though by year’s end the experiments — and the protest — were still continuing.
By December 2006, peta2.com — the primary communication tool of PETA's Youth Division — was receiving more than 375,000 visits per month. "With the word-of-mouth marketing that's involved with social networking, we are now able to reach people 'where they live'," Shannon says. "Now, new supporters are seeking us out rather than vice versa."
