At The Ohio State University Veterinary Medical Center, the head of the Farm Animal Service reached out to me about wanting to create a separate Facebook page for Farm Animal. I explained how it’s difficult to build a Facebook page audience from scratch and on the OSU VMC Facebook page, we’ve already built up a strong following of 14k. I said I’d be happy to work with him to share more about Farm Animal on our existing social media channels. I met Dr. Lozier in-person in the barn where he talked me through how his goal was to increase the number of cattle cases coming in. He said he didn’t want to feature only the weird cases but also highlight normal cases like dystocia (and I definitely had to ask him what that was.) He put me in touch with his lead registered veterinary technicians, Megan and Lauren, who told me some cool upcoming cases that were coming in.
I try really hard to listen to people about their social media needs and see how we can work together to creat something that makes sense. I’m proud of these Farm Animal social posts not only because they performed well but also because they show the power of building relationships across departments.
This Facebook post was our best post of February 2024. I think it performed well because it features a group photo of smiling familiar student faces and a cute baby cow. I took the photos and wrote the copy. Can you see my journalism background peeking through?
This post had 2,115 engagements! 342 reactions, 18 comments, 15 shares according to Sprout Social.
Here’s the post on Instagram. It’s important to me that I customize posts per each platform.
I took videos while I was shadowing this surgery and combined those videos into an engaging IG Reel. I’m always trying to get more experience with video, Reels, and seeing how our audience engages with videos.
For this Facebook post, I was in the operating room, watching this surgery and man, that was so neat. I was asking the students and techs so many questions. I talked to my mom, a vet, about the surgery and asked her even more questions. For this post, I wanted to highlight one of the fourth year vet students because I absolutely loved her quote about how rewarding orthopedic surgeries were. I starred that quote in my notebook and knew I needed to feature that. On the VMC Facebook page, the copy is more similar to what I shared on Instagram, less student-focused.
Same surgery, slightly different post on Instagram. Note the different pics and different copy.
For this post, Megan and Lauren graciously sent me these photos and I looked up some additional info in our hospital practice management system.
Around Valentine’s Day, we shared this adorable post. Look at the cast, there’s purple hearts! I’m very proud of this photo I took (the momma cow is centered above baby’s ears) on my nice mirrorless camera.
Debbie Wakefield 