Over the years that I have been involved with the pet community, one of the things I have noticed is that pet people don’t tend to be tech people.
Imagine how handy it would be for me, as a business owner, to have employees who could not only take care of pet shop critters, and assist customers, but who could also help me with computer viruses, Web site creation, software issues, etc.
Yep, that would be handy but it just doesn’t seem to be how it works out. As it turns out though, you don’t have to be a techno-geek to handle the social networks. It turns out that a lot of people have figured out how to MySpace and Facebook, even if they can’t fix my computer when it freezes — even pet people.
It might not seem really difficult to a lot of people out there, pet people or not, but it was still pretty darned intimidating to me. So I’m sure you can understand just how proud I am of myself for my most recent techno-accomplishment: I created a page on Facebook. Not only did I create a page for myself, but I even went so far as to create a page for Country Pet Shoppe.
I was surprised to learn just how much there is on Facebook for the animal lover. If you’re looking for a bit of fun, you can adopt and care for a wide variety of virtual pets in several different game applications that are available.
You can also join groups of other animal lovers, support animal causes, post pictures of your dog on your page or even create your dog’s own profile to keep family and friends up to date with his latest happenings.
I especially like that Facebook allows you to be fans/friends with other animal care organization’s pages.
You can become a fan/friend with the Kitsap Humane Society, Bainbridge PAWS, Pet Finder and several other local groups.
As a friend/fan, you are kept up to date with their events, activities and all the latest news they have to share.
It was also fun to discover many other Kingston businesses have Facebook pages. We may all live in a small town, but being as busy as we all are it’s sometimes hard to keep up with each other.
Facebook can be a great way to stay connected with what’s going on in our community.
Firehouse Theater, Harbor Hair, Lucky Star and the Kingston Community News are just a few examples of local businesses I’ve discovered on Facebook.
It’s also been fun to see how many of you are friends/fans of those businesses already.
Of course there are many local businesses and organizations that have Web sites. Many of them are animal oriented. Web sites are great sources for information about a business, a group or a cause. In fact, next on my list of techno-accomplishments will be a Web site for Country Pet Shoppe. The thing that makes Facebook different is that it is so interactive, so dynamic, and has such a sense of community.
If you are on Facebook — or when you do get on, I hope you will look for Country Pet Shoppe and become a fan.
I look forward to keeping you updated on events happening at the pet shop, sharing pictures and information about our beloved critters (yours and mine) and hearing what you think as we all connect with each other in this odd, little virtual community.
Stephanie Stebbing is owner of the Country Pet Shoppe in Kingston. Check out the shop’s fan page.
