Community Communication with Caitlin Quinn, Director of Operations at HeARTs Speak

“Let’s ensure that we’re starting the conversation from that place of all of the things we have in common and real compassion and understanding for why community members might be confused around these issues.” This episode is sponsored in part by CARE, Doobert, and Maddie's Fund. In this episode, Stacy converses with Caitlin Quinn, who has been the Director of Operations for HeARTs Speak since 2015. HeARTs Speak develops resources that help shelter animals to be seen and find homes, ultimately transforming public perceptions of pet adoption, shelters, and animals in need. Caitlin discusses her role and shares the backstory of how she got involved in marketing. She highlights some of the communication challenges present in the community cat field and explains how those involved in the community cat field are often largely unaware that these problems exist. She conveys the importance of communication with others in the community that aren’t involved in caring for the community cats. “We’re so close to the issue that sometimes we’re forgetting to back out of it a little bit and have those more basic understanding conversations.” Caitlin talks about social media campaigns; she emphasizes the need to start with baby steps and to be repetitive with your messages. She also shares her thoughts on the best strategies, platforms, graphic design tools (Canva), and scheduling tools (PLANOLY and Later) for social media, as well as on how frequently and the type of content you should be posting. Caitlin also sheds some light on what the social media algorithm is and provides an abundance of helpful hints that are bound to help any person or organization looking to bolster their social media game and reach more of their community. To learn more about the work that Caitlin and HeARTs Speak perform, visit the HeARTs Speak website. If you enjoyed this episode, check out our interview with Karen Hollish, the director of development and marketing at Pima Animal Care Center, in episode 202.