Branding your missing horse; work efficiently

When a horse is missing, no matter how the horse is missing, your first step should be to report your horse to the law enforcement agency with jurisdiction. The agency may or may not treat your case as a theft, but you will have a report on record, which may help you in the future. If your horse is stolen, make sure you have a criminal theft report on file and then get a copy for yourself.

The next step is crucial. File a report with the only nonprofit organization in the United Staten working with victims for over 25 years. Stolen Horse International, also known as NetPosse. The organization had taught the world how to search for missing horses since 1997, when the founders of the nonprofit had their horse, Idaho, stolen.

How To File A Report With Stolen Horse International/NetPosse

The instructions below are for filing from a desktop computer. Filing from a phone may be different.

1. Go to www.netposse.com or www.netposse.org 
2. Register for an account.
3. Login to your account, and you will land in your profile.
4. Update your profile information, including your social media URLs. We use these for quick contacts if needed.
5. Click on FILE REPORT at the top of the page.
6. Check the kind of report you are filing.
7. Pick the add-ons to your report.
8. Follow the prompts to fill in the information.
9. Remember to upload images.

How To Login To Your Report 

If you leave the report before you finish filling out the information, do not start another new report. Here's how to get back to your report.

1. Go to www.netposse.com or netposse.org
2. Login to your profile using the email address and password you used when registering for your account.
3. You will automatically land in your account profile.
4. Look for your report number in the RED rectangle. It will be four numbers.
5. Click on the number, and you will land on the EDIT page. This page also gives you information regarding your filing status.
6. Click on EDIT in blue letters. 
7. Fill in the information completely, including your social media links on Facebook and Instagram.
8. Remember to upload images.

What to do after you file your report

Many people want to get their information out to the public as soon as possible and usually do so before contacting Stolen Horse International.

You may have tremendous success sharing your post on social media, and we hope this is true. Suppose you could be more successful in helping the people who share your information retain the information more. Would you be interested in making sure that happens?

Stolen Horse International has developed a branding plan to help you do that. What is branding?

Defining the information about your missing animal(s) and the goal of recognition of the animal can significantly impact your ability to bring your animal home. Branding a product, your animal(s) in this case, works like we see products branded by larger well-known companies. 

Start Branding Right Away

Your report is finished and posted on Stolen Horse International-NetPosse Missing and Stolen Equine. Follow these steps to start branding your animal. 

In demonstrating how to change your previous posts, we'll use a case where the horse's owner did everything we asked and brought his horse home because of a flyer posted in a public area. Flyers done right, work.

1. Find all of the original posts that you posted on Facebook and Instagram. Follow the same steps for each.
2. Click on the three dots in the upper right-hand side of the post.
3. Click on EDIT POST.
4. Scroll past the text in the post and find the images.
5. Each image has an 'X' in the upper right-hand corner of the picture.
6. Click on the 'X' and delete the photos you have in your post. Leave your text; delete the images. 
7. Once you have deleted the images, paste the link to the original NetPosse Alert on our page into your post. We will send you the link, or you can follow more instructions below to retrieve the link yourself at the bottom of this page. Here is an example of what a link may resemble. https://www.facebook.com/StolenHorseInternationalNetPosse/posts/pfbid02QV1WPWkbYcQT6qVFsbY3YC5oEmiqsxhP1wt6ErWphMVwtCXXhnbjQz3TUKubw1Vul 
8. Once you place the link into your post, you will see the post change and look exactly like our post on our page. 
9. Remember to return to your text and ASK people to go to your NetPosse webpage, download, print, and post your flyer in public places. People often overlook the importance of the action until you ask and make it clear you need them to do so. 
10. Click SAVE.

Now you have started branding your product, your animal. All of the posts that have been shared from your original post now look exactly like the NetPosse Alert post. Everyone now sees the same thing over and over. 

It is a simple process, but as you now know, a critical step to take if you want to do everything you can to increase the chances of bringing your animal home.  

This action gives brand recognition for your animal, shows people that you have a flyer to post, and keeps people from wasting your and our, valuable time with the tagging process. The more time we spend following tags from well-meaning supporters, takes away from the more time we can spend reaching more people in our network. 

Why is branding your alert important? 

The concept is simple. When you see the same thing repeatedly, it is committed to memory more often than seeing the same product in many different ways. We aim to make our NetPosse Alert for you something people remember because they repeatedly see the same information. 

1. Using our branding plan, more people will see your flyer, download it, print it, and post it publicly. This action is critical in the search for any animal, often overlooked by the owners and the helpers. 
2. It establishes your animal in the same way, so people will remember the animal easier. 
3. It conveys your missing animal to the viewers.
4. It increases the awareness of your missing animal strongly and recognizably. It attracts more people to help you in your search. 
5. It reminds people about what you are doing in your search.

What makes branding your animal great?

1. When the public sees the same information repeatedly instead of in multiple formats, it commits to memory.
2. For specific reasons, a marketing firm and law enforcement have developed the visual flyer. A call to action to print and post it is crucial.
3. The call to action at the beginning of our NetPosse Alerts shows the public that you are taking every step to find your animal. 

How to copy a Facebook post link

There are two ways to copy the link of a Facebook post. 

1. Go to the post where you would like to share the link.
2. Click on the three dots in the upper right-hand corner.
3. Scroll down until you see Copy Link, and click on it.
4. The link will be copied to your clipboard and ready to share in your post. 

Sometimes the 'copy link' option is missing, depending on your device. When that happens, follow these steps that never fail.

1. Find the post where you want to copy the link.
2. Right-click your mouse (on a computer) on the date of the post. It may have an actual date or how many days the post has been posted. 
3. Click on 'copy link address.'
4. The link is now copied and is ready to paste into your post.