By Debi Metcalfe
Posted on January 26, 2014 at 10:42 PM

It is important to remember that Facebook is just one of the many tools you can use to assist you in the search for your horse or equipment.

Contrary to what some people think, not everyone is on Facebook!

Don’t forget there are other social mediums you can use like Twitter, LinkedIn and Craigslist, just to name a few.  Remember, when you use social mediums, posting one time on one page is never enough.   Post, wait a few days to a week and then repeat.

For Facebook follow these simple rules:

• Keep posting NetPosse Alerts to your personal page.  People do not want to help someone who does not think their own horse is important. If your page is overrun with cartoons, other information and causes and searchers have to look through all of your post to find your horse, then you probably will not get as much help.  Why help someone who is not helping themselves?
• Share alerts with all of your friends on their pages and in private messages.
• Ask everyone to please print and post the flyer in public places for you. Explain to them that not everyone is online and that you need help getting your horse in front thousands of people who otherwise would not see your horse.
• Enlist drone, tracking and horse clubs in your area to help with your search.
• Send  alerts to people closest to the area where your horse disappeared first;  then fan out to other towns, states, nationwide
• When you go to horse auctions or have others go, ask them if they will:
  • Print the flyer in black and white (because it is cheaper to print large amounts at Office Max, Staples, etc)
  • Put them on every vehicle in the auction parking lot as well as the auction facility
  • Post flyers in nearby restaurants, gas stations and other public businesses that horse traders and auction goers will do business with on their way to and from the auction house.
  • Go door to door in a community when a horse is lost. 

Get off of Facebook each day and spend time finding horse organizations, clubs and people through their websites and then email them one at a time. Follow the same steps outlined above for social mediums; this takes more time but it can be well worth the effort! You never know who anyone knows and how many people that can spread your plea for help.

This is a society where everyone wants things handed to them; they want everything easy.  Yes, Facebook makes it easy to do just that but it simply is not enough.  Most of the places your horse is posted are not searchable by browser search engines so it is of utmost importance to have your horse on a webpage that is searchable.

Make sure you have your horse on NetPosse.com.  All of the pages are indexed and can be searched by any criteria on the page.Don't forget to use the link to your webpage on NetPosse.com in all of your postings, email, ets. Pictures, details, flyer, pleas for help, cut and paste social media alerts and updates are all in oine place. When the link is used in many social mediums a picture of your horse pops up automatically. 

When you find your horse and someone clicks on an old alert, the recovery information will be there of them to review.

If you think that this is not important then please watch this video on Youtube of a victim getting her horse back after almost 10 years.  Her horse was found on her NetPosse webpage--and found because the search engine crawlers can pull information from these pages.

Click here to see the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJpFYKagVRk

I hope this help you understand that finding your horse may not be easy or quick. Persistence often pays off and we have seen proof of that through Stolen Horse International’s victims. We can help you get started, answer your questions and provide you tools to help you along the way. However, the search and the results ultimately end up on you.

Here are a few resources and suggestions that may help you understand how to be for effective in your search for your horse.

How to Search on Google:  https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/134479?hl=en

Tips for Searching the Internet, Windows:  http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/tips-searching-internet#1TC=windows-7

Tips to Effective Internet Searching, Hannon Library, Southern Oregon University: http://hanlib.sou.edu/searchtools/searchtips.html

United States Horse Auctions - NetPosse.com http://netposse.com/auctions.asp

Suggested Search Words

The list is endless but here are a few key words to get your started finding people who may help you. The words horse, equine and equestrians should be where you start your search.

Horse, equine, horse associations, horse clubs, horse breed, horse classifieds, horse auctions, horse events, American Horse Council,  [Your state] Horse Council, equine, equestrian,  farriers, Veterinarian , horse councils, horse rescue

When you find a page that is a good resource, click on the CONTACT  or MEMBERS buttons for contact information.

© 2014 Debi Metcalfe, All rights reserved.

This article is available for printing in our Resouce Center. Click here for more helpful information and resources under the SERVICE tab on NetPosse.com - Available in PDF downloads

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