The story
Brutus is a young Rottweiler born to a breeder who left him in freezing temperatures as a puppy, causing Brutus to develop frostbite in all four paws. The breeder attempted to perform an at-home amputation on the puppy, leaving Brutus maimed for life.
Brutus’ foster mom had him fitted for prosthetic paws for each foot, making him only the second dog to ever wear prosthetics on all four paws. He began receiving physical therapy at Colorado State University’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital to relearn how to walk.
Read more about Brutus’ story on Source.
The “social”
Vine / Colorado State University – via Iframely
The CSU social media team learned about Brutus through a Facebook post and wrote a story about his physical therapy at CSU. The team shared the story on all Colorado State University social media accounts including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vine and Snapchat. The team also strategically pitched the story to various influential Twitter accounts, including local and national media.
The result
Within 24 hours, the world fell in love with Brutus.
This story became CSU’s most widely publicized and viewed story. Ever. The story was publicized in all fifty states and across the world. On social media alone, the story was featured on the Facebook pages of TIME, Good Morning America, I Fucking Love Science, USA Today and Buzzfeed Animals.
On Twitter, ABC News, Discover Magazine, BFMTV, World News Tonight, and even TOMS shared the Brutus news.
Brutus even trended on Facebook, along with Kourtney Kardashian’s new baby.
CSU’s Vine video (above) was embedded into stories, including Mashable’s story, and now has more than 400,000 loops (and counting).
On Colorado State University’s social media pages, the accumulated posts, tweets, pictures, Vines and Snaps reached almost a million users.
The story reached an estimated 84 million people on Facebook, Twitter and Vine. Millions more were reached on websites, in print and on television, including ABC World News Tonight.
The publicity also helped raise an additional $3,000 for Brutus’ GoFundMe page.
The best result? Brutus, who was up for adoption before the story was written, found his forever home.
