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Several years ago, I had some spare time and wanted to jump into the dog influencer trend on social media. I knew my dog Milo would do well since he had plenty of unique traits, both physical and personal.
For example, I marketed him as the Jack with a bowtie. He always wears bowties, I want him to be a gentleman. And he was one of the most active dogs around, going hiking every week, and discovering new places people didn’t know about.
I did have decent success, and during my time, I discovered several things that work and do not work on social media. So, I want to share my experience and hope you will do better than I did. Just remember, being a dogfluencer is a full-time job.
How Dog Influencers Became a Thing
You may or you may not remember Boo, a Pomeranian from San Francisco that exploded on Facebook in the early 2010. He was the first dog rock star on social media, marketed as the “most beautiful dog in the world”.
At one point, he had 16 million likes on Facebook. Owned by a Facebook employee, he had a page with a simple statement, “My name is Boo. I am a dog. Life is good”.
In October 2010, singer Kesha sent a tweet that she had a new boyfriend, linking to Boo’s page on Facebook. The rest is history.
Nowadays, a lot of people try to make their dogs famous on social media. The term “dog-fluencer” gets tossed around, but not everyone makes it. Do you want to know what it takes to make your furry friend popular on social media? We’re gonna discuss what it takes and include some insider tips!
Find Your Niche
Before you start, you need to decide on which platform you want to create an account. In the beginning, sticking to one social media platform should do it. Later on, you can diversify, but in the beginning, choose one that suits your ideas.
For example, TikTok is all about short and funny videos, with Gen Alpha and Gen Z dominating audience demographics, and some millennials. Facebook is slowly regressing, and now India has the most population on the network. Instagram is great for photos, videos, and remains the most popular network for influencers. The largest group of users falls between 18 and 34 years.
If you want to be successful, you have to narrow it down: find your niche. Dog accounts on social media do not get popular overnight. Yes, your post might go viral out of nowhere, but in general, you need to develop a presence and find your voice and style. Ask yourself some of these questions to get yourself thinking:
- What makes your dog unique? Is it his breed or breed mix?
- What activities do you do together?
- Does he have some special skills?
In the beginning, you can experiment with new content to see what resonates with your followers. For example, you can try sport-related content, dressing up, cooking, or capturing silly faces your dog makes.
Showcase Your Dog’s Superpower
Once you find your niche, you need to go deeper down into it.For example, if your niche is clothing and dressing up, find something that makes your dog stand out from the crowd. If your dog looks amazing in bowties, go out and try and find some elegant bow ties to start capturing your canine’s charm!
Sometimes, your dog’s superpower might be simple, yet effective and fun. For example, if a dog collects sticks on every walk; this is something simple but so fun and adorable! Or, you might own a dog that loooooves vegetables. You have to know what makes your dog unique. Try to be objective, and see things from a different perspective.
Add Value
Posting random pictures is great, but if you want to take things to the next level, you have to add value to your profile.
There are plenty of cute animals on social media for people to follow and engage with. Why would they choose yours? To stand out, you have to bring value. Here are some examples of ways you can add value to your platform.
If you are into cooking, talk about different recipes fans can make at home. If you are into hiking, add value by giving tips and guides on common trails. Or, you are a homeschooling dog trainer, and you can talk about how you managed to get your dog to perform certain tricks.
Improve Your Photography Skills
You do not have to be a professional photographer or have an expensive camera to make your dog famous on social media.
Many of the popular profiles you will find on social media are run by regular Joes. What you need to do is focus on getting quality photos using natural light whenever possible.
Pay a bit more attention to the setting. Do not take photos of your dog in a messy room or where the background will distract the viewer.
Take Great Photos
Now comes the fun part: snapping photos of your superstar! Here are some top tips for taking great photos:
- Get down on your dog’s level.
- Diversify your photos, post close-ups, full-body photos, and action photos.
- Make sure your pet is comfortable.
- Focus on the eyes to add depth to the picture.
- Use your dog’s instinct to your advantage.
- Try the panning technique to create a sense of speed around a moving object.
- Take photos in an environment with decent lighting.
Post Regularly
You do not have to post every day. You can post once a week if you want. But the key is to be consistent, both in quality and quantity. Do not post for the sake of posting. Yes, a random picture and a meme here and there is fine. What you can do is post quality pictures on your Instagram feed, and leave random pictures and memes for your story.
Experts recommend 2 feed posts per week and 2 stories per day as the sweet spot when you want to build your audience.
The time you post is quite important as well. Share content at times your audience is active. Use the Insights section to check your audience’s engagement and activity.
Engage and Build Connections
The best way to bring attention to your social media profile is to be active. Always keep in mind that running a profile on social media is a full-time job. You have to comment, like, and engage with your followers on a consistent basis. Typically, you need to engage with at least 100 different accounts daily to grow your audience.
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Now, once you grow your followers, you can focus only on creating engaging content. But that will be time-consuming as well since you might get hundreds or thousands of comments on a single post. You have to engage to keep your profile active per the Instagram algorithm.
Social Media Best Practices
If you want to grow on social sites, you have to play by their rules. Here are some of the best tips and hacks to growing on social media and strengthening your visibility.
Clever Use of Hashtags
The good news is that Instagram has added hashtags as a searchable tool for you to connect with other accounts, and allow people to find your posts. You can add up to 30 hashtags to each post. Yet, you should not overdo it. The sweet spot is between 12 and 18 hashtags.
Keep track of the hashtags you use in the notes section of your cell phone. Create a list of different dog-related hashtags and see which perform better than others. When using hashtags, follow the 50/50 rule. That means half of your hashtags should be popular and common like #dogsofinstagram, and the other half should be with less common and more narrowed hashtags like #ShihTzuSanFrancisco.
Here is a good strategy you can use. Research hashtags related to the area where you live and puppies. Find hashtags that are medium popular and use them in your posts. Experiment and see how you perform. The goal is to get on the top posts page for a certain hashtag, for example, #ShihTzuSanFrancisco.
Use Instagram’s Hidden Trick
Here is a trick you might not find elsewhere. Tag people and use hashtags in your stories, but hide them. How do you do that? Well, use the typing option when you try to post a story, and manually type up to 10 hashtags. Then, lower the text as much as possible and hide it somewhere in the picture. Do the same with public profiles that might share your story/content. Make sure to use white font color.
Do Not Ignore Captions
Hashtags help fans discover your profile but captions are just as important. If you are good at telling stories, use it to your advantage. Yes, you can always put a quote as your caption, but telling stories will get you further.
Use puns, make jokes, and share the story behind the photo.
Diversify Your Audience
If you want to be successful on social media, you should not limit yourself to one network. The good news is that each network has its own different audience and favorite content. For example, Instagram is all about pictures. If you want to post longer videos, YouTube is the way to go. TikTok is amazing for short and funny videos.
Do you want to know the best part? You can link content from one platform to the other, and increase your audience even more.
Final Words
Review your social media strategy at least once per month. See what works and what doesn’t, and tweak it when needed. Keep track of posts that generate the most interest and objectively see what makes them successful.
Growing your social media account takes time and energy. But if you are consistent, you can find a loyal community and audience.
