Using social media is one of the most popular activities these days. Popular social media platforms like Facebook,TikTok, Twitter and Instagram have billions of active users. To think that these are just photo-sharing platforms is no longer true. People have made successful careers on social media by collaborating with various brands or selling their own products.
Brands now view Instagram and other social media platforms as an important marketing tool. You will see successful social media pages on almost anything- people, cars, businesses, and pets. Yes, you heard that right. You can make a successful pet page and make your pet famous.
If you are the proud owner of an adorable pet, the thought of creating an Instagram, Tiktok, Twitter or Facebook page for your pet must have crossed your mind.
Here are some important tips on how to grow your pet account on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok or other social media:
Try and stand out from others
There are thousands, if not millions or billions, of pet accounts on social media. To attract attention among these many accounts, you need a theme that’s going to make you stand out. One idea could be to use your pet’s personality- whether it is lazy or hyperactive. You can think of a fun theme for instance your Instagram account based on your pet’s personality. Would you like to dress up your pet in cute costumes or showcase its day to day life? Whatever it is, the theme of your page should be different from the others to make you stand out.
Stop posting only the “good” pictures
The first rule of growing an account on social media is engagement. The more engaging your account give, the more you will grow your subscriber count. Everyone posts only the best pictures on Instagram. If you too, do just the same, you will only be like any other page. How about posting some behind the scenes photos and videos? Give your viewers a peek into the real life of you and your pet. You have various moods, and so does your pet. Why only post pictures of your happy pet? Why not capture some goofy moments? Don’t you think that will be fun?
Focus on frequency
As the proud owner of an incredibly cute pet, you must have hundreds of photos of your precious companion. You may feel the need to post 10 or 20 photos a day to show your subscribers how “active” you are. By posting so many pictures, you risk annoying your viewers. Does that mean you should not post 10 pictures a day? You can. But it is better to club those pictures in 1 post to make your viewers stay longer on your posts. It is better for your social media page that way. Posting separate pictures 10 times a day can be quite annoying, don’t you think? Your audience should look forward to your posts every day.
Be consistent
One thing that is more important than the frequency of your posts is consistency. It is not important to post every single day. What is more important is the consistency and the purpose of your posts. Put up posts that are bound to connect with the audience. Showcase different facets of your pet. Connecting and engaging with your audience helps you grow more than the number of posts you put up every day.
Be more social
When was the last time you looked at a post on social media and did not go through the comments? Seldom happens, right? That is because it is fun to read the comments. A good and easy way to drive traffic to your Instagram account is to follow other prominent pet accounts. Like and comment on their posts every single day again. Share similar stories on your account and you may just touch a chord with the others visiting the post. If they reply to your comments, talk to them, and they can soon become new subscribers to your pet account.
Hashtags are important
Proper hashtags make your pet account more discoverable. They are an excellent tool to make your pet photos show up in the accounts of prospective subscribers. You may be inclined to use the most trending hashtag on social media right now. However, with millions of others using the same hashtag, your photos will only drown in the billions of photos that get uploaded every day. You can never find your ideal target audience that way. Instead, use specific and lesser-known hashtags to reach your target audience faster. It is a good idea to stick to hashtags that have 2,000 and 50,000 uses instead of the ones that have 1 million-plus.
How do brands get interested in working with you?
It is extremely common for people to think that brands get interested in working with you only if you have millions of subscribers. Nothing is farther from the truth.
Brands get interested in working with you because you align with their brand values. They look at you as a prospective brand ambassador. Something about your community of followers interests them, and they would like to access that.
There have been cases where brands have partnered up with accounts that have just a couple of thousands of followers. All because the account was the right “fit” with their brand values and their target customers.
Let us give you an example. Say you rescued an abused dog and that dog is now a happy family member of yours. The years of abuse have forced your dog to wear a brace. You have set up a pet Instagram account where you showcase your dog going about its usual day, happy and content. A brand that deals with medical devices for dogs come across your page. Don’t you think they would love to work with you?
How to monetize your pet account
There are many ways to make money out of your pet Instagram account. However, the most popular ones are:
- You can post content sponsored by brands
- Through affiliate marketing by selling other people’s products on your page
- Selling your own pet products on Instagram
How do brands get interested in working with your pet account?
Brands will get interested in working with your pet account if they feel you have a unique voice. You have a solid relationship with your viewers and engage in meaningful conversations. To exemplify, say you have a pet account on Instagram where you are showcasing how to raise your dog. You are not only sharing the joys of raising a dog but also showing the struggles that come with it. You engage with your audience to show how to raise a dog and also learn from your audience to become a better pet parent.
A brand that deals with pet care products will definitely want to collaborate with you and not someone who only dresses up their pet in cute costumes. These brands have their own websites where very often, they put up blog posts on the issues faced while raising a dog. Your conversations and engagement with the audience will not just help them become better as a brand but also drive your audience towards them. Your audience is authentic – exactly what brands are looking for.
The number of subscribers does not matter because you grow with time and so does the brand.
What NOT to do to grow your pet account on social media
Tempting as it may sound, buying fake followers on Instagram is the biggest no-no when trying to grow your pet account. It is better to have 100 followers that truly engage with you than 10,000 fake ones. Remember, brands want to partner with you because of your engagement with your audience and not your subscriber count.
When you pay for followers on social media, you are only paying for a number. Engagement is not guaranteed. These followers may not like or comment on your posts. Imagine how it would look to a brand- 100k followers yet just 10 to 20 comments? Most of these fake followers are inactive accounts or bots. Paying for likes and comments on social media is also a bad idea. You can do that for a few of your posts, but would you be able to do that for all your posts? The “fake” engagement will eventually taper off.
Buying fake followers is against those platforms community guidelines and may have serious consequences too and might cause the deletion of your social media page.
If you are buying followers to become more attractive to brands, then remember, brands will audit your account before they partner with you. Brands engage professional brand influencer platforms like for instance Petsfluence and will ask to do account audits to track down fake engagement. Such platforms will eventually find out about your fake followers, and no brand would ever want to partner with an account like that. Brands do not only look for big accounts, they would rather work with small influencers who have real engagement with their audience.
