YOUR Spotlight: Behind the Paws

You’ve spent months, maybe even years building up your pooch’s social media following. Constantly focused on curating new content for your fur baby’s account, you’ve been tucked away behind the camera lens... and you might even prefer it that way!

Perhaps you’ve even developed your own niche community, in which you share common ideas or interests that are important to you. These interests might include dogs and their positive effects on mental health, fitness and dogs, dog training tips or special diets for your dog like raw feeding. Maybe your followers love to tag along on your hiking adventures or even understand, on a personal level, how your dog helps you manage anxiety. Do your followers share your commitment to social justice or environmental sustainability and that’s what keeps them coming back? Or, you might even have the type of content where your community shows up strictly for your dog's OOTD (outfit of the day)!

Whatever your niche, you’ve done a great job establishing your dog’s personality on social media.

...and that’s enough, right? 

Not necessarily. There are many opportunities to expand your connections, increase engagement, and attract brand partnerships and collaborations through social media. We want to help dog moms and dog dads grow your community on Instagram and other social media! By sharing your dog’s spotlight once in a while, you can increase your engagement rate, grow your followers, and build long lasting relationships. Maybe you’ll even become an influencer in the pet industry!

It’s well-known that people like to do business with people they know and trust. Our social presence online works the same way! Building trust takes time and effort but if you are putting out effective and engaging content, you have nothing to fear! Plus, studies show that people are more likely to stop scrolling on Instagram and other social when they see a person and a dog rather than a dog alone. Test yourself on this one!

Your followers know there is a person (or even a whole team) behind your dog’s social media account… so toss them a bone (while giving them an inside look) to what goes on behind the scenes!

Being relatable is the key. As your dog’s social media presence grows, don’t forget to reintroduce yourself occasionally. Be mindful to keep building relationships within your digital sphere of followers, brands, and companies! We suggest that you share pictures/videos of you and your dog together on your feed at least once a month, and a few times a week in your stories. Take the opportunity to build a stronger community and grow your reach by sharing a few of your favorite moments with your pooch and maybe a few bloopers along the way!

Let a great picture of you and your fur baby speak a thousand words for you. By showing up on Instagram with your dog, sharing your story, asking your followers questions in your post (that’s a “CTA” – Call to Action), you’ll be amazed to find out things about your community and develop stronger relationships with them! Translation… increase your engagement rate!

…oh, you don’t like pictures of yourself?

We get it! Truth is, most people don’t like pictures of themselves, especially on social media. Some of the pet influencer accounts that you follow on social probably have perfect, curated photos of people and their dogs taken by professional photographers. But think about the pupfluencers who you have the strongest connection with, the people you know the best on social – chances are they’re probably just regular people without filters and professional edits.

Time to stop comparing yourself to the pros! You’ll make a deeper connection and be more relatable to regular dogmoms and dogdads just like you! And, you might just be more comfortable barking to your own beat with a little practice!

If you’re not already using Instagram’s favorite new tool to showcase you and your pup, start sharing videos on Instagram Reels as often as possible. Using Reels to introduce or reintroduce yourself on your dog’s Instagram is sure to extend your reach! And, it’s a great way to allow your followers to get to know you better. We’ll be talking more about Reels in future blog posts!

Now that you know more about the “why” you should introduce yourself, be sure to keep an eye out for our next blog post in this series where we dive into the process of “how” to introduce yourself to continue to grow your community. 

Looking for more ways to put yourself out there? Share your Dogstory with us to be featured on Dog Like Me! 

If you could still use some guidance before revealing yourself to your online community, not to worry! Download our FREE “Beginner’s Guide to Sharing the Spotlight” Workbook when you subscribe to our mailing list to keep you on track and on brand! Workbook only offered for a limited time.