Social media has become an important aspect of online communication and identity. Everyone seems to have an account, including young children, the elderly, and even household pets. Creating a social media account for your dog allows you to show off cute and interesting photos and gives you something else to do while you surf the web. If you brainstorm first then create and promote your page, you can launch social media pages for your dog that become more popular than your own pages.
Brainstorming Social Media Ideas
Create a persona for your dog.
Think of your dog’s quirks or individual traits. Don’t look at quirks or weirdness as a negative if your dog has some. Embrace these differences and use it as a positive when thinking of ideas for your dog’s social media page. Think about details surrounding how your dog acts, and try to attribute human traits to them.
- For instance, if your dog is always curious and getting into trouble, you can create a mischievous and sarcastic personality for them.
- If your dog is really human-friendly and subdued, you can create a relaxed, friendly persona for your dog.
Choose a social media platform that works for you.
Consider the goals of your dog’s social media page. Decide whether you are creating it to show off images of your pet or if you are creating it to post funny and quirky commentary. Certain social media platforms lend themselves to commentary while others are better for photos. In addition, you should pick one that you use personally so that you feel more comfortable using it.
- If you’re posting photos, platforms like Instagram, Tumblr, and Pinterest are great.
- If you want to say witty things as your dog, Twitter or Facebook are good platforms.
- If you post a lot of videos, consider a video sharing platform like Snapchat.
Think of a social media name.
Think of a memorable and catchy social media name for your dog. Try to integrate your dog’s name into its social media name. Overly complex or hard to pronounce names should be avoided.
- Famous social media dog account names include, @toastmeetsworld, @muppetsrevenge, and @jiffpom.
Building Your Dog’s Social Media Page
Create new accounts on your desired social media platforms.
Visit the website of your chosen social media platform and sign up for an account. Follow the instructions and complete the verification process. If you are required to put a last name, just put your own. Narrow down your options and choose one to three different platforms so that you can concentrate on building certain accounts first.
- If creating an account on Facebook, make sure you use the “Pages” option instead of creating a real account, or it may get deleted.
- Other platforms care less about “fake” accounts or accounts created for people’s pets.
- You may have to try multiple account names because they may have been already created.
Fill in the profile information.
Think of entertaining or cute content that you can use to fill up your dog’s profile page. Find a profile picture that embodies your dog’s personality. Upload photos and videos that you’ve taken of your dog and share them with people that are following you so that they can like and share them with their networks.
- If your dog is fun-loving and energetic, use a photo of them being active, like swimming or catching a ball.
- If there is a place for hobbies you can put something like, “running after squirrels, playing catch, and cuddling with my owner.”
- Remember to include contact information for potential advertising opportunities.
Take a lot of photos of your dog.
When you launch your dog’s social media page, you’ll want to make sure that you have enough content for people to look through. Try to catch your dog during candid moments when he’s not paying attention to make photos more organic. Think of the photo’s composition and whether it’s capable of eliciting an emotion out of people who see it. Make sure that your dog remains the focal point of the picture and that it’s interesting or impressive.
- Turn off the flash, as it can often startle or scare dogs.
- Try to capture times that make your dog interesting and unique.
- If your dog is camera shy, try offering some treats to get them to open up.
- A panting dog often looks like they are smiling. If you want a happy looking dog, go for a brisk jog or walk with them before the photo shoot.
- Make the background engaging and interesting to look at as well.
Photo-edit photos to meet the specifications for social media platforms.
Some portions of your dog’s social media pages will require specific sized images. This means that you’ll have to use a photo editing software to get them exactly right, or the page may look strange or broken to some people. Edit and resize the most important photos that are on your page.
- For instance, the cover picture image size for Facebook is 851 x 315 pixels.
- The header image for Twitter is 520 x 260 pixels.
- The profile size for Pinterest is 165 x 165 pixels.
- Read how to Resize an Image in Adobe Photoshop.
Launch your pet’s page.
Once you finish all the details for your dog’s social media pages you can alert all of the people in your social circle that your dog now has his own social media pages. Do this by posting a link on your own personal page, or sending an email to family and friends. Finally, you can start to add people that have met your dog or people that you know personally to gain friends or followers.
Promoting Your Dog’s Social Media Page
Interact with other pages and build a fanbase.
Start by getting your pet’s name out there. The more people that you interact with and follow, the more exposure for your pet’s page. Commenting in a specific or humorous voice is usually a way to pique people’s interest in your account.
- Using puns like “I’ve got a bone to pick with your opinion” may make people laugh and follow your dog’s page.
- Announcing landmarks for your dog’s social media page is also another great way to thank followers or fans.You can say something like “Thank you, everyone, for helping me reach my goal of 1,000 followers!”
- You can say something like “Thank you, everyone, for helping me reach my goal of 1,000 followers!”
Maintain a consistent posting schedule.
If your posts don’t show up on other people’s feeds, your dog’s page won’t grow. Keep a consistent posting schedule and post for your dog at least once a day. Consider optimum posting times, depending on the platform that you’ll be using for your pet.
- The best time to post on Twitter is 3 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.
- The best time to post on Facebook is 12 p.m. and 3 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday and on Saturday and Sunday between 12 p.m. and 1 p.m.
- The best time to post on Instagram is 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Cater your content to your audience.
The first step in catering content specifically to your target audience is to understand your audience. Try to cater the content that you put out for that audience. Take note of which posts get the most likes, shares, or comments. Pay attention to trends to figure out what content is most successful on your pages.
- One idea you could try posting is a series of clips of your dog as they grow up, starting from when they were a puppy.
- When a post gets a lot of likes or comments, you should try to create similar content in the future. For instance, you may get few likes or shares on long posts comprised of text, but many on cute pictures of your dog in funny costumes.
- Check other social media pages for dogs to see what trends they’re following so you can post similar things on your pup’s account.