Pet influencers and famous pets

If you’re a huge animal lover, like us, your Instagram feed might be full of pet pictures. Some of these accounts might be known as ‘pet influencers’, which are accounts that have gained internet fame through hard work, dedication, and often luck on the owner’s part. There are various levels of influencers depending on the number of followers they have:

• Nano influencer: 100-1k followers
• Micro influencer: 1k-100k
• Macro influencer: 100k-1m followers
• Mega influencer: 1m+ followers

If this sounds like something that you’re itching to get your paws on, keep reading to find out the ways in which you could build up your Instagram brand!

Open an Instagram Business Profile

Having a business profile instead of a personal profile is a great way to analyse your posts and see how they are performing. To further build credibility, you can also request to receive a ‘blue tick’ verification badge; Instagram looks at a number of factors when evaluating Instagram accounts to determine if they’re in the public interest and meet the verification criteria.

Create a fun, simple and original username that is easy to remember – try not to include too many numbers or punctuation as it could be easily misspelt. For example, if your pet is called Rover, go for something like ‘roverthecheekystaffie’ instead of ‘R0ver-339’.

Tone of voice

It’s up to you to decide whether you want to create a ‘human’ account where you post images and videos of your pet, or a ‘pet’ account where you talk as if your pet is talking! This can be a really fun thing to do as you can give your pet its own tone of voice, and you can use fun and popular words such as ‘my hooman’.

There are many angles you could take – many pet Instagram accounts focus on travelling with their pets, pet ‘fails’ and pets up to mischief, following a pet throughout their life from birth, or simply just their pets loving life. You could also use your account to help support the causes you are interested in, for example posting about an animal-welfare organisation or a particular movement you are passionate about.

Get snapping

Aim to post consistently, at least once a day, to start building up your brand. One of the great things about running a pet Instagram account is that you don’t always need to invest in hi-tech camera equipment or professional editing software; you can simply use your phone’s camera to capture photos and videos of your pets looking at their very cutest, funniest or silliest!

Hashtag, hashtag, hashtag

A good way to increase the visibility of your pictures is to use relevant hashtags on every post. Search the web to find out which hashtags are currently popular; a good place to start is by using #dogsofinstagram or #catsofinstagram. To further spread the word of your new account, it may also be beneficial to tag a popular company or brand in your post to have a higher chance of your posts being seen by new people.

Engage and build relationships

It’s useful to engage with your followers and build relationships. Be friendly in the comments of other Instagram pages, and if people share your content, why not thank them publicly by adding a special mention of them in your Instagram story?

We can help you get started! Simply message us a photo of your pet and we’ll feature it in our special #FridayFloof series which we are running throughout 2020 on our Instagram account.

Follow popular accounts

Some have made it big and you might recognise names such as Nala the Cat, Doug the Pug, Esther the Wonder Pig and Lil Bub, who has sadly crossed the rainbow bridge but her owners have kept the account open to raise awareness for pets with special needs, and have even created their own charitable cause.

Spend some time searching through Instagram to find some popular accounts you like the look of and you can start to build up a network of like-minded pet lovers.

Enter competitions

Lots of pet-related companies run competitions, in which all you need to do to have a chance at winning is to follow their account and leave a comment. Firstly, make sure you verify the account running the competition is legitimate. Carefully read through the Terms and Conditions to ensure that personal data that you supply is secure, such as your name and any other details which are publically visible on your profile.

If you’re a lucky winner, often the company might post a picture of your pet (with your permission) which could lead to you gaining more followers. You could even run your own competitions to build your follower base, and if you’re on a tight budget perhaps you could try your hand at making original handmade giveaways yourself.

Unboxing videos

A popular way to gain exposure is to post unboxing videos, in which you film you and your pet unboxing a pet-related toy or gift. Lots of pet companies will often work with pet influencers and may send you free items to post footage of on your Instagram, in exchange for free advertising for their brand.

Pet influencer agencies

Yes, you read that right – pet influencer agencies are a real thing! Spend some time searching the internet to see if any take your interest to sign up to. Most agencies will require a joining fee in exchange for building your brand and followers, however this could be a valuable and useful tactic if you’re serious about making a career out of getting your pet famous.

Be patient

While it’s not known exactly how many pet Instagram accounts are out there, the market for pet pictures is huge; for example, there’s a whopping 191 million posts which have used the hashtag #dogsofinstagram!

The most important thing to remember is to be patient and not to pressure your pet into doing anything they are not comfortable with. Channel your creativity, be safe, be original, and have fun! This is a journey full of surprises that you and your pet are taking together so enjoy the ride – you never know where it might take you!

Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram for cute pet pics, advice, competitions, charity work and more. And if you’ve just got a new pet, we offer affordable pet insurance that you can trust, tailored to the needs of you and your pet.