4 tips for growing your pet’s Instagram account

So, you think your pet has real star quality, perhaps even as much as the furry famous pooches who appeared in the recent dogs of an Instagram fashion show? In our previous post on putting your pet on Instagram, we talked about setting up their account and the types of photos you might like to shoot. In today’s post, we’re going to share a few hints and tips for growing your pet’s Instagram account so that you and your trusty companion can grow an even bigger network of friends to interact with. Here are parrotprint's four tips for pet Instagram accounts success:

1) Use a separate account for your pet
You may have started out taking photos of your pet and posting them on your own profile, however, pet accounts tend to have a particular type of following. Some followers may not be so interested in what you had for breakfast or that selfie of you in your latest outfit, so make it clear where people can find those emergency cute animal photos by setting up a separate account for your pet and be sure to mention their handle in your own bio.

2) Stay active and engage
It’s easy to get over-excited and take a lot of photos when you and your bet have just been united or your pet is in the stage of learning and doing new things. However, to gain regular followers and keep your pet’s account growing you’ll need to post content regularly to be prepared to respond to questions or comments and check out the accounts of other pets too. Try and portray your pet’s personality where you can and be true to their character.

3) Follow and use hashtags
Using hashtags liberally but correctly will help put your pet’s account in front of new potential followers. To keep on top of relevant hashtags people are searching for, check out those used on photos of successful accounts. Hashtags like #dogsofinstagram and #instapups consistently get a lot of traction but new trends emerge all the time as the recent flurry of interest in #puppybelly. Be careful not to use hashtags that don’t apply to the photo though, followers and non-followers will not thank you for spamming a popular hashtag with something irrelevant and try and vary the hashtags you use according to activities etc to give your photos a chance of being seen by more people. Check out these Instagram hashtags for a little inspiration.

4) Avoid flash and know your filters
If you’re catching your pet in action you’re likely to be using your smartphone a lot of the time. Whether you’re using a camera on your phone or a DSLR try and use natural light as much as possible as flashes can be nasty for pets (particularly if they are young) and of course, natural light tends to produce great photos too. If your photos aren’t as light and bright as you’d like, don’t be shy of experimenting with filters but try and create a consistent feel or style for your photos if you can. Many of the big accounts protect their photos by applying watermarks and this is something you may want to consider doing to prevent your photos from being used elsewhere.

Hopefully, these tips for pet Instagram accounts will help you to find like-minded pet lovers through the power of your mobile and to have a little fun with your companions along the way too. And, as you start to see the likes and followers roll in, if you want to share some of your favourite moments with even more pet lovers, you can upload your photos straight from Instagram to print to canvas with our easy uploader. We can’t wait to see your efforts.