William Walker - How to become a Dogfluencer

Which dog owner does not dream of earning money with his beloved furry nose?  Welcome to the social media world! But unfortunately it's not quite that simple. What you should pay attention to you will learn in today's blog article!

What is a Dogfluencer?

The word "dogfluencer" or even "petfluencer" is a modified version of the word "influencer". And that's what influencers or dogfluencers do, because they use their social media reach to "influence" the opinions or consumption habits of their followers through advertising. Of course this is different for each dogfluencer, because everyone decides for themselves how they want to use their reach. Whether with daily product advertising or simply with beautiful photos and reports from daily life and a promotional post every few months in between.

But now to the actual topic, how do you actually become a Dogfluencer? Unfortunately, success is not guaranteed, however, there are quite recognized measures that can be helpful in such an objective. We've put together some advice for you and hope it will help you and your dog on the road to becoming the next great Dogfluencer!

Create an Instagram profile

The first step in your career as a Dogfluencer is to create an Instagram profile and there are already a few things you should pay attention to.

Account settings

Here you should definitely make sure that your account is public. Because only then can users who do not yet follow you see what content you post. So to generate new followers this is a must!

Instagram Name with Recognition

The name should definitely be memorable and not too long. It should have recognition value and at best already hint at what your account is about or have a connection to your content, but that's not a must

The right profile picture

The most important tip is consistency. Don't change your profile picture too often, because in Stories or when you like or comment on others' posts, the profile picture is one of the first things other users see of you - and you want to be recognized quickly, after all. Otherwise it's completely up to you whether you go for an eye-catching, colorful design or something classic and simple.

Your bio

After your profile picture and your name your bio is the next thing that catches the eye of potential new followers. Here, in addition to other information about you and your dog, you can link to your website, for example, if you run one.

Engagement Rate

Your reach is defined by the number of followers you have. However, what is also very important is your so-called "engagement rate", i.e. the ratio between the number of followers and likes/comments. This should be at least 2-3%. There is nothing that seems more untrustworthy than an account with 100,000 followers but only 200 likes on the individual pictures.

The right photos

To be really known with your pictures is clear that they should qualitatively already meet a certain standard. This does not mean that you have to get an expensive SLR camera right now. Most cell phone cameras are quite sufficient, especially in the beginning. It is much more important that you pay attention to a good exposure and a proper background. A little bit can be improved afterwards with apps like Adobe Lightroom. Especially to bring your own style into images and thus your feed, apps like Lightroom are indispensable. The importance of videos and animated images is hard to overstate. Videos offer a great way to show your dog in action and get to know both of you better.

Presets

Once you have found your own style, presets are a small but very useful support for you. Presets are presets, in Lightroom for example, that help you make your images look similar and thus give your feed a unified look.

Regularity

In the fast-paced social media world, for example, one post per week would simply be too little. "A lot helps a lot" should also not be your motto, because from more than 5 posts per day your followers are probably rather annoyed. You can't really go wrong with 1-2 posts a day.

Hashtags

Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags per post. Especially in the beginning, you should also exhaust these. Here, it should be noted not to simply use only the most popular hashtags, but rather to rely on perfectly matching hashtags.

Here are a few dog hashtags that you can copy out: #doglove #dogs #dogsofinstagram #dogphotography #doglife #dogstagram #doglover #dogoftheday #dogphotography #puppy #dogworld #doglife #dogsight #dogfriends #dogslife #fellnose

Call to action

For the new Instagram algorithm, commenting under your posts has become hugely important. Many comments show Instagram "Hey, something is going on here." Therefore, motivate your followers in your caption to share with each other and also with you. Ask them for their opinion or for tips on a certain topic. Even a simple question like "How was your weekend?" is more inviting to comment than a quote or emoji.

Your Community

Fittingly, the topic of commenting: Community Care. When your followers respond to your questions from the picture description, you should try to respond straight to the first comments. Keep asking and thank them for a tip. This way, you'll establish a slightly more personal relationship and build a strong community that really wants to interact with you on your account.

Cooperations

Cooperations - probably the goal par excellence of every influencer. If you are satisfied with your feed and have a certain number of followers (works even from 1000 followers) you do not have to wait until a company contacts you. Dare to write to interesting companies yourself and ask for a cooperation. Important: Do not blindly accept any cooperation! Because as explained above, influencers influence their followers and if you sell them a bad product as the holy grail, your followers lose confidence in you and your recommendations.

Advertising

Here we will not go into too much detail now, as this is a very complex topic, but the important thing is that as soon as a brand is tagged, shown or even just mentioned, it is advertising and must be marked accordingly. Inform yourself in any case thoroughly about the advertising guidelines before you start with your account.

Sideline

If your goal as a Dogfluencer is to get free products or you even want to earn money, it is important that you register a side business. Even free products are tax relevant and should be included in your tax return. Here, too, you should ask your tax advisor for more detailed information.

Authenticity

Don't pretend. It comes off much more likeable if you just be yourself

Support from platforms

Of course there are also platforms that specialize in supporting dogfluencers and already have a wider reach with different brands. They mediate between dogfluencers and the various brands or companies. Furthermore those platforms can help you wonderfully as a stepping stone and also support you in the further process in the best possible way! The website www.dogfluence.com is guaranteed to help you catapult you and your four-legged friend into the spotlight! 

Do we happen to have a Dogfluencer among our readers here? Feel free to share your Instagram experiences in the comments to help the Dogfluencers of tomorrow!