All About Instagram: Increasing Engagement, Using Hashtags, and Growing your Follower Count   

One of the number one questions I get asked is how to grow your following, I am in no way an expert, but I know a few tips that are certain to help you if you are successful! I will list and briefly explain below then go into further detail as to how they can help the numbers increase, but having a good page with high quality photos and a strong theme or style are also key, you want your page to look appealing to new potential followers!

TOP TIPS

• Features are a great way of getting your page out there! Tag big pages like @barked, @dogsofinstagram, @dailybarker, @dogs.media, @yourdogsinsta, @boopmynose there are so many and each feature is growing your reach!
• Be active and make friends, comment, like, and reply to your comments
• Hashtags, keeping them current and change them up to fit your photo or caption!
• There’s also video trends and challenges you can try with you dog. If you remember the #whatthefluff challenge then you’ll know that went worldwide viral. Everyone was trying it in their own way and always make sure your dog was ok and happy to play the game and co-operate.
• Funny/cute pictures and videos! Try to be unique and different, also, PUPPY PHOTOS! Because who doesn’t love puppies?!

FEATURES

This is one of the best ways to get a surge of followers, providing you have a good enough feed for people to want to follow you!

There are breed specific pages, ones for just videos or just photos and the bigger following the page has the better, but try to stick to the ones that have good engagement and will fit the theme of your feed! I will list several of our favorites, but sometimes random features for certain pages you don’t tag opens a gateway to some new followers and engagement. For example, I use the Google Pixel phone and when the official @google on Instagram asked to feature us it was amazing and such an honor considering I have been using the Google Pixel phone since it was first released. It just gives you extra exposure to people that never even knew your account existed!

BE ACTIVE

Be active, make friends, and engage; that’s what Instagram wants, and if you want to then it should be fun! I like to reply to our messages and read the comments and reply, it’s like a reward for the effort we put into our accounts.

I don’t know if it’s been proven, but it has been said or noticed that it does help to increase your engagement when you reply to the comments you get or if you start to comment on more of other people’s content. They are likely to reply with likes and comments in return.

HASHTAGS

Hashtags are important on any social media platform. From Instagram to Twitter to Pinterest, they are used everywhere and a great way again to get extra exposure, grab attention from those big main hashtags and reach further with more unique ones! Hashtags are great, they can start a trend (for example #whatthefluffchallange) it just combines all the same theme content and sometimes even makes a statement or joke #byefelicia.

Instagram runs a weekend hashtag project, so I advise you to follow them and check their posts to get the different theme. Each week they use the hashtag #whp then whatever the theme would be. There are several rules, so make sure you read their captions so you understand and have the right #’s. Alongside this project, they also have an all year round hashtag: #Dailyfluff and #Weeklyfluff, and if they feature you under those hashtags they also follow you too, now that’s an Instagram goal!

Finding the best hashtags can be hard but there are plenty of current and up to date websites where you can search the best ones based on your pet or dog breed etc! This is great way to keep changing them up!

VIDEO TRENDS

From watching our dog eat some good old crunchy treats, or #ASMR as it’s known as on Instagram, to throwing a sheet in the air and running away from our dogs…we do some weird stuff for the fun of social media. People love to see dogs seeming to do human things, and as humans, we are able to create this through well timed photos/videos capturing that perfect smirk or the look of guilt after doing something they shouldn’t have or simply just seeing (and filming) how they react when we do certain things.

I have a few favorite accounts for videos that I will mention below, these accounts have so much personality for both dog and human. I think it takes real skill to create videos that capture your dog’s personality and show their “doggo language,” which gives your dog a voice (metaphorically!) The words on videos are definitely my favorite, but they are tricky to get them in sync and make sure it fits your dog and makes sense!

FUNNY/CUTE PUPPY CONTENT

I’ve definitely found that funny pictures do very well. This could be silly faces your dog pulls, showing their teefers, sticking their tongue out (or blep/mlem as its known on the doggo world), a video of your dog diving into a pile of leaves, or dressed as a ghost with googly eyes eating a treat (yes, that one was Schmitt). Dogs can do some hilarious things or we can make them, within reason of course!

Maya the famous Samoyed (@mayapolarbear) is great at creating funny videos and she loves when people to try them out, so if you’re stuck for ideas check out the Instagram handles that go along with the photos in this post!

Another great way to create some fun and unique content is clothes, costumes, and outfits. You can use props or food, providing your dog doesn’t mind it. Schmitt is pretty much a born model, but I know many dogs that won’t tolerate wearing anything other than a collar or harness!

CUTENESS!! It’s human nature to like cute things, and what’s cuter than dogs and puppies?? Nothing! And the good thing is when it comes to puppy pictures, they don’t have to be amazing or set up with props or even high quality because…well…PUPPIES!

I don’t think I need to tell you how to take cute pictures or videos of your dogs. You know how to do that because everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of us are wrong!

Do you have any Instagram tips for us? Sound off in the comments!

Bethany Li

Hi! I’m Bethany Li and I’m 24 years old and I live in Newcastle upon Tyne (North East of the UK)! I’m dog (and animal) crazy! I LOVE the dachshund breed, but overall just dog obsessed! I love taking photos and being creative – my hope is to pursue photography as a career one day!