All About Instagram

Anyone who has an Instagram for their pet will understand the struggles you can sometimes face — the worries of what and when to post. How can I make my photos different and stand out whilst showing off my dog/pet’s personality, character, and make it fun at the same time?!

I’m constantly being asked for help on how people can grow their following or take better photos, so I want to share some useful tips that have worked well for us!

CONTENT

Instagram has changed dramatically since I first started using it. I used to think of it as a photography platform, which is why I always recommend posting high quality, eye catchy photo’s that will grab attention. Unfortunately, now IG is more of a social media platform with a massive business and ad base, which is why it’s really quite important to try and make sure your page looks appealing and different when people first see it. Your captions are important too, but that has to come from you as you know your dog and their personality; this can be shown not only through photos but with your captions too.

The good thing is everyone has their own style or theme or just general way of doing things, so that means there’s always a good variation on Instagram — there’s always something new. My aim is to make people smile and laugh and hopefully raise awareness to fact that Schmitt is a very unique dog, more like a baby. I hope I show his (and I guess my) personality through the content we share!

A few ideas to inspire your photos!

• Seasons, holidays, events such as Halloween, Christmas, Summer, Autumn, etc.
• National holidays (you can find these on Google) for example National Popcorn or Nation Pet Day — trust me, there’s a bunch!
• You can try to recreate other people’s photos as long as either credit is given, you have asked permission, or you change it to make it your own!
• Try to incorporate you or your pet’s favorite things! For example, I love sprinkles and color and boops (shout-out to @boopmynose) so that’s what I focus on with our page!
• Know your dog/pet and their boundaries and make it fun and rewarding for them, because at the end of the day, they are the real stars!

WHAT TIME TO POST

Now this is a topic I have tried and tested and tried and tested to the point where I don’t want to try anymore! This may vary depending on whether you have your page just for fun, to grow it, get featured, or be a Pet Influencer!

I tried morning, mid-morning, lunch, after lunch, mid-afternoon, dinner time, then it hit me…what time do I use Instagram the most? And it turned out to be late evening. So, I started posting every day around this time and it started to improve our likes and reach!

This won’t be the same for every account, and if you don’t have the time or don’t use Instagram enough you can schedule posts using many apps! So if you have a business profile, have a look into your insights and see where most your following base is from, have a play around as I did…it’s definitely worth trying because it could massively improve your engagement!

I think the most important thing to do is to find your style and go with the flow! Make sure you and your dog/pet are always having fun, after all, the love we have for them is the reason we made accounts for them, right?

How do you share pics of your pups on Instagram? Give us your tips in the comments!

All photographs were taken by myself and you can see more on our account @schmitt.happenss

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!