How To Start A Instagram Account For Your Dog- Full Guide With Tips
Creating an Instagram account for your dog these days is nothing out of the norm, we have even done it for our 3 dogs and it’s a great way to stay connected and meet likeminded dog lovers.
The way to create an Instagram account for your dog is the same as for a human account, only we swap out your details for the dogs! You go through the same process which we will explain below, including tips of how to do it like a pro. Speaking from experience, we have made our own dog account grow to over 24,000 followers.
Because of this, there is countless people from all walks of life, looking to scroll through pictures and connect with likeminded people of things they love. It connects people interested in dogs which one another. People want their daily dose of dogs looking cute, being silly and misbehaving. This is where your dog account comes in!
Here are the most common reasons people create a dog Instagram account-
1) It’s a great way to forever display their life
2) Easy way to share their pics & videos with family
3) They want to make them famous and be paid for posting photos in brands apparel, just like the humans.
Regardless of why you want to set your dog up with an Instagram page, in this article we are going to show you how and include pro tips below.
1) Download The App
Download the app on your phone to get started. For apple users it’s in the app store and for Android users it’s in the play store. It’s free for both.
Pro Tip- If you want to do it on your computer you can, it’s just easier on the phone because that’s probably where the photos are to upload!
2) Come Up With The Handle
Your “handle” is just another word for username. Like when create a email account, the username isn’t your actual name. The username will be the one people search for you with and will represent you.
Often common usernames are already taken so you might need to get creative and include the use of underscores (_) or fullstops (.) throughout the handle.
For a more in depth guide about setting up your dogs bio and handle CLICK HERE
3) Fill In Your Profile Info
The profile for your dogs page makes us all the key information people that visit your dogs page will see.
See our comprehensive guide for creating the profile info here.
Details to include are the bio, location, dogs name, display picture and more. The way you do this is by clicking “edit profile” when on the home page of the account.
You want to make the bio super catchy and focused on explaining what people can expect to see if they follow or view the page. Don’t be afraid to say your dog is naughty etc because everyone loves a dog misbehaving so if that’s how the dog acts embrace it.
If you don’t have any pictures of the dog handy for the display picture don’t worry, you can come back to it once you have taken pics.
4) Take Pictures
When first creating an account, we recommend you post at least 6 pictures to get started. One picture alone isn’t enough for people to see much of your dog and make a decision on if they want to follow.
If you don’t have any great pictures of your pup on your phone, it’s time to take some!
Pro Tips: Training- When first starting out with taking pictures of dogs, it’s a good idea to do basic training. You want to teach the dog to sit, drop and most importantly stay. This will allow you to take a few steps back to take the pic.
Focus On Lighting- this is a big deal to make the picture look great. Always try to have the sun behind you when taking the picture or you can use apps light Lightroom to brighten up the image, after it’s taken.
Get Their Attention- You can do this by either making a strange sound or by using a squeak toy. If quick, you might be able to use a word that makes them excited like “walkies.”
5) Upload The Photo/Video
Finally to the fun part! Actually sharing your doggy with the world!!
This is the time using the app on your phone really makes life easy. What you want to do is click on the + sign at the bottom of the screen. This will open a new window to upload photos or videos off your camera roll.
There is lots of options for editing the pics but as a beginner, we recommend keeping things as simple as possible and just posting the pictures as they were taken for that #authenticlook.
Don’t forget when posting to add a caption and sprinkle in a few hashtags. The caption you can fit approx 300 words so make them count and the hashtags are something you type in that allows people searching that topic to find you.
Pro Tip- Hashtags can increase exposure from a post up to 12%. Be sure to include your dogs breed and location in the hashtags.
Eg French Bulldog in Sydney would use #frenchbulldog #fawnfrenchbulldog #frenchbulldogsydney #sydneydogs #dogfashion etc
6) Engage With Others
Instagram is all about community and connecting people. In fact Instagram themselves say they give priority to relationships. What this means is if Kim Kardashian does a post and so does your brother, you will see the post from your brother first because Instagram believes it’s more “important” to you.
If you go out there and engage with other users like yourself, talk, comment and chat on direct messages, you will create a little community of your own.
Instagram will see they comment and engage with you which signals you are important to them and it increases the amount of people that see your post.
Pro Tip- Engagement on your posts and stories is key to growing a dog Instagram account. You want to get as many likes, comments and shares as possible. In the first hour of a post going live, the more engagement it gets the more Instagram shares it with the wider world that’s not following up = growth.
7) Consistently Photograph & Post
Instagram is very much like a plant in the way of needing nurturing and care. If you do intend on growing the account and not just using it showing off pics, consistent effort is required.
The biggest 2 things you can do consistently to guarantee growth is regularly take and post pictures/videos and grow/engage with a community. The bigger your community gets, the more engagement your posts get. It can snowball once you have enough people liking and commenting on posts.
If you have any questions about how to set up your dogs instagram account, or need help finding nice accessories to photograph your dog email us at info@swankypaws.com.au or click the button below.
