Your pawpal’s follower count might be high, but are you connecting to your followers? Engagement refers to interactions your followers have with your content and reflects how interested they are in your photos and videos. Here are some tried and tested strategies to have your followers coming back for more!
1. Know when to tell a story
We are fairly certain that you wouldn’t promote a product that isn’t good for your pawpal. However, you should consider that Instagram posts of pets with their products are a dime in a dozen. You can appeal to your followers by weaving a story into your posts.Tactical Reviews have their uses in explaining the products without too much fluff. Storytelling, on the other hand, comes into play when you would like to tug the heartstrings of your followers, or if you just want to talk about how it changed your day-to-day routines.
2. A peek behind the curtain
This rings especially true for curated pet profiles with a strong emphasis on feed aesthetics. Your audience will no doubt love your furry friend’s beautiful photos, but you will seem far from them if all they get to see is perfection.
Instagram Stories allows pet owners to show their pet’s candid and unglamorous moments, without disrupting their profile aesthetic. Your followers will be able to relate to these brief moments of authenticity better and come back to you more often.
3. Stickers = Conversations
Your Instagram Stories are also a good way to actively ‘converse’ with your followers, thanks to the many interactive stickers provided. These will encourage your followers to engage with you and feel connected to you.
Polls, Quizzes, and Emoji sliders give you a quick sense-make of what your followers think about products. As the results of these stickers are instantaneous, they immediately see how their involvement affects the results.
Questions readily seek input from your audience. Your followers are always excited to share their thoughts, and Question stickers give them that space without flooding your inbox.
4. Using the right hashtags
Hashtags help to make your post more visible in searches and reach more people as a result. Selecting the best hashtags can make the difference between appearing on the top of the search, or drowning beneath the hundreds of others. Use a mix of commonly trending hashtags with niche, targeted hashtags to drive your posts to the right audience.
A tactic that is not as frequently used is creating personal or branded hashtags. A simple and memorable hashtag makes conversations driven by you, or about you, easy to find. This works well on both Instagram and Twitter, which are both hashtag-focused. Remember to place the hashtags on your bio so that people who visit your profile will know what to look for and what to use!
5. Collaboration is key
Start a play date with other doggos or felines! When you hang out with more pawpals and make content together, you effectively share a fraction of each other’s audiences. This also means you will be visible to new and potential followers.
If your pet is feeling shy, you can run hashtag challenges and have other pawpals re-create the things you and your pet are doing. TikTok has dominated community collaborations this way to drive engagement and create more content than one can do on their own, so see what kind of collaborations work for your pets!
Check out our social media articles!
How to Improve Videos and Views on TikTok | Pawjourr Blog
Understanding Instagram’s Algorithm | Pawjourr Blog
Making (Sponsored) Videos | Pawjourr Blog
Cover photo created by freepik – www.freepik.com
* This blog is designed to be a community where pet owners can learn and share. The views expressed in each post are the opinion of the author and not necessarily endorsed by Pawjourr. Always consult your veterinarian for professional advice.
