Posted by Marley
If I have learned anything from my time at Pulse, it is that pet posts on social media will never fail to garner clicks and likes. Need to sell something? Pet. Need a filler post? Pet. Want donations? Pet. Oh it’s a national pet day of some sort? Post about it. People are suckers for a good old fashioned pup, and if you’re dealing with an edgier crowd, kitties will certainly suffice. Some will even be persuaded by a cute enough mouse or guinea pig. I mean, just think about all of the people who want pets but can’t have them! Apartment livers, people with allergies, people with significant others who are allergic (that’s on them for picking wrong if you ask me). The upside is that these people are missing critical animal-based serotonin from their daily lives, and it is your job as a company to supply them with that. In the following paragraphs I will be addressing your concerns about pet posts, giving you amazingly inspired pet post ideas, and talking more about why pets on social media are so important these days.
I’m sure you’re thinking “but what about food based companies, they don’t want to be posting about animals!” Valid point my friend, I take that and offer for your consideration: Raising Canes. Raising Cane’s is a chicken based fast-food restaurant that is pretty popular in California, (there are multiple less than 20 minutes from Murrieta, where we are based) and also has a very limited menu of chicken tenders and chicken sandwiches. The restaurant is named and based off of the owner’s dog Cane, and as marketing professionals, we certainly know that ALL of their success is based off of their dog theme. Consider this, we are talking about more than just social media here, their entire BRAND is built off of this sweet dog! Their name, their decorations, their advertisements, and even some of their merchandise has her sweet furry face plastered all over them (she is a golden retriever in case you were wondering). If you don’t want your entire brand to revolve around your dog, I understand! Not everyone can pull off that amazing feat. I simply wanted to offer Cane’s as an example of how your pet can help you go far when it comes to marketing. I completely understand why a food-based company may not want their brand super closely tied to animals, however I think we underestimate how much people engage with their pets on a daily basis. Some people set places at the dinner table for their beloved dog or cat!
In all seriousness, if you are ever at a loss as to what to post to boost engagement or fill in a blank day of the month in your social calendar, throw someone’s dog in there and relate the caption to your company. Don’t doubt me! Here are a few that we have personally done: #WoofWednesday, #NationalDogMomDay, #NationalBringYourDogToWorkDay, and #NationalWalkYourDogMonth, just to name a few. These posts always get liked, shared, and commented on (according to NewsWhip, brands saw up to 295% more comments on content on pets) especially by the owner of the pet and their friends and followers. Pets have actually been shown to improve all around social media engagement rates, which according to Nichefire, can rise up to 63% higher than those for the average business post. Got you with those statistics huh? Now, you may be thinking, “But I don’t have a pet!” Do not fret. Someone has a pet. One of your team members, the delivery guy, your mom maybe? If you work with millennials in any capacity, it is likely that one of them is impersonating their dog on social media with a username like: @mr.pickles.the.pug so just look through their followers if you are having trouble. Point being, you don’t have to post your pet and only your pet! Post anyone’s pet! Better yet, post everyone’s pet!
Of course, you know that Pulse is about more than just clicks and likes, and I am here to tell you that your furry friends, and really just animals in general are one of the most heartfelt things that you can post on social media. I mean think about it, when listening to or reading a story, how often do you perk up when a dog is mentioned vs. another human character? Exactly! Pets are one of the closest things to our hearts! To see a brand using dogs to push their product rather than the older tricks in the book like girls in bikinis selling burgers is like a breath of fresh air in the marketing world. There is an old wives tale that says that dogs and babies are the best judges of character, so if you post about the two enough, people will begin to subconsciously associate your brand positively because of how surrounded you are by positively coded things! Also, everyone will just think that you are so cool. Posting dogs on marketing accounts is not as cheesy as the millennial dog impersonation (sorry at all who practice). It’s pretty comparable to user generated content, which has become popular in recent years, and it screams “Humans with pets and lives run this account! Not scary artificial intelligence robots!!” Basically, there is a huge sum of reasons why you should be posting dogs on social media.
Okay fine. You got me. I just want to see your dogs and cats! But what’s so wrong with that? I want to see more pets on social media so badly that I wrote an entire blog article about why posting pets on social media is the best marketing strategy of the 21st century. Some may call that desperate but I call it smart. So post your pets ok? Seriously. If not for you then for me. I may just want to see your pets, but I also genuinely believe that pet posts are an awesome way to humanize and diversify your social media feed and brand, increase engagement, and increase weekly posting rate if you are finding blank spots in your social calendar!