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By Beth Stultz-Hairston, PSI Vice-President, Marketing and Operations

The Nextdoor app describes itself as a “free private social network for your neighborhood," and in the last few years, community members in countries such as the United States, Australia and France have used the app to notify their neighbors of virtually everything—from a suspicious vehicle in the area to their favorite local service providers, including pet sitters and dog walkers.

For pet-sitting and dog-walking businesses looking to take advantage of promotional opportunities available through Nextdoor, there are some limitations you should be aware of. According to Nextdoor’s online Help Center, the company says it encourages neighbors to share information about their favorite businesses and says it is also working on ways for local businesses to participate—but currently, there are limitations.

What you can do

For now, Nextdoor recommends that local businesses claim their page in their local Nextdoor community by visiting nextdoor.com/create-business. In addition to setting up your business page, Nextdoor advises that you can also add your business affiliation to the biography section of your personal Nextdoor profile.

In addition to creating or claiming your business listing and mentioning your business in your personal profile, you are allowed to respond to requests for recommendations for services. So, for example, if someone in your Nextdoor community posts looking for a pet sitter or dog walker, you can respond by offering your services. The Nextdoor help center indicates that you do need to be sure that you are upfront that it is you providing the service, so you wouldn’t say “Oh, you’ll love ABC Pet Sitting. They are the best!” without also sharing that you are the owner of the business. Of course, the ideal situation would be if your clients recommended you when these types of posts are made, but it is good to keep in mind that you can promote your business, as long as you are transparent that it is your business.

According to Nexdoor, you can also post about job opportunities with your company, which could be an effective way to target potential staff sitters in your community.

What you can’t do

While you can share job opening or respond to posts, it is against Nexdoor’s policies for you to make an unsolicited post about your business or to announce commercial events in the newsfeed. Nextdoor does offer an Events Calendar where certain events can be listed.

Nextdoor also prohibits the posting of false information—or negative comments—about competitors in your industry.

Another thing to keep in mind if you want to promote your services on Nextdoor is that businesses like yours are allowed to respond to posts seeking recommendations for pet care, but so are individuals. So, if you do respond to a request for a pet-care recommendation on Nextdoor, you’ll likely find that teenagers, college students and other hobbyists may also be responding or be recommended on those posts too. Because of Nextdoor’s policy on not posting negative comments regarding competitors, it’s unclear as to how much leeway you may have in regard to responding to educate local pet owners on the differences between hobbyists and professionals.

Marketing that works without you

Joining your local Nextdoor community and following the guidelines explained above could offer a new free marketing avenue for your business—but you may also find that Nextdoor brings you business without you even joining. Many PSI pet sitters have reported being contacted by prospective clients who indicate they heard about the business on Nextdoor, even though these pet sitters don’t use the app. In many cases, your clients—or even other local business professionals—may have responded to posts for recommendations on Nextdoor and shared your company’s information!

What PSI members have to say

We recently asked members in PSI’s private Facebook group, Professional Pet Sitters Chat, about their experiences with Nextdoor. Here are a few of the comments we received:

“I stay clear of Nextdoor. My experience has been that most people aren’t actually interested in a professional pet-care service but instead are wanting someone who watches pets on the side or as a hobby (for cheap). That’s been my experience in my local area, but I know some sitters who love it. That being said, I always ask potential clients how they heard about us and some do say Nextdoor and/or a Facebook local community group and we don’t self-promote on either of those.” —Cynthia J., Lebanon, Ohio

“I am on Nextdoor and have gotten many wonderful clients there. I have a business page but I also respond to posts where people are searching for a pet sitter or dog walker. I do have many recommendations from clients on my page there. The app is very heavily used by people in my area. It is the go-to referral site.” —Gail B., Lakewood Ranch, Florida

“Nextdoor referrals are awesome. I’m getting floods of new calls saying “I saw your name on Nextdoor and you come highly recommended!” I don’t work much around home and these calls are coming from my target area. I’m loving it!” —Roxanne L., Torrance, California

“I’ve found Nextdoor to be full of people looking for extra money or college/grade/high school students looking to make extra money. I rarely post any longer and from the referrals I have received in the past year, I’ve only gotten on regular client.” —Erin B., Little Elm, Texas

“I am on Nextdoor and have actually gotten many clients from there! The key for me—after I posted my business and made sure off of my information was there—was getting my clients to do the “recommended” function of Nextdoor so that my business will come up close to the top when people search for pet sitting and they can see how many recommendations I’ve received. Do I get every potential client? No—but those that I have signed up have been great!” —Pam J., Tomball, Texas