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Contributed article | August 1, 2021

Chances are, you’ve heard of Instagram. This super popular social media platform has grown consistently since its start in 2010. Its popularity and growing user-base has caused many businesses to choose Instagram as an effective marketing channel for their business.

Whether you’re new to the app or have used it for years, this guide will help you understand how to use Instagram to promote your pet-care business.

About Instagram

In 2020, Instagram reached a huge milestone of 1 billion users and it only continues to climb. While Instagram originally started as a fairly simple photo-sharing social media app, over the years, it has added on more and more features. Video features, for example, continue to be pushed out and in 2021, Instagram even announced that they would be moving away from their photo-sharing setup and would be pursuing a more video-centric setup.

Needless to say, if you’ve been wanting to harness the power of Instagram for your pet-sitting business, you’re in the right place. Instagram is an incredibly powerful marketing tool, but it can often be hard to feel like you’re gaining momentum.

Keep reading to learn more about Instagram’s main features and how you can use them to your advantage.

How Pet Sitters Can Use Instagram to Promote Their Business

Instagram is a great social media platform for businesses. With so many features, millions of users, and its highly visual nature, when used strategically, Instagram can really do wonders to promote your business.

And the pet-sitting industry is no exception! Here are the most important things you need to know about using Instagram to promote your pet-care business.

Develop A Content Strategy

As with all marketing, it’s important to come up with a gameplan first and foremost. Just like you might consider the point of the email you send out or the promotional flyer you’re designing, you want to have a crystal-clear content strategy in place for your social media channels.

When developing a content strategy for your Instagram account, you want to consider things like when you post, how often you post, what kind of content you post (also thinking about whether you’re posting pictures, videos, graphics, etc.), the goal for each post, and how a post relates to your business and branding.

This is certainly a lot to consider, and that’s why we highly suggest planning posts out ahead of time instead of coming up with an idea and posting the day of. Everyone works differently, so you’ll want to find a groove that truly works for you and your business.

But the important thing is that you’re clear with yourself and other team members (if applicable) on what your Instagram strategy is. Because if you’re all over the place with your content, your audience won’t be able to fully connect with your brand.

Use Instagram’s Features

Instagram has so many amazing features, it can often be overwhelming. Where do you start? Do you have to learn how to do a new thing? On top of that, they’re always releasing new features or updating old ones to truly make the most out of the app.

It can be helpful to remind yourself that Instagram itself is a business. It needs to make money in order to continue to exist. Instagram makes money in a variety of ways, but a key point to consider is that they need to have users (and lots of them) in order to reach their goals.

Instagram needs to make sure that users are really enjoying their app and spending a lot of time on it. To keep people on the app, that means, we all need to be creating really interesting, engaging, and binge-worthy content.

The Instagram algorithm is a buzzy marketing term you’ve probably heard before. No one truly knows how the algorithm works, but it can be helpful to think about Instagram’s goal for itself. This means, to really be favored by the Instagram algorithm, you need to create content that keeps people interested and engaged.

Using Instagram Hashtags and Geotags

As a local pet-care business, you don’t want to waste your time promoting your business to someone located halfway across the world. That’s where Instagram’s hashtags and geotags come in.

Want to learn more about how hashtags and geotags can be used to reach people located within your community? Be sure to check out this previous PSI blog post!

Create Video Content for Your Pet-Sitting Business

Video is on the rise! Social media users have a lot to digest when they open up their social media apps. Video content is a great way to deliver content in an easy-to-digest format.

If the idea of posting videos is daunting to you, don’t worry, you’re not alone. Thanks to Andrea Fischetti of ReelPaws Productions, we’ve compiled some video tips that will help you manage your video content strategy like a pro!

Using Instagram Reels for Your Pet-Care Business

Instagram Reels were introduced in 2019 and were an almost immediate hit. These bite-size, viral-friendly videos are easy for social media users to binge-watch (watch a lot of at any one sitting).

You can pair your short video with music or audio and even add cool effects or text to further drive home your point.

Wanting to add video content into your Instagram content strategy? Don’t sleep on Reels!

Using Instagram Stories for Your Pet-Care Business

Instagram Stories are the perfect place to show behind-the-scenes or more in-the-moment content. These quick videos or photos expire after 24 hours on the app, so they become the place to go to see what a business is up to at any given moment.

For pet sitters, Instagram Stories are a great place to showcase a day’s visits or walks. Make sure to let your clients know to check out your Instagram Stories for behind-the-scenes snippets of their pets! (As always, make sure you have your clients’ permission before posting their pets on any social-media app!)

Build a Community

Engaging with your community is a HUGE part of social media. After all, it’s called social media for a reason.

To really get the most out of the app, make sure that you’re also actively engaging with potential customers and partners regularly. This means commenting on their posts, sending messages, liking things, and overall, just being supportive, friendly, and communicative!

Engaging with your audience regularly ensures that you build real connections with your customers, helping you to stand out from the pack. Building real connections puts you top of mind when people are considering pet-care or recommending pet-care options to others. People remember people. And nowadays, people buy from people.

Respond to Instagram Comments and DMs

This may seem like a no-brainer, but this small task often gets forgotten. Make sure that you’re responding to every single comment or message that you get on Instagram. Even a simple ‘thank you’ or ‘thanks for the love’ goes a long way to show people that you appreciate them. (Plus, the Instagram algorithm loves seeing active conversations going on!)

Go Out and Engage With Others

But don’t just stop there. You also want to make sure that you’re exploring the app and engaging with others. You can use hashtags to find people that are located in your city or town. Check out their profile, comment on their pictures or videos, and start conversations.

Remember to be authentic when engaging with others. No one likes spammy businesses promoting themselves! The purpose of this activity is to build real connections, not to blatantly promote your business.

Ready To Use Instagram for Your Pet-Sitting Business?

Don’t forget to save this blog post so that you can come back to it later! Have some Instagram tips of your own? Share them with us below!