Social media can help your pet care business in various ways—it provides additional visibility, credibility, and resources for your business. Expanding your business’ social media presence will pay off in the long run, and show your customers that you’ve taken time to really invest in your business. Social media helps you get more traffic to your website by making people aware of your business and services provided. It also provides a way for customers to engage with your business and see photos of what you offer. Today we’ll cover social media marketing in the pet business, which platforms to use, and what type of content you should post depending on your profession.
Social Media Platforms
There are several different social media platforms that you can choose from as a pet professional—Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and TikTok, just to name a few. Each platform has its advantages and disadvantages, so you can decide which platform best suits your business and your audience.
We’re all familiar with Facebook, but Facebook isn’t just good for your personal account—there’s also an option to set up business pages. According to Facebook, creating a business page allows “the more than 2 billion people on Facebook to discover your business.” The greatest part about setting up your business page is that it’s free!
Creating a business account takes just a few minutes; you’ll need your business name and description, profile and cover photos, and a call to action. Not only does having a Facebook business page allow you to find more customers online, it gives you the opportunity to connect with your customers and post engaging content so that they come back to your business page wanting more.
Don’t be afraid to use Facebook ads. Facebook ads allow you to reach a broader audience and get more visibility for your business. Ads get more traffic to your business Facebook page by running campaigns and using the simple tools provided. Learn about which types of ads perform best on Facebook’s platforms.
Like Facebook, you can create an Instagram business account, which is a very beneficial digital marketing tool for pet businesses. Setting up your account is very easy—just provide a profile picture and make sure that you switch to a Professional Account and choose Business in the settings menu. After this, you’ll be able to add in relevant business information, like your email, business address, or phone number.
Instagram is the ideal platform if you’re looking to really engage with your customers. If you have several photos and videos to share, this is the place. You can post on your page a couple times a week, post stories daily if you’d like, create reels, do Instagram Live videos, and so much more.
The greatest perk about having an Instagram business account is that they provide analytics, also called Instagram Insights, on your account and your posts. This means you’ll be able to see who your main audience is, including their age, gender, and location. This will help you tailor your posts toward your audience.
You can also see your top-performing posts and when they were posted. For example, if you see that your most successful posts are pet grooming tutorial reels, you’ll want to make more of those for your feed. Or if you see that your posts with the most likes and engagement were posted on the weekend, you should plan more weekend posts.
An Instagram business account also allows you to take advantage of sponsored posts. This means that you can select the audience you’re trying to reach and how long you’d like your sponsored posts to run. For example, if you’re trying to reach females in the Atlanta, Georgia, area, and want the post to run for 5 days (Instagram’s recommended minimum amount of time), you can curate a post for just that. Take a look here to learn more about sponsored posts.
You may be familiar with LinkedIn if you already have a personal account, but they also provide business profiles. Linkedin is an intuitive platform that gives you the opportunity to share your business and services, explain the benefits of your business, and link to your website. Many users utilize Linkedin to share useful content to their audience and connect with fellow pet professionals. You never know what kind of advice or connections you’ll get unless you put your business out there.
Like the other platforms, LinkedIn shows you your follower demographics, trending content with your target audience, and other analytics that you can use to improve your social media presence on LinkedIn. Don’t be afraid to tag other pet care professionals in your posts, use hashtags, share stories, and post on your feed regularly.
Social Media Best Practices for Pet Businesses
Pet Groomers
There are several social media tips for pet grooming. For starters, people love before and after photos. You can take cute before and after posts of your furry friends and share them on whichever platform you’re using the most. If you’re feeling up to it, you can film snippets of how you get your clients looking so clean and well-groomed or provide your client’s tips for maintaining things at home between appointments. For more tips on social media marketing for pet groomers, check out this blog.
Pet Sitters and Dog Walkers
A common use of social media for pet sitters and dog walkers is posting photos and videos of the pets that are in your care. The best platforms for this would be Instagram and Facebook. Instagram is the most ideal platform for displaying images of your work. Make sure that you have permission from your customers before posting any content of their pets.
You can also establish yourself as a resource for your followers that have any questions about pets in general, or pet sitting and dog walking. You can share your tricks of the trade by creating a weekly post where you share tips—like how to keep a pet happy while their owner is away. Share your knowledge to increase your following. If you’d like more ideas, take a look at this helpful blog.
Dog Training
Dog training is not the easiest pet profession. However, you can get creative with how to display your dog training business on social media. One great thing to promote, is how easy it is to book an appointment with you! Be upfront with how easily this can be done and your pricing. Consider using the reels feature on Instagram to show appealing content on your page. You can share tips on how to get a puppy to sit, among other tricks. Social media for dog training can help your business and can help you showcase your work to get new customers.
Social Media Doesn’t Have to Be Hard
We hope the above information is helpful for your business in developing a social media plan and presence. Our best suggestions are to select which platform(s) would work best for your business and tailor your content based on your audience and what your business goals are. You should also consider strategizing your content and doing some more research, so that you can develop a social media plan that will be effective for your time and effort. Start your social media today to help your business thrive.
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