Thread by @thetimes

Ben Rowell was challenged by the Times Magazine to make Dublin – a basic brown cockapoo who nevertheless won “Cutest Puppy” in his local dog show in 2017 – famous in six weeks

Could he actually pull it off? thetimes.co.uk/article/move-o…

From research, Rowell concluded that they simply needed designer jumpers, a hat and some accessories. He explained his mission to the local dog grooming store

“…So anything, really, appropriate to an Insta dog,” he told the owner

The response was not sympathetic

For help, then, he turned to Loni Edwards – a Harvard-trained lawyer and CEO of The Dog Agency: “the world’s first – and, really, only major – management company for social media celebrity animal clients”

She represents nearly all America’s top dogs

To begin with, she recommends the basics: select your pet’s best feature (“for example, their ears”); choose their USP (exactly the same as, but different from, other accounts); train them; humanise them; add another one

From here, the posting begins. But it’s not just posting: it’s posing, lighting, retakes, hashtagging, captioning, Instagram Stories…

“It’s a ton of work,” Edwards notes, adding that even “two hours a night” spent responding to followers may be lowball

Alas, despite his best efforts, Rowell struggles. Even switching to a professional account and spending £42 on promotions returns slightly fewer than 42 followers – getting them up to 90-odd 

Dublin is never going to be #famous

It’s all much harder than it looks

So who are the top dogs in the pet influencer world?

Doug the Pug

3.9 million followers, Instagram

A New York Times bestselling ‘author’ and Hollywood’s favourite pug, Doug is the alpha of famous pets, making cameos in music videos by Katy Perry & Fall Out Boy, to name a few

Esther The Wonder Pig

1.5 million, Facebook; 606,000, Instagram

Esther isn’t the first ‘micro’ piglet that didn’t turn out to be so micro. But her owners have made it work – Esther now receives coats, bonnets and evening gowns from fans around the world to model

Nala cat

4.3 million, Instagram; 225,000, TikTok

A California student started Nala’s Instagram as a way to share pictures of her rescued Siamese-tabby kitten with family and friends back home

Nala now holds the Guinness World Record for being the most followed cat on Instagram

Venus the Two-Face Cat

2.3 million, TikTok; 2 million, Instagram; 1.4 million, Facebook

“Why fit in when you were born to stand out?” reads the bio of the cat who found fame thanks to her unusual appearance

Scientists believe she’s the result of two embryos merging in the womb

Tika the Iggy

1.6 million, TikTok; 1.1 million, Instagram

“An actual bad b***h,” according to the singer Lizzo. The Italian greyhound from Montreal became a petfluencer by posing on social media wearing street-style dog outfits

So what does it really take to make a pet famous online? Read on to find out:
thetimes.co.uk/article/move-o…