What NOT to do on Social Media as a Local Pet Sitter

By Rachel Doran, Tell Your Tails | November 2022

Hard to keep track of what to do on social media? What about what NOT to do? We’ve rounded up some social-media no-nos, and we’re sharing the love. Whether you’ve seen these done… or have done them yourself, we’re giving you advice on what to do instead to keep your social-media account professional, approachable, and a vital part of your marketing strategy.

What NOT to do on Social Media

There are many social-media experts and coaches out there with advice on what to do on social media. While there’s a lot of work that goes into it, we thought it helpful to also think about the things to avoid or not do when you’re posting or interacting on social media. Here are our biggest pieces of advice!

Put all your Eggs in One Basket

There are multiple social-media platforms out there. While we absolutely don’t think you need to be on all of them (in fact, we highly recommend against that), we do think it important to diversify where you’re marketing online. Social-media culture is changing almost daily. If you’re putting all of your effort into say, Instagram, you may be missing out on a valuable audience on another platform. Instead, pick a couple social-media platforms to focus on. When selecting your platforms, make sure to consider your ideal customer and where they hang out online.

Post Without a Calendar or Strategy

We are firm believers in the idea that every social-media post should have a purpose or goal. If you just throw a picture up without a second of thought, how do you know what you’re trying to achieve? What analytics should you be paying attention to to know whether or not that post was ‘successful’? Without goals or strategy, you’re just throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping something sticks.

Your social-media strategy doesn’t need to be incredibly intense or robust. But it should consider things like: the topics you regularly post about, how often you’re posting, including your branding in content, and planning around holidays, promotions, or sales.

If you need help developing a social-media calendar, give this blog post a read.

Not Respond to Comments or Messages

This one is a big one. After all, social media is meant to be social. Don’t just slap up a post and forget about it. Make sure that you’re regularly checking your account for comments or direct messages that you can respond to. If someone has a question, you want to make sure that you’re present to address it. And even if someone is just complimenting your post, a response from you helps to build up meaningful relationships in your community - something that is so valuable for a local business like yours!

Not Participate in your Community

Speaking of community, as a local pet business, your town and the businesses within it are always important to consider. Social media is a great place to get to know other businesses and other business owners. It’s also a great place to collaborate and promote one another. Keep an eye out for other businesses promoting your pet-sitting business. To build a good relationship, you can find a way to return the favor by promoting them on social media as well or by coming up with something creative. With local businesses like yours, the name of the game is to support likeminded businesses and build a strong network that you can rely on. Make sure that you’re giving and providing value to others… not just taking, taking, taking!

Tag Other Businesses for No Reason

Think of this as a social-media faux pas. If you haven’t seen this in action, here’s a rundown. On most social-media platforms, you can tag other accounts. Unfortunately, some people and businesses have started a practice of tagging multiple other accounts for no apparent reason. The premise is they tag the accounts to draw eyes on their content. But in our eyes, the practice is scammy. Make sure that if you’re tagging another account, they know why you’re tagging them. Maybe you’re mentioning their awesome product in a post, or you’re shouting out their dog friendly restaurant. Don’t just tag for the sake of tagging. Only tag accounts or businesses that are related to your post.

What TO DO on Social Media

Social media is a very important marketing tool in today’s world, so it’s no surprise that it’s talked about a lot in PSI’s resources. Be sure to check out some past PSI blog posts to get the inside scoop on managing and using social media to its full potential. The truth is, there’s no easy hack to master social media. It takes work and consistency.

My biggest piece of advice? Look at your mindset! If you’re approaching social media as just a tool to achieve a specific goal or a checkbox to check off on your checklist each week, you might be thinking about it all wrong. Social media is so much more than that. It’s essentially its own world. Make sure that when you post, interact, and consume content on social media, you’re doing it in a thoughtful way. You’re interacting with people, after all, so be kind and respectful. Instead of treating social media like it’s something to check off a checklist, ask yourself, “how can I participate in this online world today?” “how can I provide value?” “how can I make connections?” These are the important questions to ask! And if you get in a regular routine of asking them, you’ll build a stronger and better mindset around using social media for your pet-sitting business.