5 social media tips for business-savvy breeders

1. Think like your audience

To find out which social media networks you should be focussing your attention on, find out which platforms potential owners view most. According to Google statistics, classic breeds such as Persians and Border Collies generally appeal to an older audience who are mainly present on Facebook. On the other hand, toy breeds tend to have a young female audience, who often favour Instagram or Tumblr.

By assessing your audience's presence in this way, you can concentrate your efforts on only one or two networks and ensure the type of content you post matches their interests and lifestyles.

2. Stand out

Before you start using social media to market your breeding business, take a few days to visit social media profiles of similar breeders or even pet-related blogs or websites. See what they're doing, how many people are liking it and otherwise commenting on it - in other words, what does and doesn't work for them.

Once you've got a good list of what seems to work with their audience (which should, in theory, be similar to yours), try to determine which aspect of social media seems to have the best results for marketing your own business. If your target audience likes pictures of litters, read up on the best tips for photographing pets. If they like tweets about medical conditions specific to your breed, find more information and share it in different ways: with pictures on Instagram, in text form on a blog, or via an informative video.

Don't just copy what others do, but make it better by consistently ensuring that you post content that is informative, entertaining and adds value to your audience.

3. Follow others

You can grow your presence on any social media platform by increasing your followers. But here's the trick: if you want to boost your own numbers, you'll first have to follow like-minded people.

By commenting on other breeders and fanciers' photos and videos, visiting their blogs and taking part in their Facebook groups, you'll also be reaching out to all those who follow them. If you can add value while doing so - for example, with some appropriate advice or an adorable photo of your own litter - you're sure to gain their followers' trust along with their likes. It might not triple your following overnight, but you'll slowly be growing an audience that is genuinely interested in your breed.

4. Be consistent

The ideal frequency of posts depends on the platform. For example, for Twitter, posting up to five times a day is the norm; while you should only update your Facebook page once or twice a day at most. Instagram is less 'noisy' than either of these networks, so you can post pictures on it just a few times a week without any problem.

You'll also need to vary your content to ensure that your followers don't lose interest - if a certain type of picture received a lot of likes, don't just post similar images. Instead, intersperse visual content with blog posts, relatable stories and videos to ensure potential owners get the best overall impression of your breeding business.

You could set a content-posting schedule on your smartphone calendar. After two weeks of regular posting, stop to take stock and see how successful these timings were. Frequent assessment is useful for checking what is and isn't working, and can help you to adapt how often and what kinds of content you post.

5. Keep the conversation going

Keep in mind that social media isn't only a way to post content, but is also a platform where you can keep communicating with potential owners in real-time - and where they can speak to you, too.

With this in mind, make sure you respond to comments on your page promptly and, where possible, try to direct commenters to useful resources and information to keep adding value to their social media experience with you. If any of your followers ever post something negative, show your online audience that you're willing to engage with them in a professional manner by encouraging them

to contact you via phone or email. In this way you'll demonstrate that you have your followers' best interests at heart, while also moving any potential issues away from the public forum.