Instagram – How to surround yourself with cute AND gain tons of followers!

Hello fine furry friends (well, their humans, if we’re being precise)!  Let’s take a moment to discuss the beauty and splendor that is Instagram and why you should seriously consider taking the time to creating or updating and maintaining an account.

First things first, gaaaaaaaaaaaaah, everything is cute!!  If you’re like me, when you’re having a bad day, you go online to find pictures of cute things in an attempt to avoid crying and rocking in the shower.  Imagine, a world, where EVERYTHING IS CUTE!  That, my friends, is Instagram!  I’m generalizing of course.  It’s all about who you follow.  It just so happens that all of the accounts I follow are of cute animals (mostly dogs) and companies that cater to said cute animals.  As a result, my feed is entirely comprised of photos of those animals. 

 So, now that you’re convinced to be a part of Instagram, because cute overloads are your lifeblood.  What’s the benefit from a personal and professional standpoint?

  
Networking and notoriety is the main reason, in my opinion.  If you are a blogger, or involved with the pet industry in some capacity, it’s easy to begin identifying topics and themes that fellow pet owners are contending with.  It’s like your own personal focus group to be used at your leisure.  What products are people raving about?  What questions keep coming up?  What causes continue to be referenced?  These trends can be pinpointed by scrolling through the photos and observing peoples’ posts.

Additionally, it’s a wonderful mechanism for establishing meaningful relationships with fellow pet owners.  Commenting on like posts or subjects puts you into other folks radar.  Being sure to reply when individuals make a note on your own posts helps for those account owners to want to follow you, interact with you, and visit your other social media platforms.  You can almost use Instagram is a visual “call to action” that invites followers to visit your other sites for further information and support.

  
Notoriety comes from a few things, but it likely will not take place overnight (which is fine, in my opinion because you get to see pictures of cute critters in the meantime).  Conscientious and intentional use of hashtags and tagging accounts is a great and important way to get noticed!  There are sites that actually show you popular or common hashtags that you can be using.  I typically benchmark by looking at accounts that have a high follow base and emulate the hashtags that they tend to be using.

If you’re referencing a specific product or fellow Instagram account, be sure to tag those accounts.  It’s very common for those companies or other users to feature your photo, thus resulting in additional followers.  If you are an account that has coupon codes or sponsorship opportunities with companies, you can list those codes and sources in your photo description which can result in additional traffic to either your website, blog, or the organizations where you coupon code should be used ($)!

  
I’d be happy to post about how to take photos for Instagram, but I didn’t want to be too lengthy in this post.  Let me know if this is something you’d like and what questions you may have that I didn’t answer and I’ll be sure to touch base!

Yours in puppy photos and hashtag hilarity!  I hope you visit me on instagram!  We can be found here: @beanparty.yodabash.

Bean looking badass as she lounges on the bed!

BlogPaws or Bust

We’re about to hit the open road for the upcoming BlogPaws conference, which is being held in Nashville, Tennessee this year!  We were honored to have been selected as their grand prize winner in November (scroll down for the winning photo)!  The prize includes airfare, lodging, and conference participation and I cannot even begin to share how honored we are to have been chosen for what, I’m sure, will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience!

I work as an Admissions Counselor for a community college and I’m a fledgling photographer/blogger on the side.  To have an opportunity to learn about effective blogging techniques that may result in potential revenue is an incredibly exciting prospect.  While, I’d probably stay in my current position at the College and donate earnings to our local shelter, it’s still going to be wonderful to learn more about the ways I can ensure I can earn more for donation purposes!

Now that the excitement of having won has subsided, I’m trying to wrap my brain around the logistics of travel with Bean.  She’s phenomenal in long car rides, but has never been on a plane before.  I’m hopeful she doesn’t feel too cramped, and I’m also worried that the airline (Delta) will give me push-back regarding her carrier size, even though I’ve given the dimensions over the phone.

I am assuming that there must be a place for her to be able to relieve herself while at the airport, after we’ve gone through security or when at our layover, but I have no idea what the logistics of this piece will be.  Additionally, I’m concerned that my luggage will be lost which also means her food supply will be nonexistent upon our arrival.  To quell this fear, I’ll likely divide the food between both my and my husband’s luggage so that all will not be lost.

What am I missing?  How else should I prepare?  Any input is much appreciated!

Yours in nervous travel, Bryn & Bean!  If you‘d like to learn more about the BlogPaws itinerary, take a look here.

The Great Green World

With the birds chirping (to be read as, pooping on my car), the flowers blooming, and the sun shining, it’s only natural to begin thinking about outdoor adventures that we can have with the pup.  Considering her small stature and brachycephalic nose, long treks can be taxing on her.  She is prone to the possibility of heat stroke, so we have been very mindful of temperature and exertion.

It’s in this light, that we purchased a fancy backpack for Bean last year called the “MuttMover.”  It’s from Timbuk2 and it is fantastic for longer hikes that we might not have taken beforehand in light of Bean’s limitations.  It is well designed and comfortable for Bean.  There’s a way to connect to her harness so that she’s anchored to the pouch.  There are varying height options for head openings.  It’s sturdy and has pouches for water, poop bags, snacks, etc.

If you have a pup that is up to 20 pounds, this may be a great addition for your household as well.

Please note, I did not receive this product as a gift nor have I been asked to endorse this product by any company.  I have no affiliation with the above listed corporation, other than my purchase of the aforementioned product.

Adoption Hurdles: Are we helping or Hurting?

The handsome hubby and I have been talking for quite some time about adding an additional pup to our family.  Bean hails from a fantastic breeder in New Hampshire, and we absolutely love the Boston Terrier breed so we had discussed going through the same channel this time around.  If you follow us on Instagram (@beanparty) you’ll notice that our primary platform is contributing as much as we can to local shelters and other rescue groups.  It was in this light that we decided to practice what we preach and seek an adoptable pup.  I was aware there would be fees and other steps to the process, but I didn’t quite anticipate the degree of hurdles that we’d encounter.

Here’s an idea of what transpired:  Humans inspect the world wide web for potential adoptable pups, over and over and over.  Humans find a pup that seems to be a great fit for their family (hurrah)!  Humans submit a completed and detailed application which, incidentally, asked a ton of questions, many of which were repetitive.  Humans wait for an acknowledgement of application, which is where the invention of smart phones can be dangerous.  We checked waiting in line in the grocery store, at a red light (don’t tell my mom), in a staff meeting, in the john (don’t judge, you do it too.  Flaaaarp).  Humans receive confirmation email telling us to wait for a call.  We wait.  We do some more waiting.  We check to make sure our cell phone is receiving calls.  We get a call!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We’re preliminary vetted and are informed that the following will need to occur: An employment verification call to my supervisor; three reference checks (no family members though, because that would just be silly, they don’t know us at all); a veterinarian check; a home inspection; verification of said home inspection; a completed contract; a meet and greet with Bean and then, only then, the pup will be a family member!

Did I mention that, through all of this, other families may be going through the same steps for the same dog?  I haven’t yet, but that’s super important for our story.

Following a successful home inspection, we received a congratulatory email with an attached contract.  I elected to submit the contract the following morning.  It was at that time, when the hubby and I thought the difficult part of the process was behind us and the following parts were a mere formality, that we were informed that the dog we were seeking had already been adopted to a different family.  They had had their home inspection a couple hours before us.  WHAT?!

So, now, downtrodden and discouraged we look at the possibility of beginning the process again for a different animal rescue, who will ask the same types of questions and have similar demands, even though we’ve just lived the experience elsewhere.

It’s in this light, that I had to think about the process and wonder if it’s helping or hurting?  I could waltz into a pet store, slap a credit card on a counter, and bring home a slobbery wiggly fluffy puppy tomorrow with nary a check other than to confirm that my credit card was approved.  That’s it.  I would be the proud owner of a pup that likely came from deplorable conditions, in the form of a puppy mill, but it would be mine.  The same is true for reaching out to a breeder.  There were a few additional forms to fill out when we went that route with Bean, but nothing nearly as extensive as the adoption process.

Shouldn’t the fact that we currently own, and love, and dote on, and give an amazing life to a 6 year old dog that has been with us since puppy hood hold some clout in the process?  Shouldn’t that be sufficient for us to at least be expedited through some of the steps?

I know, some of what I’m typing is simply because I’m still stinging from the sadness of loosing that particular pup.  I can’t help to wonder though if this has been talked about within rescue organizations.  I’m sadly positive that some great families that would have elected to adopt a dog have gone the other routes listed previously due to the daunting nature of the process as a whole or a similar circumstance as what we had encountered.

We will still seek adoption.  We’ll find the right other family member.  We’ll keep you posted along the way.  In the meantime, we’ll continue to spoil Bean in every way we can!

Bean’s Bodacious Bounce to Blogging

We’re heeeeeeeeeeeere world wide web!  Get ready for some fun!  The pup (Quincy Bean, normally called Bean) and I are ready to share fun photos, contests, adventures and connect with others both human and animal!

A little about us.  I, the human that happens to have thumbs and therefore will be doing the typing, have a full time job at a community college.  In my “free” time, I craft like it’s going out of style (which sometimes does occur, remember macrame?), cook, read and take photos…lots and lots of photos!  One goal, which is getting closer to reality is a Pet Photography Business.  Let me know if you’d be willing for me to come over and take some practice shots to add to my portfolio.

On to Quincy – AKA The Bean, Beaner, Beanie (sense a theme?), Kraken and The Creature.  She’s a silly petite brown Boston Terrier who kisses on the lips at the first meeting and farts on your face, really at any meeting.  She’s loving, lively and doesn’t really know she’s little.  She’s the reason I’m here!  Her photos have resulted in us winning an astonishing number of contests in the past year.  As a result, we’ve been able to donate close to $3000 worth of goods and monetary contributions to our local animal shelter.

So, be on the lookout for postings and other fun.  This is the first foray into blogging, so there will likely be a learning curve from a technological standpoint and a need to determine how many posts are realistic on a weekly basis.