Don’t fall into the ‘social media trap’ with your dog training or animal behaviour business
Love it or hate it, social media plays a part in most people’s lives these days.
Keeping in touch with friends 💬, swooning over gorgeous interiors 🏡, learning new skills 🎓and watching the latest funny viral video 🎞️ – social media can help to connect, inspire, educate and entertain us.
For small business owners, it also promises a marketing opportunity.
As a result, it’s become the norm for self employed dog trainers and animal behaviourists to actively try to grow their social media following. In fact, many dog trainers and behaviourists simply can’t imagine NOT using social media to market their businesses.
[N.B. For the purposes of this blog post, I’m talking about organic social media marketing, rather than paid ads, by the way].
But here’s the thing…
While social media can be a fantastic tool, I sometimes feel like I’m banging my head against a brick wall when I say that:
🪄 it’s not a magical solution or the ‘be-all and end-all’ for marketing your dog training or behaviour business
🤷♀️ just ‘posting stuff on social media’ is not a sound marketing strategy. [To be clear, there are a few social media strategies that I fully support but continually creating content in an attempt to simply increase your follower numbers is not one of them!]
Yes, social media CAN be an amazing way of building your business and there ARE some people who love marketing in this way. That’s great.
But they’re not the majority.
The reality is that most dog trainers and animal behaviourists don’t have huge success on social media, despite investing masses of effort into it week in, week out.
If this sounds like you, there are two things that I’d love you to know…
There is the (often unspoken) question of whether you actually need to use social media to market your business at all - trust me, it’s not the ‘essential’ that most believe it to be… I don’t even have a social media account for my work with dogs 🙌
If you DO want social media to feature in your business marketing toolkit, please – for the love of dogs – consider it to be a piece in a jigsaw puzzle: just ONE ASPECT of a much more comprehensive marketing strategy, to include both online and offline approaches 🧩
Here’s why…
The 3 big risks of over-relying on social media
Risk #1
Time and Effort vs. Return on Investment (ROI)
Let’s start with the time factor. You’re probably already aware of how much effort goes into maintaining an active social media presence. Between planning and actually creating the content, posting regularly, responding to comments, and keeping up with the latest trends, it can feel like a full-time job on its own.
But here’s the kicker: all that time and energy doesn’t always translate into paying clients 💸. Worse still, most dog trainers and behaviourists don’t even realise this because they’re not tracking where their clients come from.
Even if you’ve worked hard to build your audience of followers, the algorithms that dictate what people see on their feeds are constantly changing, making it hard to predict whether your latest post will reach hundreds of potential clients or get lost in the shuffle.
And have you seen the stats on the average lifespan (half life) of posts on some of the most popular social platforms?
Facebook = 76 minutes (source: Graffius, 2024)
Instagram = 19.75 hours (source: Graffius, 2024)
TikTok = just a few seconds, ‘instant decay except for viral content’ (source: Graffius, 2022)
Yep, it’s rather sobering reading, isn’t it? 😒
The harsh truth is that, in most cases, the return on investment (ROI) doesn’t always justify the effort, especially if it also feels like a chore rather than something that you enjoy doing.
Of course, you could pay to have your content seen by more people but, if you’ve ever tried running paid ads on social media, you know that costs can quickly add up. Sure, boosting a post might get you a few more likes or followers, but does it bring in actual business? Often the answer is no.
When you compare these costs (investment of time and/ or money) with other marketing strategies, like local Search Engine (SEO) or improving your website, the harsh truth is that the return on your efforts may well be better elsewhere.
For example, showing up in local search results when someone Googles "dog trainer near me" is likely to be far more effective at bringing in new clients (who are actively looking for what you have to offer!) than a social media post that only a fraction of your followers (who are not even necessarily in need of your services right now) will see.
Yes, as dull as it sounds, Search Engine Optimisation is your friend 🫶 In fact, it’s probably your bestie… without doubt, it’s a more loyal friend than TikTok/ Insta etc.
Risk #2
The Fragility of Social Media Platforms and Accounts
Ok, let’s keep going with the real-talk, shall we?
When you build your business on rented land (i.e. social media platforms vs. your website/ email list), you put yourself in a very precarious position.
We probably all know examples of people who have had their social media accounts hacked or suspended through no fault of their own. This sort of thing seems to be happening more and more often and, without wanting to sound dramatic, the risk of having access to your hard-won audience cut off at any moment is pretty dreadful.
Even if your account doesn’t meet such an untimely end, there’s still the elephant in the room: the gradual shift in consumer behaviour. You know that social media platform that you’ve worked so hard to master and build an audience on? It’ll almost inevitably fall out of favour at some point in the future.
So, if the thought of having to start all over again (with a new account or on a new platform) feels terrifying, you really need to secure your position and stop putting all - or most - of your eggs in one basket.
Risk #3
Opportunity Costs
Yes, it’s obvious but surprisingly often ignored: you only have a finite of time available to you for marketing your business. Therefore, time spent on social media is time NOT being spent elsewhere.
If you’re currently focusing most of your marketing efforts on social media without reaping the rewards you hoped for, I invite you to consider what other (and dare I say, easier!) marketing strategies you might be missing out on?
For example, how is your good old SEO looking? What about your local referral network? How hard is your website working to convert visitors into paying clients?
And… while we’re on that subject, don’t forget that, by focusing so hard on your social media presence, you could be missing out on connecting with an older demographic. There are plenty of potential clients who are more likely to search online or rely on word-of-mouth recommendations (rather than taking to social media) when looking for professional services. And, if you’re wondering who I mean by this ‘older demographic’, I’m in my mid 40s and would absolutely consider myself to be in that group!
Of course, spending time of social media marketing is absolutely fine if you’re making an active and strategic decision to focus on this… and are monitoring the impact of your efforts.
However, if you actually just spend hours faffing around on Canva to try to create the perfect graphic or doom-scroll yourself into a spiral of comparison-itis or imposter syndrome, I would suggest that it’s maybe not such a great (or healthy!) use of your precious time 🥰.
Whether you like to admit it or not, you can’t be on top of everything all the time – if you try then, before long, one of those spinning plates will drop… pick your plates carefully!
So, what’s the answer?
If you’ve been focusing your efforts on social media (or thinking that you probably should), here are two key takeaways for you:
Think broader
While organic social media can be a valuable marketing tool, it should only be one part of a bigger strategy, which encompasses both offline and online marketing methods. This way, you can build a more stable and resilient business.
👉 Not sure how else to get found online? My industry specific e-book ‘The Dog Trainer’s Guide to Getting Found Online’ has the answer.
👉 If you need more support than that, I’ve got you covered with my 2-week Mini Mentorship or why not invest in ‘Unleash Your Potential’ (my 1:1 business coaching programme, designed to help your business stand out and pay out without leaving you burned out)?
Think next steps
If you do want to use social media to market your business, you need to think beyond just gaining followers. Ask yourself: what comes next? How will your efforts translate into paying clients?
It’s generally best to direct social media followers to your email list (if you have one) and/or your website: not only is it a platform that you own but also which - if done well - will showcase your expertise, build trust and sell your services for you.
👉 Suspect that your website isn’t up to scratch? You might want to check out my website audit service, my industry-specific website templates or my online course ‘How to Write Your Website’).
👉 Want to see all of my website-related options? Just click here!
If you have a local dog training or animal behaviour business, I promise you, there’s so much more that you can do to move your business forward, than simply praying to the social media gods and wasting hours creating content that barely gets seen by anyone [sorry, not sorry!] 😬.
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