Social Petworking: Social Networks Aren’t Just for Humans!

It’s no secret that we Americans have a love affair with our pets.  Relationships with our furry friends have contributed to a steady growth in spending on pet-related products and services.  According to the American Pet Products Association, spending on animals, food, supplies, veterinary care, grooming, boarding and pet sitting increased 5.4% to $45.5 billion in 2009 for Americans.  Another 5% increase is expected in 2010.

Naturally, the growth and popularity of pet ownership has led to the rapid growth of social networking sites aimed at allowing consumers to show off, talk and share information about their pets.  (Some even focus on social networking from Fido’s perspective.)

Let’s take a look at some of the more popular pet social networking sites out there:

MyDogSpace & MyCatSpace
Think MySpace, but for pets.  MyDogSpace and MyCatSpace are an online community just for dogs and cats, offering photo uploads, animal info, forums, Pet Tails, blogs, groups, business listing and reviews and more.

Dogster & Catster
Since launching in January 2004, Dogster (and its sister site Catster launched in August, 2004) have become the fastest growing pet destination on the internet and are now a top-five overall pet destination. Now serving over 4 million photos for over 600,000 uploaded pets by 750,000 members, Dogster and Catster serve more than 22 million pages a month to over three quarters of a million visitors

Petzume.com
“The online community dedicated to pet lovers and their friends,” Petzume is more of a photo and video sharing site. This online community caters to all types of pets from cats and dogs to rabbits and guinea pigs with albums, blogs, groups and videos.

Petizens.com
Founded by 2 pet lovers in 2007, Petizens is a social networking site for pets and their owners.  Create your own pet page for any type of pet.  Also offers forum info, knowledge, fun & games and contest.

Petcrash.com
Petcrash is a social site for pet lovers offering networking with per loving friends and contacts, groups and clubs, classifieds, pet eCards, chat, picture and video uploads, blogs, local search for other pet lovers in your area, pet events diary and more.

Petbrags.com
“Where All Pets Deserve a Web Page,” Petbrags is an online community for pets that offers photo and video uploads, pet pages, chat classifieds, fun, groups and a 911 pet tips and loss section.

Consumers, however, are not the only segments flocking to the pet social scene.  Pet-related product and services companies are also seeing opportunities to attract customers through social media marketing.

• HBH Pet Products started offering consumers incentives to increase their social media popularity upon the launch of their Facebook and Twitter pages.  These incentives included an online contest where dog owners could upload a picture of their dog with HBH treats in exchange for the opportunity to win Wal-Mart gift cards and HBH gift baskets.  Additionally, the first 200 people who followed the company on Twitter received a free dog training clicker or whistle and other product combos.
• Del Monte Foods embraced social media to aid in product development.  The company created an online community of 300 dog owners and posed a few basic questions that ultimately helped to create a brand new dog treat that met with great success.  The key, here, is that Del Monte actually listened to their consumers’ responses to the questions posed.  When the company saw a trend in consumers saying that their dog would “definitely eat bacon and eggs, with ketchup on the eggs,” the company responded with Breakfast Snausages Bites.

To learn how Web Ad.vantage can guide your company in niche online marketing through social media and other online initiatives, submit an RFP or contact us today.

Related posts:

1. The Rise of Mobile Social Networks – Part 2
2. To what extent do you use other social media networks now that you Twitter? [Poll]
3. The Rise of Mobile Social Networks – Part 1
4. Observations: College Students & Social Media

3 Comments »

1. [...]

     Pingback by Pets MAX » Summer Pet Product Tips — April 1, 2010 @ 7:03 am

2. You do learn something each day. I never knew there are social networking sites for pets not until today. Then again I don’t have a pet myself so this must be the reason for my lack of knowledge on this. Plus $45.5 billion in pet spending by Americans alone? Wow that’s an industry worth spending on there.
   .-= Erin L

     Comment by Erin L — April 28, 2010 @ 2:59 am

3. Just thought i`d mension the new pet social networking site thats just started here at http://www.pets-community.co.uk

   It looks kinda fun and has many features, create groups, friend requests, picture gallery albums for users, viseo uploads etc.

     Comment by shaun — November 11, 2010 @ 12:22 am

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