Top 10 Pet Influencers

Ronn Torossian

Celebrity pets are gathering big followings on social media, and are gaining ground in the influencer community, appearing in online marketing campaigns to drive engagement and raise brand awareness for lifestyle, fashion and pet care brands, as well as cause-related campaigns for non-profits.

In no particular order, here are some pets currently making a splash by representing brands via social media. For consistency, we looked only at the number of followers on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, though many of these pets have significant fan bases on other social media sites as well.

Nala

The Nala social media sites do a lot of work toward advancing healthy animal upbringings, partly because Nala, a Siamese and Tabby mix, was adopted from a shelter. Though the largest group of her fans come from the US, the second largest is in Indonesia, with the UK coming in third. She helps sell products and also makes guest appearances, usually in aid of pet-related causes. She has followers currently on Instagram (3.4 million), Facebook (almost 2.5 million) and Twitter (21,500).

Marutaro is a Shiba Inu and lives in Japan. Marutaro has been deemed the most famous dog on Instagram, partly due to the popularity of the Shiba Inu breed, as well as this particular member’s relaxed and photogenic demeanor. He has followers on Instagram (2.6 million), Facebook (16,000), and Twitter (86,000).

Tuna melts my heart

Tuna melts my heart is a Chiweenie that lives with his interior designer roommate, Courtney. The two do quite a lot of traveling, especially to pet hotels and such while Courtney blogs about their experiences in those places in the UK and the US. On social media, Tuna is the face of the operation, and though he only has an Instagram account, he has nearly 2 million followers there.

Boo is a Pomeranian featured in a series of advertisements. One of his best gigs is his multi-year contract as a “pet liaison” for Virgin America. Boo, like Tuna, seems to enjoy keeping to just one main social media site. For Boo, it’s Facebook, where he currently has 16.8 million followers.

Hamlet the piggy

Hamlet the piggy is a mini pig that lives in Los Angeles. It’s common for her to earn more than $300 per day on social media, simply for sitting in the sun on patio furniture while wearing sunglasses. Hamlet’s social media accounts include Instagram (303,000 followers) and Twitter (744,000 followers).

Atticus the hedgie is an East Coast hedgehog living in New York. He makes about $250 per post and has represented makeup brand Glossier and jewelry brand Jezie while also offering discounts to followers of the site. Her followers are mainly on Instagram, where she has more than 80,000 of them.

Grumpy Cat

Grumpy Cat, as you might guess, is the number-one social media pet influencer and has been for some time. There’s probably no one on social media who hasn’t gotten a few laughs over some of the many memes based on this cat’s face. Grumpy, whose main audiences are in the US, UK and Canada, has represented big brands such as Friskies. Her social media followers are at Instagram (2.3 million), Facebook (8.5 million) and Twitter (1.25 million)

Though adopted long after his kitten days were over, Waffles the cat has made a number of appearances on memes. His primary following is in the US, and his social media following can be found on Instagram (528,000), Facebook (2.7 million), and Twitter (9,100).

Lil Bub

Bloomington, Indiana’s Lil Bub is a bit impertinent but loveable and has raised more than $300,000 for the ASPCA since 2012. Her social media followers currently are on Instagram (1.6 million), Facebook (2.94 million) and Twitter (167,000).

Cole and Marmalade offer two pets for the price of one. Both cats were adopted separately by their friend Chris; Cole, a Turkish Angora, was adopted in 2012, and Marmalade, or Marm for short, brought home in 2013. Marm recently made it through a cancer scare. You can learn all about the care and love of cats, but they make it on this list as the fifth-biggest social media pet influencer. Most of their presence is on Facebook, where they have 1.6 million followers, but they also have followings on Instagram (280,000) and Twitter (29,500).

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Ronn Torossian is CEO of 5W Public Relations, a top 15 independent PR agency in the US. 5W is a full-service PR agency, offering integrated traditional, digital PR and influencer programming (people and pet alike) to clients across a variety of industries.