How San Diego dogfluencers make bank off the zoomies
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The famous Sapphie and her pet parents. Photos: Courtesy of the Shahs
What started with a few videos about the "queen of the zoomies" ballooned into social media stardom for one San Diego dog.
Why it matters: Sapphie the Pomsky, with more than 9 million followers across Instagram and TikTok, is a local example of the rise of "dogfluencers," adorbs fur babies filmed by their owners, who garner millions of fans and paw-some paydays.
Flashback: This canine's rise to fame started when Sapphie's owners Sheena and Sunit Shah wanted to share their COVID-19 puppy with the world.
- They posted when their Pomeranian-Husky mix got zoomies — racing around the house with abandon — after her walks and before going to bed.
- Then Sheena saw some doggy buttons on Amazon that claimed to allow pups to speak with humans by pressing different words with their paws.
- She bought the buttons and trained Sapphie to press one that says "b****" over and over again.
Naturally, the Shahs posted a video of Sapphie's new trick. And it went viral.
- "It always felt like she understood the assignment, and that made it really, really fun to make these skits," Sunit told Axios. "She was an actress."
Case in point: They made a video where Sapphie is on a heist to steal a sock.
- Because the Shahs both work in health care, they also made mental health videos where Sapphie uses buttons to say "I'm here" and "I love you."
- Sapphie's following grew.
Inside the doggy room: Sapphie is just one of many extremely famous pups with massive social media followings.
- There's Tucker the Golden Retriever, with a combined 16+ million followers on Instagram and TikTok.
- Or Jiffpom, with 9 million Instagram followers, who went on to appear in commercials and Katy Perry's Dark Horse music video.
- Managing these doggy accounts can become full-time jobs for their pet parents — more so than every beloved dog already is.
By the numbers: #dogsofinstagram has 337 million posts, while #dogsoftiktok has 52.5 million posts.
- For some canine content creators, there's a lot of cash that follows.
- Some dogs have agents who secure them more than $10,000 for sponsored Instagram posts, according to Business Insider.
Reality check: It's not easy to compete with all the adorable dog content out there.
- Sapphie's owners kept their day jobs in health care and see their social media posts as a side project.
Yes, but: The Shahs love the community they've found among pet influencers around the world.
- "A lot of times social media content is about competition, but in the pet niche, it's just about people supporting each other," Sheena said.
What's next: Sapphie and other influential pups are now competing to win $10,000 in The Pet Lovers' Choice Awards, a fan-voted pet competition.
- Voting is open now, and the awards show will be in April.