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Who let the dogs out? Meeting Instagram’s popular canines
What does fame mean when you’re a dog? The people behind ‘dogfluencers’ accounts say it's all about making a difference to the life of other dogs and their 'parents'.
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The late Elvis senior wins big at an offline event (JP/Courtesy of @elvis.barksley instagram)
"My dog is family. And just like I post photos of my family members, I also post photos of my dog - just twice as much," stated Stevany Lim, a 29-year-old woman who runs the Instagram account belonging to Elvis Barksley, an Alaskan Malamute.
In the beginning, Stevany created the @elvis.barksley account to post photos of her dog Elvis (and her late dog, also named Elvis, who she now calls Elvis Sr.) separately from her personal page. Four and a half years later, the account is verified and has amassed hundred 160,000 followers from different parts of the world.
That same shift from fun-to-fame happened to husband and wife duo Edison Wang and Jessie Febrina, proud paw parents behind @meet.the.wonderbutts account. The account began as an archive of their corgis: Patrick, Ben, Lizzie and the late Ian.
Like Stevany, Edison and Jessie want to be called “parents” in relation to their dogs, instead of “pet owners.”
"At first, we just wanted to create something to archive memories of our dogs, along with their behind-the-scene-stories. That was our only intention," Jessie told The Jakarta Post. Yet their consistency in posting high-resolution photogenic furball pictures has popularized their pets. Like Elvis, the corgis are now widely recognized online, with 64,000 followers.
That number of followers is a metric of one's social-media influence. But while offers of endorsement flood their message box, Stevany, Jessie and Edison share the same value of not utilizing their dogs as a tool for money or fame.
These furry Insta personas are fitting to be called “dogfluencers”, a term that has come into use in recent years with more dogs becoming popular on social media, particularly Instagram (usually dogs owned by human influencers). Yet Jessie and Edison reject that label. As Jessie told the Post, "We are not averse to the term, but we prefer to be called responsible dog parents. After all, the word dogfluencer holds different weight as we never aim to influence or encourage people to do anything."
