Twitter Dogs

Dogs in political memes are one thing, but as of late, Point of View dog accounts expressing their political opinions have begun springing up all over Twitter. They aren’t difficult to find and many of my examples are some of the first accounts to appear when searched for. With so many of these accounts on Twitter there are a few major variables that set them apart from each other. While one account like @RacismDog may tweet in nothing but retweets with barks and woofs, others like @RealDoggieTrump speak in mostly coherent sentences parodying the President’s speech patterns with in-betweens like @RexPoliticalDog speaking in heavily butchered English. Another spectrum on which these accounts lie is how seriously they take what they tweet about. Accounts like @PoliticalDoggy retweet and talk about serious problems that they think should change while accounts like the aforementioned P(ooch)OTUS tweet mainly about dog-world problems, only displaying any political agenda by way of whoever their account parodies.

But why are these accounts so popular? What makes them successful? Well, the simple answer is that people like dogs. The longer answer is twofold. For one, the comedy of receiving political/ “political” news or opinions from a dog can take the edge off of a very serious topic and at times sheds an innocent point of view on current events that one isn’t likely to get from a real politician. The very fact that a person is willing to share their opinions via a dog’s persona means they most likely don’t take themselves or their ideas too seriously, though like I mentioned before, there are some accounts who don’t fall into this range. The second half of what makes these accounts popular is that humans literally release some of the same chemicals in our brains when we see a dog as when we see a baby, we are happier to see a good boy then a middle-aged human with an opinion. As such we are more likely to click on the dog, than the politician; the human brain finds the dog more pleasant than most people.

So, say you’re an average high schooler who wants his thoughts heard by a wide audience as well as a high follower to following ratio, should you invest in a political dog account? Believe it or not, yes! These accounts are continuing to rise in popularity, but there are a few tricks. For one, putting a dog in your account name and profile picture isn’t going to cut it. The more dog themed your tweets are the better, after all, that’s what’s setting you apart in the first place. Of the accounts I mentioned, the one with the most followers is Racism WatchDog, the account who does nothing but retweet and copy paste the word “Woof” or “Bark” twenty or so times. This account has a cool 535k followers. Their followers followed them for a dog that points out and condemns racism, and they receive just that at LEAST once a day. And that’s another thing Racism WatchDog does right–as with almost any social media account, regular posting is important for retention of followers. The final thing that Racism WatchDog has done that you should consider doing as well is that they have chosen a very wide-open topic. Most people hate racism, giving them at least one reason to side with the account from the start, with the added bonus of regular posting, a person is predisposed to follow, but the dog profile picture and theme which as I said before literally releases happy chemicals in people’s brains seals the deal for large swaths of the public, providing the account with followers aplenty.

Dog accounts turn an often distasteful, uncomfortable, or awkward topic into something funny and cute, and as such they have skyrocketed in popularity since their emergence. And they continue to become more and more popular as the genre gets larger. Find your section of the political dog world on Twitter and you too could find yourself with similar success.