The article explores how the author grew their dog Rosie’s Instagram account (@RosieinYellow) to nearly 1,500 followers in just over seven months using ChatGPT as a strategic tool.
What began as casual photo posts turned into a structured marketing approach, ChatGPT helped craft captions, identify target audiences, suggest optimal posting times, and spot trends.
Ultimately, ChatGPT became a creative sidekick for content planning, community building, and consistent engagement, turning a fun side project into a smart, AI-powered strategy.
Can ChatGPT supercharge your social media marketing strategy? Here's how I did it with my dog, Rosie.
Over a year ago, my family brought home a yellow labrador retriever named Rosie. From the moment she arrived, I began capturing countless photos, quickly filling my camera roll.
These photos of Rosie had been sitting forgotten in my iCloud. Until one day, while scrolling through Instagram, I realized they could be more than just memories. With a background in marketing, I saw an opportunity to turn casual snapshots into something intentional. What started as spontaneous posts quickly gained traction, bringing in over 300 followers in the first week. That early momentum showed me the potential of a more strategic approach to growing her profile.
That’s when I decided to use ChatGPT as my AI-powered assistant to create @RosieinYellow (yes, “Rosie in yellow” because she is a yellow lab).
Right from the start, ChatGPT helped me:
At first, these tools helped generate surface-level engagement. However, without a defined target audience or clear growth strategy, I was only scratching the surface of what was possible. That’s when I realized I needed to take things further.
Recognizing the need for a well thought-out strategy, I leaned more heavily on ChatGPT, not just as a caption and idea generator, but as a full-on strategy partner. Like any solid marketing plan, the first step was identifying a clear target audience. Most of my initial followers were other pet owners with dedicated Instagram accounts for their dogs, clearly marking them as my primary audience.
With my audience defined, I leveraged ChatGPT to:
This structured approach, guided by ChatGPT, provided clarity and momentum in growing Rosie’s Instagram account.
Here’s how I used ChatGPT at various stages of growth:
ChatGPT identified the four best posting windows for maximum engagement among dog lovers:
Scheduling posts during these recommended times significantly boosted my follower growth, reaching 600 followers in the first three weeks. Additionally, ChatGPT recommended analyzing Instagram insights from each post, helping me discover that short-form videos (under 15 seconds) and humorous, behind-the-scenes moments performed exceptionally well. Emphasizing these content types during peak engagement hours accelerated growth, exceeding 1,000 followers within the first two months.
Keeping up with the Instagram trends, particularly in the dog world, is quite challenging. ChatGPT made this easier by finding relevant seasonal content ideas and trending audio and hashtag suggestions to reach a large audience. For example, ChatGPT helped me find trending audio clips and hashtags related to funny dog behaviors, which quickly boosted my content visibility, significantly increasing engagement with both followers and non-followers alike.
By incorporating more of these popular content types during peak engagement windows, I continued to boost my reach. Other dog accounts started regularly liking my posts and commenting, significantly enhancing organic growth. To this day, I continue to use ChatGPT to help me identify patterns early, like when to start posting holiday content, how to remix a popular meme format with a dog twist or generate trending hashtags for me to use on all of my posts.
Beyond content, ChatGPT suggested actionable growth tactics including:
These tactics paid off. Two of Rosie’s Instagram reels were featured on two lab-focused Instagram accounts, @talesofalabpuppy and @labs_of_insta, with over 673,000 followers combined. Additionally, we joined local pet giveaways, not only winning prizes, but promoting Rosie’s account to local audiences. These features grew my account to 1,400 followers and introduced my account to a broader, like-minded audience.
Aside from account features, ChatGPT also recommended I interact with followers promptly after posting. This advice strengthened my community ties, encouraging more frequent returns and higher overall engagement. The combination of optimal timing, engaging content, and consistent interaction proved highly effective in building a vibrant, growing community around Rosie’s account.
One of the most surprising ways ChatGPT helped improve my social media strategy was in building community. It wasn’t just about posting, it was about connecting.
ChatGPT identified collaboration opportunities as a powerful strategy to promote visibility and reach within my target audience. It helped me brainstorm partnership ideas with small businesses and pet accessory brands that aligned with Rosie’s aesthetic and personality.
One of those AI-driven ideas led to Rosie becoming an ambassador for Gnarly Dawgs, a Canadian-based brand known for its outdoor-themed dog gear. This partnership provided valuable exposure, added credibility to Rosie’s account (plus a discount code, “ROSIE15”), and opened the door to more brand collaboration opportunities.
By guiding me through outreach strategy, identifying the right kinds of partners, and crafting personalized messages, ChatGPT turned community building into one of the most important aspects of Rosie’s account growth.
While ChatGPT has been an incredible tool for content creation and engagement, I’ve realized there are so many more ways to tap into its full potential, especially as Rosie’s account continues to grow. These strategies are areas I could explore moving forward to unlock even more growth and creativity:
As I continue building Rosie’s account, ChatGPT can give me even more ways to stay intentional, strategic, and creative, all while aligning with my existing posting style.
A survey in 2022 found 35% of pet owners around the world had set up social media accounts for their pets. As such, it is important for Rosie’s account to be unique and engaging to capture the attention of pet lovers in a crowded pet-focused social media landscape. With the help of AI, here’s my four key takeaways to grow quickly and authentically:
Growing @RosieinYellow to nearly 1,500 followers in just over seven months has been a fun and unexpected side project. What started as a way to share an overload of dog photos (and it still is) quickly turned into an opportunity to test strategy creativity, and growth. I have been able to combine my love for marketing and, of course, my dog, to create something that not only brings me joy but allows me to explore how social media communities are formed around shared interests.
With AI as a support tool, I had a strategic advantage that helped me work smarter and stay consistent. ChatGPT played a significant role in helping me grow my account more intentionally and efficiently. If you're looking for a tool to guide your social media strategy, spark creativity, and make the process a little smoother, I highly recommend giving ChatGPT a try.
