Matt Nelson
Creator of WeRateDogs
Discussion
M
The Dogfather
@matt___nelson · WeRateDogs LLC
Hey! My name is Matt Nelson, I'm the creator/owner of WeRateDogs LLC (@dog_rates on Twitter). I made the account in November of 2015, and it's been quite the rollercoaster ride since. I've delegated to the point that my focus is primarily on content creation and expanding the style, tone, and online persona that initially brought people to my page. Thanks for tuning in!!!
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Courtney Rogin
@courtneyrogin · Senior Product Marketing Manager
Hey Matt! How do you manage the mass amount of social engagement across channels?
M
The Dogfather
@matt___nelson · WeRateDogs LLC
@courtneyrogin I used to take advantage of Twitter Engage, but I believed that's been discontinued. Most of my time has been spent bouncing from app to app or from account to account. Like, a stupid amount of time.
HΛLΞY
@stayvndrthetide
Hey Matt! How do you go about choosing which doggos and puppers get featured? Do you have a process based upon how much viral potential the post will have, personal preference, or is it random selection/something else?
M
The Dogfather
@matt___nelson · WeRateDogs LLC
@stayvndrthetide Hey Haley! So right now I have an independent contractor who goes through the ridiculous amount of submissions we get every day. He then texts me 20-30 of the best and I pick from there. If a caption immediately pops into my head or a picture then that's most likely one I'm going to post eventually
Dylan Easterling
@easterlingd03
How do you manage balancing running the account with college? Also how many employees does we rate dogs currently employ
M
The Dogfather
@matt___nelson · WeRateDogs LLC
@easterlingd03 Thankfully, my college workload was never outrageous and WeRateDogs always took priority. I have no "employees" but I do have two independent contractors. Tyler Macke (@mackemode) runs just about everything with our store and John Ricci (@dejected) handles submissions.
Product Hunt
@producthunt
Hello Matt, thank you for joining. Do you plan to go into the cat rating business?
M
The Dogfather
@matt___nelson · WeRateDogs LLC
@producthunt I will absolutely not be expanding into the cat rating business.
Theoharis Dimarhos
@theo_dimarhos · Marketing+Biz Dev at AngelouEconomics
Hey Matt! What have you learned about the format of content that performs best? How do your followers like to receive your content?
M
The Dogfather
@matt___nelson · WeRateDogs LLC
@theo_dimarhos WeRateDogs only works on Twitter. We have a snapchat, Facebook, and Instagram, but they don't have anywhere near the following we have on Twitter. When writing the WeRateDogs book, I was excited to try a more longform approach. I thought unlimited characters would provide more freedom and make the captions better, but I was wrong. The short choppy sentences and the style that I developed on twitter is by far the most entertaining way to systematically objectify dogs.
Andrew Ettinger
@andrewett · Product Marketing, Twitter (ex-PH)
Have you monetized @dog_rates in any way?
M
The Dogfather
@matt___nelson · WeRateDogs LLC
@andrewett WeRateDogs.com is our primary revenue stream.
echunny ❅
@emilyc_carlson
henlo matt, how does your family feel about your success in the dog rating business?
M
The Dogfather
@matt___nelson · WeRateDogs LLC
@emilyc_carlson They are very supportive. My mom comments on everything I post
Hey Matt, thanks for joining us! Big fan of @dog_rates, and super impressed with how far you've taken the account.
Curious how you got it started? With 2M+ followers the account now has a life of its own (and the content is awesome) – but what does it take to grow an account like that to the initial critical mass, of say, 100k, 200k, 500k, etc.
M
The Dogfather
@matt___nelson · WeRateDogs LLC
@nivo0o0 @dog_rates Hey Niv! So, when I first made the account, I was posting up to 20 dogs a day with captions that were pretty absurd compared to today. That constant bombardment of new, exciting content and the fact that I was having so much fun with it, I believe, lead to the immediate follower growth.
Simon Chapman
@simoncchapman · Founder. Need.ie
Hi Matt, what is your favourite dog of all-time? Share the tweet?
M
The Dogfather
@matt___nelson · WeRateDogs LLC
@simoncchapman It was absolutely Pipsy for a very long time, however, this post last week may very well be my new favorite! https://twitter.com/dog_rates/st...