Abstract

Today’s online ecosystem is filled with various types of consumption phenomena waiting to be academically explored. This thesis explores the topic of pet accounts on social media, more specifically, cat accounts on Instagram. Via Netnography and 15 in-depth interviews with people who manage social media accounts for their cats, I investigate two research questions: Where does the management of a pet social media account belong in an ecosystem of performance online and offline? And what are the motivations behind, and strategies fuelling, this aforementioned performance? As a result of this research, I establish a framework identifying the types of mediated performances occurring online and offline, as well as by proxy and non-proxy. I also locate the feline appreciation virtual community on Instagram within this ecosystem of mediated performance. Additionally, I develop a typology of pet social media account managers
based on their respective desires for recognition and/or social connection. I, therefore, address the gap in the literature pertaining to this phenomenon as an online anthropomorphic performance that demonstrates a new facet of the pet-human relationship. Marketers tailoring to today’s consumers would benefit from learning about the motivations and strategies implemented by the pet social media account managers as they have become companies’ new online marketing tools as influencers.