In August 2018 me and my husband adopted Felicity aka Flick. A young Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Never having owned a dog before she was something of a revelation. 

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She has certainly kept us on our toes and given us a lot to learn.

In September 2018, my husband had the idea to start Instagram for Flick as a short experiment into engagement. And then promptly decided to take a month off social media and left it in my hands to develop. I'd never even been on Instagram before. From zero followers, I learnt the tricks of the trade and as of June 2020 we have close to 8500 followers - with many more been added daily. 

Avoiding the follow/unfollow rules, we decided to put my husband's PhD research (and my own) in community engagement as basic principles to develop our account. It was slower but leads to more genuine followers, impact-full posts and dare I say relationships.

And a lot of hard work. Phrases such as potty training, working on recall, leave it!, positive-training, dominance myth, European pet passport, vaccinations schedules, scientific methods opposed to the Cesar Milan approach - and many more suddenly became a part of my daily speech.

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My language changed and so did my mind-set. Who knew having a dog was an introduction to a whole new aspect of life and field of study? And, who knew her joyful way of being would soothe our at times cynical and world-weary souls?  

We've posted on health issues and raised awareness for mental health through our little dog account. I learnt a little more on photography (still an amateur!) and how to photo edit, learning about filters and colour theory. I soon realised this was another art form and an interesting engagement tool. The potentials for research dissemination are also intriguing. My husband (due to his PhD) focuses on engagement and I was the content creator - focusing on story and visuals. We form a good team.  

Social media is now a fact of life and learning to manage it is also important as a professional. We are still learning. But seeing other researchers on instagram and my own work with photovoice I can see the potential for academic engagement through the platform. The skills I've learnt from this short venture I can already see being used in other community development settings. And with a little creativity it could become a potential useful bridge between academic research and wider communities.