Can we talk about #PetPhotosFriday? I don't get why it's so huge all of a sudden.

Nancy Ramirez · 2026-03-01T02:41:53.058556+00:00

I started seeing #PetPhotosFriday all over my social media a few weeks back. It's just people posting pictures of their pets (which is cute, don't get me wrong). But why did this one hashtag blow up when there are already tons like #CatsOfInstagram or #Doggo? I mean, I posted my cat Whiskers with it and got way more likes than usual (weird, right?). Is it the catchy name that makes it stick? Or maybe people just love a scheduled thing to look forward to. What do you all think makes a hashtag take off like that?

karen_west596mo ago

Guess Friday is now mandatory pet tax day.

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burns.ray6mo ago

My buddy Nate runs a small reptile rescue account and his posts usually get maybe 50 likes. He used #PetPhotosFriday for a picture of his bearded dragon, Gary, last week and it blew up to over 500. The algorithm seems to really push that specific tag right now, maybe because it's new and everyone is jumping on the trend at once.

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viola_cooper126mo ago

Yeah, that thing burns.ray said about the algorithm pushing it feels spot on. My awkward attempts at cat photography usually vanish without a trace (my cat's a blurry blob in most of them, let's be honest). But last Friday I used that tag on a decent one and it got way more attention than my usual posts. It's like the tag just became this happy little train everyone decided to hop on at the same time.

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