Photogenic cats are helping an aspiring influencer grab TikTok by the tail

Lisa Roy initially started her social media account to document her own life but her cats proved to be very popular and she said they took over. (Submitted by Lisa Roy)

Lisa Roy spends her days managing a small, furry social media empire, with her photogenic cats appearing on the online platforms Instagram, Facebook, X and YouTube — and she has 120,000 followers on TikTok.

But for the Holyrood, N.L.-based aspiring cat influencer, Newfiemeow isn't a hobby — it's her job.

"I'm just proud to be a Newfoundlander who's online, whose … two cats went viral online. I don't even care about me. I'm so proud that they're Newfoundland cats, you know what I mean?" Roy told CBC News in a recent interview.

Her videos show her cats climbing trees while wearing harnesses and costumes, meowing at the camera, purring and sleeping.

Roy said she's had cats her whole life and can remember being a young child getting her first kitten. She currently has three feline companions: Brandi, 16, Shadow, 14, and Nelly, who just turned one year old.

She didn't set out to start Newfiemeow but in early 2020 one of her social media posts of her cat Grumpy Beans went viral. Roy credits her cat's popularity to her sweet face. Despite Grumpy Bean's name, she said, her cat — who died last year — was very charming.

"Everybody just used to go mad for her," she said.

She says the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic is partly the reason for the popularity of her account, because people were at home and spending more time online.

Building an audience

Her 120,000 TikTok followers are mostly from the mainland, the U.S. and Spain but come from as far away as New Zealand, she said, and it's taken a lot of effort to build the audience.

"It's hard work and consistency and you just post your videos. And I post to make people happy. I know how much everybody likes cats and there's a lot of mental health problems in the world. So really, my goal was to just make people happy.

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"It's just like everything else. It's just hard work and consistency and you know, taking nice pictures and cute videos and that cute meow. And people … just love cats."

Lisa Roy often takes her cat Shadow, with a harness on, to explore the outdoors, and films it for her followers. (Submitted by Lisa Roy)

Some people can make a living being online, Roy said, and she's supporting herself with Newfiemeow. She works with two companies to bring in revenue, promoting pet DNA testing company Basepaws online: if people use her discount code she receives a fee from the company. She also works with pet supply brand Rabbitgoo — if people use a link she provides, she gets a percentage from the sale.

Roy said she studied social media and web marketing and was an early adopter of platforms like YouTube, so her plan is "to just work online forever." When she realized people can make a living as a social media influencer, working for themselves, she wondered why she was aiming to work for another company.

"Look at all these people doing it. Like, I can do it. So, like, this is legit, like, what I would like to try to keep doing, you know, working online and stuff?"

Putting in the hours

In the social media world, Roy said, there are celebrities and influencers with massive audiences, and there are also those in the 100,000-follower range, where she is. There's competition with other people online, she said, so being consistent with posting content helps.

"If someone wanted to go viral online, they would have to post maybe three to four times on TikTok a day. You're going to be wanting to post like twice on Instagram," said Roy.

Grumpy Beans, who died last year, was Lisa Roy's first cat to go viral. Roy credited her cat's online popularity to her sweet face. (Submitted by Lisa Roy)

It means she spends a lot of time online, looking at popular hashtags and at what's trending. She also creates her own hashtags, she said, so she can track engagement and see how people react to content.

With an international audience, Roy said she also keeps an eye to different time zones — like California and Ontario — when posting because people are active on social media in the mornings.

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