Blog Post Week 2 Part B: Businesses on Social Media

1. 1. T-Bone Racing
2. 2. T-Bone Racing RC Armor Specialists
3. 3. T-Bone racing specializes in the production of parts that are needed for RC Vehicles repair or upgrade. They are a local business that started off in El Cajon, California as a metal fabrication shop and they are now a small business located in Idaho. And their goal is to sell quality products that will be durable and keep you in the race.
4. 4. On their website they advertise that you can follow them on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and also be emailing them. 

• Upon checking Facebook, they most often post at least once monthly, Instagram they seem to be more active posting every couple of weeks and some within days of each other and YouTube is the least active with no posts made within the past year. 
• Facebook last post date-January 13, 2021, Instagram last post-February 5, 2021 and YouTube last post-October 8th, 2020. 
• Followers on Facebook-14,765, Instagram-14.1k followers, YouTube-1.18k followers.
• Overall, they have a following on social media but seem to use Instagram to post more often. They use social media as a way to keep customers in the loop on shipping delays and what new products will be coming out. On one post in particular on Facebook they seem to have an unsatisfied customer which was not acknowledged by a member of staff so there is room for improvement. 

1. Fear Not Tarantulas
2. Fear Not Tarantulas! – Fear Not Tarantulas, Inc.
3. Fear Not Tarantulas is a small family owned business that is located in Virginia specializing in the breeding and import of tarantulas. The company started out with only 30 different species and has now accumulated over 200 different species. 
4. After careful review of the site, it is not mentioned what social media platforms they use. After a quick google search it shows that they have accounts on Facebook as well as Instagram.

• Facebook has very little activity from the company as a post hasn't been made since last year and Instagram is a very different story as they appear to be posting new pictures ever couple weeks. 
• Facebook last post-October 26th, 2020, Instagram last post February 8th, 2021.
• Followers on Facebook-21,911, Instagram followers-12,4k.
• While they are very active on Instagram, the posts are merely just advertisements on future products. Facebook which they don't use as much leans more to the educational side on keeping a tarantula, there is definitely room for improvement as customers don't always just want to see pictures of tarantulas. 

1. LLLReptile
2. Reptile Supplies and Live Reptiles - LLLReptile
3. LLLReptile is a large locally owned company that specializes in the sale of reptile care products and a large seller of reptiles. They buy and sell many different animals inside of their stores as well as online. 
4. Unlike most of the other sites that I have mentioned above LLLReptile displays their social media presence on the top of their homepage. They have an accounts on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest. 

• Their use on Facebook appears to be monthly, Instagram looks to be used every couple months, YouTube activity is every few months and I am unsure how to check for Pinterest.
• Facebook last post-January 29th, 2021, Instagram last post-December 29th, 2020, YouTube last post-July 28th,2020 and it does not show on Pinterest.
• Followers on Facebook-119,370, Instagram-37k, YouTube followers-84.7k followers and 1.7k followers on Pinterest. 
• LLLReptile has very minimal social media presence online, with posts only happening monthly they are losing out on a lot of advertising opportunity for their company. It's hard to comment on which platform they use more often as the posts are so minimal on each platform they are not impactful. 

1. Rainbow Mealworms
2. Rainbow Mealworms and Crickets
3. Rainbow Mealworms is a large local supplier of food that is targeted towards reptiles. Their HQ is located near LA in California but they ship throughout the United States bringing quality products for your animals right to your front door.
4. Social media is not shown on their homepage or anywhere else on the site. During a quick google search, they have a social media page on Facebook and Instagram. 

• Rainbow Mealworms on Facebook every couple of months and use Instagram every couple months. 
• The last post made on Facebook-October 25th, 2020, Instagram last post-January 20th, 2021. 
• Followers on Facebook-21,653, followers on Instagram-13.5k.
• While their social media presence is lacking in posts, on Facebook a customer had an order concern and they made sure to reply and solve the issue with urgency. 

1. Wal-Mart
2. Walmart.com | Save Money. Live Better.
3. Wal-Mart is a massively large international department store, that specializes in an array of products catered to everyone. They have stores located throughout the world and have their products available online. 
4. Their social media links on their website are located towards the bottom of the page which are not very visible unless you were actively looking for the information. 

• Wal-Mart's social media presence is extremely strong, each platform is updated daily aside from Pinterest which is difficult to find that information. They have a social media profile on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube and Instagram.
• Facebook last post-February 8th, 2021, Twitter last post-February 8th, 2021, Pinterest-Unsure, YouTube last post-February 8th, 2021 and Instagram last post-February 8th, 2021.
• Followers on Facebook-32,949,365, followers on Twitter-1.2 million, followers on Pinterest-1.3 million, followers on YouTube-484k, followers on Instagram-2.5 million.
• Looking at Wal-Mart's following on social media it's no surprise with the level of activity on different platforms they have a large following. Their posts are colorful and fun which helps bring attention to their posts and leads to people commenting and then sharing with friends and family.

Before starting this assignment, I had no idea the amount of time and effort some of these businesses take to advertise their products. After college, my goal is to start my own business in the reptile industry so I thought it was important to focus on some of the well known businesses that serve that industry. But it was also important to me to also include another small local business as well as a large international business to compare the level of following for each area. 

The most important thing that I have learned from this research is the reptile industry is extremely lacking in it's social media presence. With many of these sites only posting every few months it's no surprise that they don't have a large following on their social media platforms. One of the issues on the reptile industry pages is that they only post when they have new animals in stock or stock that will be soon available which means that they aren't posting as often as some other businesses. If I was to start a business in this industry, not only will I try and post frequently but I will also keep people up-to-date in other aspects of the business.

The winner in this research is clear with Wal-Mart having followers in the millions. The difference between them and the other businesses is that not only are they posting things every day across multiple platforms but they post about things that are socially current and fun. The most important thing is to stay up to date on your chosen platforms with a larger business this is obviously easier as you have a team designated for this purpose, but if you have a smaller business as long as you have just one employee that is active for your business on social media your following can only soar.