Week 8 Part A: How to Expand Your Reach on Instagram by Using Hashtags

The first business that I will be reviewing will be Sunset_Dragons_Insta which is a breeder that is located in Italy but they are able to ship worldwide. From the looks of their page they seem to be a relatively new business but they appear to be doing well for themselves as they have multiple animals on their page being sold. They currently have 2,553 followers and they are posting every day new pictures of bearded dragons they have available for sale. Some of their most used hashtags-#likeforlikes,#beardeddragon, #color, and #dragonbarbudo. Their last post was made two days ago and as it is right now it does not have any comments but it currently has 110 likes, in every picture before this one there is still very few comments on their pictures. The best thing that this business is doing to improve it's business is the fact that they are so active on their Instagram with posts being made so frequently which is something that I would want to bring to my own business page. 

For the second business we will be looking at all_about_feeders while they are not breeders for reptiles they do sell food for reptiles. I chose to include this business because they are not only a large business, but they post on Instagram multiple times per day pictures of different reptiles and tag the source of where the animal is from. They have posts that go back to previous years so they would be considered a well established business, and are sitting currently at 20k followers. Now what is interesting about this business is the fact that they do not seem to use hashtags, but instead they tag businesses in photos that they provide and then post these images which is helping gives these businesses free advertisement. A good majority of their pictures has more than 10 likes and they do not focus solely on bearded dragons but a variety of other animals are also advertised. While this business is not using hashtags they seem to be doing very well for themselves without them with 18k more followers than our previous business that does use a variety of hashtags.

Our third business fear_not_tarantulas is a very small business that is located in Virginia but they ship all throughout the US. They post every couple of days regarding animals that will be listed for sale soon on their website. Currently they have 13k followers and most of their pictures have comments that are attached to them but no where near the amount you would expect a business with so many followers to have. The use a variety of hashtags including-#instatarantula, #tarantulaskeepers, #tarantulasworldwide and #exoticpets. The pictures that have the most comments are ones that show new babies that will be listed for sale soon. This business is doing extremely well for itself considering that they only specialize in tarantula sales, and there is something that can be learned from their Instagram. Incorporating pictures of babies and posting specials that correspond with holidays to give customers a bigger discount on high wanted items.

Our last business lllreptile is a locally run, small business that is located in California. They do not post very frequently what-so-ever with their last post being made on March 9th and it has no comments. They have 37k followers which is our highest and very little comments on most of their pictures. This site also does not use hashtags which is something that I find surprising given the amount of followers they have collected. Since very little of their posts have comments it is difficult to pinpoint which types of pictures are getting more attention than others but each picture has well over 200 likes. Again, it seems that posting pictures of a variety of animals is something I need to make sure that I incorporate into my own business.

Overall, this research led me to some surprising finds as two business out of the four do not use hashtags and they were also the pages with the most followers and likes and that it isn't always the businesses that post the most that will have the most followers. Some of the hashtags that I would use for my own business would be- #beardeddragon, #tarantulasworldwide, #exoticpets, and #color. I want to make sure that I am showing that my business does not only specialize in bearded dragons but an array of different species and I will make sure that I post pictures frequently whether it be updates or just an animal that is doing something cute.