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

    I analyzed these businesses to find how they use hashtags on their Instagram accounts. They are Stussy, Supreme, Goonery, and Coastwize.

    [Stussy]

    This is a really famous clothing company all over the world. I did not expect that there were not any hashtags in their posts, but I could not find any hashtags on their Instagram account. As the professor's video said, this brand does not need to add hashtags since they are so big company and are known by a lot of people. They have 4.6M followers and usually post every 1 to 3 days. The most responsive post which is new arrivals information recently has got 117K likes and 333 comments. The latest post was created on October 10th. They have acquired about 40K to 50K likes in a typical post, and also there are about 200 to 300 comments on their posts. 

    [Supereme]

    This is also a popular clothing company internationally. Surprisingly, same as before, they also do not have any hashtags on their Instagram account. I think this is because Supreme is one of the biggest brands same as Stussy. They have 13.3M followers and usually post every 1 to 5 days. A recent post that attracted many customers has got 132K likes and 651 comments, and this post is about selling clothes in collaboration with a famous brand. The latest post was posted on October 13th. They have acquired about 80K to 90K likes in a typical post, and also there are about 500 to 600 comments on their posts.

    [Goonery]

    I found this clothing brand on TikTok, which sells anime t-shirts. I think this is a slightly bigger company. The most recent video introducing their store has got about 1200 likes, so I feel that they can use Instagram effectively. They use abstract hashtags like "anime" and "clothingbrand" and do not use many hashtags. Also, they were used in most posts. Many contributors are using these kinds of hashtags, so it is difficult to find their posts. They have 16.5K followers and they post once every two weeks or three times a day, and the frequency of posting is not regular. The most responsive post about their store got 1319 likes and 18 comments, and the latest post was posted on October 13th. They have acquired about 200 to 400 likes in a typical post, and also there are about 10 to 20 comments on their posts.

[Coastwize]

I found this brand by searching for "clothingbrand" on Instagram. This company is small, but they sell t-shirts, sweaters and hats. In the post introducing new clothes, they got 500 and 1000 likes, so I think they can use Instagram effectively. They use a lot of hashtags, and they try to appear in various search results such as "clothingbrand" and "surf" with about 15 of them. However, there are also many abstract hashtags, so it is difficult for many people to see. They have 612 followers and post once two weeks or every day, so the posting frequency is not stable. The most responsive post about their brand got 1035 likes and 21 comments, and the latest post was posted on October 13th. They usually get 20 to 30 likes in a typical post, but sometimes 200 or 500. There are about 3 comments on their post.

Through this analysis, I felt that hashtags are needed to become famous and to attract many people. It's important to use a lot of hashtags to promote your business, but the word is also important. Abstract hashtags are also necessary, but it will be the same hashtag as many posts, so I think it is a good idea to use your brand name as well as more identified words. And the key is to use a lot of various hashtags, such as the name of the location you are doing business, not just the genre of your own brand. I will try to improve my business using effective hashtags.