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

    My business is a clothing brand, so the use of virtual media is very important to see the style and the type of clothing my brand is selling. Instagram helps show and expose more people to my brand, so it would greatly help my business to utilize Instagram.

    I looked at some businesses to see their use of Instagram and hashtags. The businesses that I looked at are Huf Worldwide, Paterson., Volcom, and Valme.

    Huf Worldwide is a large clothing brand that has 1.4 million followers on Instagram and post once every day. Their posts where they showcase an entire collection of clothing get the most engagement and response. Their latest post was one of also one of those. They showed many pictures showcasing a collection and some showing each item individually. They get about 3,000-5,000 likes on average. Compared to their 1.4 million followers, this isn't really very much. They usually get about 12-20 comments per post, but they have many posts with over 30 comments.

    Paterson. is a small clothing brand with 19.2k followers on Instagram. They used to post every day, but it seems like they are posting once every 2-4 days now. Their posts where they have someone posing with their clothing seem to have gotten the most response, however, they also get a lot of engagement from some of their content where they show a skateboard design. Their latest post was from October 10. They get about 250-600 likes per post, compared to their 19.2k, I think that's a good amount. They usually get about 5-10 comments per post.

    Volcom is a national clothing brand that has 1.4, they have a very similar amount of followers when compared to Huf Worldwide, but Volcom is more national and more spread across the country. They post every day, but they have missed multiple days in a row before. Their posts showing their clothing seem to get the biggest response. They have many pictures such as art and people doing things like skating, snowboarding, and biking. Their latest post is a video of a skateboard next to a shirt in different designs with a plant design. They don't really get many likes on their posts, especially compared to how many followers they have. They get about 1,000-2,000 likes per post, which is low compared to their 1.4 million followers. They usually get about 10-20 comments on each post, but recently they have been getting about 30 per post.

    Valme is a local clothing brand from Oceanside CA and has 594 followers right now. They post about twice a week. Their posts that get the best response seem to be their posts where they have someone skating. Their latest post is from September 28. They get about 35 likes per post. I think this is a good amount because they have posts with way more likes and they have a small amount of followers. They get about 2-3 comments per post. This also makes sense because they aren't very big and don't have that many fans.

    It is quite easy to tell what works for these clothing brands because they have posts with a lot of engagement and some with very little and the ones with a lot of engagement tend to be similar. Some things that they do that could improve my Instagram are posting pictures that are showcasing a large amount of clothing. I have noticed that they do well and get a lot of engagement. Another thing that I can use to improve my Instagram is videos. Videos seem to do better than other posts. They seem to get more engagement and people seeing them overall. I also like that many pages use it to showcase clothing and allows a better view of it, since videos get more engagement more people will see the collection of clothing. Another thing that I have seen work is tagging people in a post. I had never thought of this, but it makes sense that tagging people would allow for more people to see a post. Some Hashtags that would work are #fashion #clothing #clothingbrand #Oceansideclothing #californiaclothing #sandiegoclothing #streetwearfasion #vintagestreetwear #oldschoolstreetwear and maybe even #purpletsunamiclothing if I want to have a hashtag for my brand.