Week 8: Visual Media Blog Post Part One

    For my business, Travel Guardian, visual media helps a lot to reach potential customers. My target market spends a lot of time on the internet and social media's especially travel blogs. Visual media helps bring my business to their hands faster and easier. Visual media also helps because my business is an online service. 

    When it comes to Instagram, I use hashtags that fits with the image to reach out to potential customers. For example, I have been posting places that were filmed for popular Halloween movies, considering it's October. I use hashtags to fit that image like, #Halloween, #Spookyseason, #October, #Halloweentown, and many more. I do try to not use a lot of hashtags so it won't overwhelm the post.

How Similar Businesses Use Instagram Hashtags:

Smart Flyer:

Smart Flyer is a smaller travel agency but they are a successful business. Looking at their instagram I see that their account is popular with 30k followers. They also post almost daily if not a couple times a week. Although they could improve on reaching their customers because even though they do have 30k followers their likes rarely exceed 400 likes and they barely have any comments so I wouldn't say their Instagram is very effective. I also noticed that they only use hashtags with their company name on it. If they want their company noticed they should use other hashtags to fit the image other than their company name. 

Skyscanner:

Skyscanner is a medium to large travel agency. As I look at Skyscanner it seems like they have a successful account with 160k followers and they post everyday. Although, just like Smart Flyer, their likes and comments are really low compared to their following. I noticed that Skyscanner uses a different Instagram account for every country. The Instagram account for Brazil seems to be more effective when it comes to reaching their customers than their main one. But, their main one is the one with the most following. Focusing on the main account, I see that they get the most active followers when they post views of mountains and castles. They should look into that more and maybe post pictures relating to that theme. When it comes to hashtags, they put a good use of them in their posts. They use many different types of tags that relate to their company and photo. I do see their account in becoming very effective but only if they look at their analytics a little more and use that information to build their account.

Tripadvisor:

Tripadvisor is a large and successful travel agency that is used by millions. Unlike, Smart Flyer and Skyscanner; Tripadvisor has an effective Instagram. They have a large following of 2.4 million followers and they post several times a day. They have very active followers that leave many likes and comments. Although, they don't leave hashtags on all their photos. But, they do leave hashtags for most of them. When they do leave hashtags, they choose minimal hashtags that are relevant to the photo. Another nice part I noticed on this account is that they have a nice ratio of pictures to videos. With that being said, their account is entertaining and very interactive.

Global Basecamps:

Global Basecamps is a very small, local, and new travel agency. They have a very small following of 2.6k followers. They have less than 100 likes on each photo and zero comments. Because, they are a small and fairly new company their Instagram is too new to tell if they will be effective or not. Although, I do think they are on the right track. They use hashtags very well by using many and relevant tags. The one thing I would say for them to improve on is for them to post more often. Their last post was in June so they seem very inactive at the moment. Which makes me think that it is because of the coronavirus and they can't operate as well as before. Even so, they should still be on top of their social media's so they can earn a following and potential customers before they can return again.