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

  The vacation rental industry thrives off of pictures. Think about it: would you ever stay at some random house with only a description in words. That would be hard to trust! Businesses like Airbnb, TurnKey, Big Bear Boarding, Fern Retreat, and Hyco Lake House all use their Instagram as a platform to not only promote but to describe the amenities they have their different stays. A picture is really worth a million words in this case. The use of hashtags is what brings attention to their page. TurnKey uses hashtags like, "vacationrental", "lakehouse", "AustinTexas" to describe the rental little more. If I was on the search for a lake house in Austin, Texas, I might use the hashtag feature to find a place like the one on TurnKey! Each of these accounts have a little bit of a different business, however they all have rentals. Airbnb, who has 4.9 million followers, has rentals all over the world owned privately by people. Turnkey, with around 5,700 followers, is a smaller rental business with properties all over the US. Big Bear Boarding, with around 1,500 followers, has around rentals just in Big Bear, CA and 2 surrounding cities. Fern Retreat, with 1,000 followers, is a local rental business located in Washington. And Hyco Lake house, with a little over 1,200 followers, is just one popular house that rents all year. Each account posts regularly with the few exceptions. The average is about one post per week. With the most recent picture being from Airbnb only from 11 hours ago. Each account posts eye catching pictures. Airbnb features unique stays that everyone wishes they could stay and that leaves people drooling. While Bear Big posts that hometown feeling and lets people know your stay is a home away from home! 

    Looking at the relation between followers and interaction, each account speaks for itself. Airbnb gets around 3,000 likes per post but little comments. While, Turnkey has little interaction compared to the following they have. 

    Something I could do to improve my account that these accounts do is their use of hashtags and using the location feature. These features engage attention and can help bring people to my page. Some hashtags I would use would be: #bacheloretteparty, whatever city the house in, #hiking, #homeawayfromhome, and #beachhouse. 

    Overall, from looking over these posts, I have learned that having engagement between your followers can help create more of a following. Posting pictures that describe the business and what the rentals really include can give visitors a reason to book.