Week 8 Part B: Your Instagram Hashtag Use

 I have five scheduled instagram posts starting tomorrow at 4pm. Each one uses the same hashtags, being #flowers, #weedemandreapflowers, #florist, #floristsofinstagram, #autumn, #halloween, #pumpkins.

Most of these just came to mind whilst thinking about how to promote the flower shop, which is using key words that relate to the business. I found #floristsofinstagram through the tagging system itself, and because it had hundreds of thousands of instagram accounts using this tag I decided to add it as well. I am tagging all of my posts with #weedemandreapflowers for organizational purposes, to get the brand name out there and possibly make it trend, and for anyone to easily find my posts and account should they use the search bar. 

According to several websites I skimmed through, optimal times for instagram engagement is friday and saturday at 10 am. Naturally, I scheduled a post each; However, I did end up scheduling another post for wednesday. I didn't want a whole week to pass without any engagement, but I figured posting at cocktail hour gives me a greater chance of having the post be seen. Scheduling on facebook was very easy and even shows upcoming national holidays in a sidebar; were W&Rflowers a real business I'd absolutely post on national cat day, but alas. 

While instagram's algorithm remains an everchanging labyrinth, there is still some control I have on whether or not a post will succeed- timing and tags. It is important to post during hours that instagram users can log on- be it the morning crowd before they leave to school/work, lunch, or after school/work. Posting outside of these timezones usually means your post is going to be buried under everyone elses, probably never to be scrolled past. The next important thing is tags, the key to getting in the algorithm in the first place. While instagram lets you use up to 30 per post, most users don't like to be bombarded with a wall of hashtags while trying to scroll through their feed, so having a select few that will reach the target audience is a must. As long as I keep using hashtags that I know people follow and view, eventually someone will give my page a look and I can continue growing from there.