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Week 7 Part B: How Other Businesses Use Instagram

My classmates are doing some fun things already with their IG accounts. My absolute favorite is Inglourious Bagels. They clearly already have an established and very popular business. And their IG account is full of great photos of the food, videos, fun promotions and HILARIOUS, punny bagel names. I absolutely love it, and after visiting their page, I definitely want to try the bagels. I would say they are a great model to follow in terms of having attractive, fun and engaging content.

My other classmates seem to only have a few posts up (like me) so far--mostly pictures of the products and a couple videos. I think all of these are more concrete businesses, so it's more straightforward what they're doing to promote their businesses. My business (which is not yet a business) will eventually probably only make money through sponsored content on social (similar to other sites I follow like St Louis Mom). Their Instagram is SUPER content heavy, with lots of reels using music, guest mom takeovers, memes with their branding, weekend lists of things to do, etc. I know they have a team of at least 5 paid staff doing the work, so I understand it takes a lot to make all that content. Since I have a full-time job, I don't envision my site being like that--maybe just more of my own personal recommendations with some sponsors. I guess we will see! But I noticed they get a lot of likes with events and contests + simple memes about mom life. So that's interesting to see. 

Overall, I think what seems to work on IG is a great image or short video on something that is very relevant to your particular audience. I think longer, simply promotional posts do not get a lot of engagement (for obvious reasons). Sometimes I cringe when I see sponsored posts, so it's a tough balance. The best ones in my opinion are things that are very straightforward about being sponsored, either up front or as an asterisk at the bottom: "This post is sponsored by XXX, a brand that we already love at North County Fam. Thank you for supporting the brands that make our content possible."

I visited and commented on these handles:

Protein for pets: https://www.instagram.com/protein4pets_vista/?hl=enhttps://www.instagram.com/protein4pets_vista/?hl=en

Purple Tsunami: https://www.instagram.com/purpletsunamiclothing

Inglourious Bagels: https://www.instagram.com/inglouriousbagels

Encinitasdonuts: @encinitasdonuts

PlayGround: https://www.instagram.com/playground82000

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