Week 8, Post 2 Visual Social Media

The business that I am promoting for the purposes of this class is an on-line horse equipment ("tack") sales business (its actually a link to my Ebay sales listings) called "The Tack Shed".  I have decided to see how my competitors are participating on other social media sites besides Facebook.  I searched for websites that just sell used tack, but I couldn't find any.  Any website that did sell used was a listing service like Ebay, but smaller.  I decided to research tack stores that sell new.

The first competitor I chose to follow is a local tack store, Mary's Tack and Feed, that has several physical locations.  They also sell tack on-line on their own website AND they sell tack on Ebay.
On Facebook they have 12,906 followers. They post several times a day.  Each post gets between 0-100 likes, and comments are in the single digits.  On Instagram they have 2,375 followers    They post nearly every day, getting almost 100 likes per post.  Very rarely do they get comments
On Youtube they have 68 subscribers. They post every few weeks.

The second competitor I'm following is Dressage Extensions.  They have a physical store in Moorpark, CA, but have been more of a catalog (and now on-line) sales outfit.  I haven't noticed them selling on Ebay, but they do sell from their website.  Their Facebook page has 12,081 followers. They post every few day and each post gets between 0-30 likes and between 1-4 comments.  On Instagram they have 395 Followers and 66 posts.  They get likes in the low 30's per post.  On Pinterest they have 895 Followers. They have 10 boards and 68 pins

The third competitor is Bit of Britain.  They have traditionally been a catalog sales (now on-line) outfit, although I see they have a physical store now in Pennsylvania.  Their Facebook page has 9,800 followers. They post nearly every day.  Each post gets between 0-20 likes.  Not many posts get comments.  On Instagram they have 1113 followers, 131 posts and each gets up to 100 likes.

The fourth competitor is Dover Saddlery.  They have physical stores, but for years they were very strong in catalog sales.  Now, of course, they are on-line.  On Facebook they have 146,400 followers.  They post nearly every day.  Some posts get up to 500 likes, but only a handful of comments on any one post.  On Instagram they have 18,000 followers and 211 posts.  They get between 1000-3000 likes per post.  Each post gets 1-5 comments.

Each of these stores have a decent number of followers, proportional to the size of their business.  Not surprisingly, Dover has the largest number because they are the oldest and most well-known store in the industry.  There is not as much interaction on the posts as I expected.