Brand awareness and increased sales are most businesses objectives. With consumers constantly moving to digital media as their preferred form of uncovering information, your company should be utilizing social media platforms.

Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms amongst consumers. So if your company has not started using Instagram it's time to start. Here are a few pointers on how to fully optimize your Instagram account.

Research your Hashtags

Using hashtags for the sake of hashtagging typically is not enough. You want to be utilizing the most relevant and highest traffic hashtags. Sounding a little like SEO? Well, they are very similar. Hashtags are Instagrams equivalent of keywords. Uncovering which hashtags have the highest activity may take some digging, but by utilizing these high traffic hashtags can help to increase your accounts activity.

Another thing to keep in mind is that using at least 11 hashtags on your post typically produces the highest amount of engagement. When posting a picture make sure that you are properly hashtagging, this will increase your accounts activity and possibly increase your followers.

Be Active, Be Relevant

Your business won’t increase their following by having stale social media accounts. Digital media is one of the most effective ways to market to your consumers. This being said, the more you post the more engaged your followers will be.

Remember that Instagram is a platform for sharing photos or short videos, meaning the content that you post should be relevant to your business. Randomly posting photos that have nothing to do with your business will not engage your followers, it may potentially lead to a decrease in your following. By remaining active and posting on a regular basis will help to attract new followers and engage those already following you.

Monitor Your Metrics

When a user discovers your account on Instagram they tend to look at three things; posts, followers and following. The higher these metrics the more inclined users are to follow your business account. If you're not posting regularly users may not want to follow your account, as it may not interest them. Not only are your account's metrics important to follower or consumers, but they are important to your business. You should be monitoring your metrics constantly. Maintaining your following or trying to increase it should put your metrics on an upward incline.

Social media is a major part of many business marketing strategies and if your company has yet to jump on the bandwagon it's time to do so. The way to engage consumers is constantly progressing more to digital media every day. Invest in your digital marketing strategy and collaborate with us at H&C today - you won’t regret it.