A good Instagram hashtag strategy can help get your posts seen by more people, but a bad Instagram hashtag strategy can make your account look spammy and actually hurt your account instead of help it.
So how do you find the right Instagram hashtags for likes?
Today we’re introducing a new set of Instagram hashtag tools to help you find the best hashtags and keep them all organized!
Hashtag Suggestions: instantly find relevant hashtags for your photo
Saved Captions: organize your hashtags by theme or category
Both of these new features not only help you save time, but they also help you reach more of your target audience on Instagram, too! Here’s how to use them:
Hashtag Suggestions: Find the Right Hashtags in Seconds
The right Instagram hashtags will help you reach a targeted group of people who don’t follow you (yet) and get more eyes on your content. When used correctly, Instagram hashtags can also help you get more likes on your photos and even get more Instagram followers!
But the wrong Instagram hashtags will make your account look spammy, and using generic hashtags like #sunset with millions of posts on them isn’t going to get you any of the right followers (or customers).
By using Later’s new Hashtag Suggestions feature, you can automatically find relevant hashtags for your photo. All you have to know is *one* hashtag, and we’ll do the hashtag research for you in a second!
Often times you may know a couple hashtags that you want to use, but you don’t have time to research to fill out all 30 hashtags that you’re allowed to use on each post. Hashtag Suggestions will help you find relevant hashtags and easily insert them into your caption, so you can max out your hashtags without spending a ton of time on research.
For example, let’s say you’re going to post a photo of an adorable Westie, like our office dog Stella.
Just click Hashtag Suggestions beneath your post, and a menu will open up on the right:
Type in a hashtag you want to use in the text box at the top, hit “Suggest”, and up to 30 relevant hashtags will generate, sorted by relevance!
In this case, we’ll want to type in #westie to see what other hashtags we should be using.
Now I can see relevant, targeted hashtags that relate to my Instagram post. In this case that would be bigger Instagram hashtags like #westiesofinstagram and #dogsofinstagram, but as you scroll down you’ll find more niche hashtags like #westiemoments or #westielove too.
To add these hashtags to your post, just click on the hashtags you want to add and then click “Insert Hashtags.” Now, you’ll see them all added to the end of your caption, and you can schedule your Instagram post!
Hashtag Suggestions is available on all Later business plans – upgrade now to get access to this new feature!
Need help using Hashtag Suggestions? Check out our help guide here. Want to save all your #Westie hashtags for next time? Read on…
Categorize Your Instagram Hashtags with Saved Captions
During all of the chaos surrounding the shadowban last year, one thing became clear– you can no longer just copy and paste the exact same list of Instagram hashtags into every single post and call it a day.
In fact, doing so might be seen as spam by the Instagram algorithm and could affect your post’s visibility, which is why the new rules for Instagram hashtags include switching up your Instagram hashtags and keeping them targeted for each theme or category.
Coming up with a brand new list of hashtags every time you post may seem like a daunting task, but Later’s Saved Captions feature can make this process super simple.
With Saved Captions, you can create multiple hashtag lists based on your frequently used hashtag categories.
For example, let’s say you run a travel brand and often post photos of beautiful locations around the world. Instead of using generic travel hashtags on every photo, you’ll want to add location specific hashtags for each city, state, or country, or have hashtag categories for the different types of photos you post, like mountains, beaches, or city shots.
Instead of trying to remember (or find) these hashtags for every post, you can use Saved Captions to keep them all organized so you can quickly add them when scheduling in the future.
If you want to schedule a photo of a beach in San Diego, since we’ve already saved hashtags for different categories, we can we can insert relevant hashtags for beaches, California, travel, and San Diego with just the click of a button!
After you’ve written your caption, just click on “saved captions” and then click on the appropriate hashtag list to instantly add those hashtags to your caption.
Using Hashtag Suggestions, you can type in the location, like #losangeles or #california, and instantly find related hashtags for your photo. Then, you can save these hashtags as a “saved caption” and keep them all for the next time you need them!
Saved Captions is available on all Later plans – including our free plan!
Need help using Saved Captions? Check out our help guide here.
Instagram Hashtags FAQ
Have more questions about Instagram Hashtags? Check out the FAQ below or these popular blog posts: The Ultimate Guide to Instagram Hashtags and New Rules for Instagram Hashtags in 2018
Q: How many Instagram hashtags should you use?
A: It’s really up to you. Some people think that using all 30 hashtags can look spammy, other people think that you should as many as you can if you’re trying to grow your account.
Instagram expert Alex Tooby recommends using the maximum number of hashtags allowed by Instagram, which is 30. While 30 hashtags may seem like a lot, she says that using the maximum amount of Instagram hashtags gives you more opportunities to be discovered.
However, if you don’t feel comfortable using that many, feel free to opt for less. It’s always okay to experiment with the amount of hashtags you use on a post in the search to finding your hashtag sweet spot.
Q: Should you put Instagram hashtags in the caption or the first comment?
A: It doesn’t matter! There are rumours that hashtags won’t work if they’re in the first comment, but there is no evidence to prove this.
If you’re scheduling Instagram posts, leaving hashtags in the caption is a lot easier, because you can just schedule them and then auto publish your posts to Instagram.
Because photos on hashtags appear in chronological order from when they were posted (not when you added the hashtag), you’ll want to ensure that your hashtags are added at the time of posting or right after. Adding hashtags after you post isn’t really going to help you much.
But if you’re using all 30 Instagram hashtags, it can look a bit spammy to have them all in the caption, and it can also distract from your original caption or call-to-action. If you’re scheduling Instagram posts via notifications instead of auto publish, you can simply “copy” the hashtags in your caption, remove them when posting, and then “paste” them into the first comment.
At the end of the day, it’s up to you and what you think works best for your account! Both ways work just fine.
Q: How do I know what Instagram hashtags are the right hashtags to use?
A: First, you’ll want to avoid gimmicky tags such as #likeforlike. Alex Tooby’s advice is to avoid using Instagram hashtags that have been used over 1 million times. While these tags might get you a few extra likes, they aren’t going to help you grow a highly engaged, targeted following.
Next, she says to choose tags that describe your account, your business, and your target market. For example, Little Spoon is a delivery baby food company whose target market is expecting moms and parents with small children.
The account uses hashtags to describe it’s product and business like #littlespoon, #babyblends, #freshbabyfood and #organicbabyfood as well as its own branded campaign hashtags like #itsfreshbaby and #nomoreoldbabyfood
It also uses hashtags which describe its ideal customer like #babyfoodie, #girlmom, #boymom, and #babyontheway, along with community hashtags for parents like #motherhoodunplugged, #letthembelittle, and #dailyparenting.
You can use Hashtag Suggestions to find these hashtags, and then use Saved Captions to save them for next time!
