What is a hashtag, and how did it become so popular on the web? To answer this question, we need to go back to 2007, when it was first introduced on social media, specifically Twitter. Before that, hashtags were used sometimes but not so often. Only in situations when people wanted to create group chats, the pound or hashtag symbol was used before the name of the chat group name.
However, there was not any other use of the hashtag symbol until 2007, as we already mentioned. In 2007, people started to use hashtags on Twitter and later on other social platforms, too.
The main purpose or function of hashtags was to give a bit more information about the post you want to publish on social media. By giving it some hashtags, people can click on them, and it will take them to other posts or pages. This is a nice way of navigating your potential customer from a certain product post to another.
Searching through the posts and products that you promote on social media, people can easily find what they’re looking for by using a certain hashtag that is associated with your product. Hashtags work similarly to search queries on Google. They are like a special keyword or a tag that brings traffic to your social media post.
Let’s see some key benefits hashtags brought to social media:
- Get to know your competitors better by looking at what their most used hashtags are
- It helps you build a brand by making people search for the specific hashtags for your product
- Organize events, contests, or giveaways easily by using certain hashtags
- Hashtags became the main weapon for activists
Now that you know the basics, we’ll talk about the top 6 Instagram hashtag generator tools.
Influencer Marketing Hub
First on the list, Influence Marketing Hub. This company developed its hashtag generator tool using AI. It allows you to upload a photo, and based on the photo; it will give you tons of recommended hashtags. However, you can click on each suggested hashtag, and the tool will display more specific hashtags for that keyword, including its popularity.
You can choose up to 5 keywords which is the best practice because the more words you select, the more efficiently the tool will generate image-related hashtags. When you are done, just click on the “Copy Selected Hashtags” button, and that’s it. The Influencer Marketing Hub generator is completely free to use.
All Hashtag
Based on the keyword that you enter, the All Hashtag generator will give you a list of the top (most popular), random, or live hashtags. It will also suggest 30 related or similar hashtags that you can choose instead of the one you entered.
If you do not need the hashtag generator, you can go for the hashtag creator, which allows you to create your own hashtags. If you are unsure about how well your hashtag will perform, you can choose to use the All Hashtag analytics. This feature will tell you how your hashtags will score in their category against other popular hashtags. This tool is free of charge, as well.
RiteTag
RiteTag will give you stats on how many times a certain hashtag was tweeted or retweeted per hour. However, you can only look at the hashtags that the tool recommends specifically for Instagram. You can bookmark those Instagram hashtags or click on each. By clicking on them, the tool will give you detailed analytics on how a hashtag has performed in the last 24 hours.
If you need better Instagram analytics, you have to upgrade to the paid plan. The Premium plan costs $49/year and includes a quota of 1000 queries/month.
Photerloo
Just drag and drop an image, and Photerloo will generate keywords for the photo, including suggested Instagram hashtags that you can copy in one click and paste to your Instagram post.
By dragging the slider, you can tell the Photerloo generator how many keywords and hashtags you want it to generate and how popular the tags should be. Photerloo is also completely free to use, so there’s no need to worry about added fees.
Sistrix
Free, but with fewer features compared to the previous hashtag generators, Sistrix provides a simple way to get recommended hashtags based on keywords. You type in a keyword, and Sistrix gives you the top 30 recommended hashtags for it. However, since it is free, you can only use 25 queries per day without having to register.
Flick
Flick is an all-in-one hashtag tool for Instagram that has everything you need to choose quality hashtags for your posts and thus, reach a wider audience. You can search for hashtags, store them into collections, track their performance and get in-depth analytics.
You can use this tool for seven days for free, after which you have to upgrade to the paid plan. Paid plans start from £10 to £50 per month, depending on the plan you select.
Final Thoughts
Choosing the best hashtags for your Instagram post can be quite painful. You have a lot of ideas in your mind but are unsure about which of them will bring results in the form of shares, likes, and traffic.
Knowing that by yourself is impossible, so picking a tool is the way to go. This article listed 6 Best Instagram hashtag generators that you need to check out; some are free and some paid.