A quick Instagram tip. I’m sure you know that hashtags are important for Instagram (Twitter too), they are one of the very few ways that people can actually find your Instagram account and help you stand out on Instagram. Instagram is also a platform which rewards hashtags and it’s okay to use quite a few of them (as long as they are relevant).
The only problem is, it can be a hassle to think up all the different hashtags to add and it can be time consuming to add all those hashtags. Well, I’ve got a little trick for you that will remove that thought process and save you time with your Instagram hashtags. It’s TextExpander (this is an iOS only app but I’ve got an android tip later so don’t worry! Just stay tuned.)
TextExpander for Hashtags
TextExpander is one of those tools which become more and more useful the more you use them. The basics are that this is an app which monitors what you type, and if you type a certain trigger (for example “;address” then it changes that text to be your address. You can also add formatted text, full letters or even use macros and fill boxes so that you can make a mail merge in whatever app you are in. [read more here]
So if there are a set of hashtags that you ALWAYS use (or regularly use) perhaps hashtags related to your local area, your churches hashtag, or maybe just a set of hashtags related to your worship service. Create a short snippet (for example xInsta1) and then it will fill your post with those hashtags. Saving you time and stopping you from having to think about what you usually include.
But…What about Android!
Unfortunately TextExpander is only for iOS. There are some alternatives for Android but most of them are just clipboard managers which allow you to find, copy and paste, a set of text. It’s not quite the same especially as these snippets won’t sync with your desktop. The good news for Android users is the Google keyboard can do something very similar. If you go into the settings of the keyboard, then edit the “personal dictionary,” you can add a snippet and a word or phrase to paste in.
You can’t sync these changes with your desktop (yet?), but you aren’t going to use these snippets on your desktop anyway.
Some other Android keyboard may have this feature as well, so just experiment.
Not just for Instagram
Of course, this isn’t exclusive to Instagram, you can use TextExpander to create a set of hashtags you regularly use for Twitter, Tumblr, your blog, or any social network. Just remember that while Instagram and Tumblr suit multiple hashtags (as do blogs), Twitter and Facebook favor fewer.
Eric Dye says
Great idea!