Remember when Instagram was just for vacation photos and food pics? Those days are gone.
Today, over 2 billion people use Instagram every month, and it’s one of the biggest places where people discover new products and brands.
But what most people completely ignore is the 10–15 minutes right after publishing. Early engagement can influence how much attention your post gets after publishing, especially when people interact with it quickly.
One of the smartest and easiest Instagram tactics right now is adding your first comment with your post with relevant hashtags and details. Many creators and brands use this strategy to keep captions clean and give followers extra context right after publishing.
For WordPress users, Bit Social lets you prepare the Instagram post and the first comment together. So when your post goes live, the first comment can be published with it.
You can auto-publish your first comment on Instagram from WordPress using Bit Social. This is useful for adding hashtags, product details, pricing, or a CTA without making your main caption too crowded.
The first comment is simply the first reply you add to your own post right after you publish it. But instead of treating it like a normal comment, people use it smartly.
There has always been a debate about whether you should put hashtags in the caption or the first comment.
A study by Socialinsider and Quuu analyzed nearly 650,000 Instagram posts from 2018-2019 and found that accounts with over 100k followers achieved an average reach rate of 15.9% when hashtags were in the first comment, compared to 14.8% when hashtags were in the caption.
See, brands use the first comment to add relevant hashtags for their post to get better visibility and engagement.
Because when you put everything in the caption, it quickly starts to feel heavy and messy. And honestly, on Instagram, people usually don’t sit and read line by line; they just scan and move on.
So if your caption looks too long, there’s a good chance your main message gets ignored. That’s why adding things like hashtags, CTAs, or product details in the first comment makes more sense.
Adding a first comment manually is easy when you publish once in a while. But it becomes repetitive when you post regularly, manage multiple products, or share WordPress content on Instagram often.
That’s where Bit Social fits into the workflow.
Bit Social is a WordPress social media automation plugin. It lets you schedule and auto-publish WordPress posts, pages, WooCommerce products, and other content to connected social platforms.
Along with publishing your content, it also includes a first comment feature. This allows you to publish the first comment with your Instagram post, so you do not have to add it manually later.
On top of that, Bit Social offers an AI prompt feature, where you can connect your preferred AI tool and generate captions or even images from your blog content.
Auto-publishing the first comment on Instagram is not as hard as you think. You can do it easily with Bit Social. Let’s walk through the easy process of auto-publishing your first comment. So at first, install and activate Bit Social.
Log in to your WordPress dashboard. Go to Plugins → Add Plugin and search for “Bit Social”.
Once it appears in the results, click Install and then Activate. That’s it. You’ll see Bit Social show up in your WordPress admin menu.
Next, you have to connect your Instagram account with Bit Social. Go to the “Accounts” tab from the Bit social menu and click on “Connect Account”.
You can connect your account in two ways, and they are:
For this guide, we’ll go with the One-Click method, as it is the fastest way to get started. Simply click “Connect”, enter your credentials, and you’re in.
Now go to WP Auto Post from the Bit Social menu and enable the “Share Posts Automatically” option.
Next, select your post type. Bit Social lets you auto-share different types of WordPress content, including:
For this example, I’m selecting Product as the post type. With this setup, new WooCommerce products can be published to the connected Instagram account automatically.
Then select the posting delay and move on to the next part.
Now head over to the “Templates” section in Bit Social. From the right side of the dashboard, select Instagram.
Here you’ll find a Custom Message box, this is where you write your caption.
But instead of typing everything manually, use Smart Tags. Smart Tags automatically pull relevant information from your WordPress site and drop it into your caption.
For example, since I’m setting this up for a WooCommerce product, my caption looks something like this-
Every time a new product is added, Bit Social fills in the actual product name and description automatically.
If you’re sharing blog posts instead of products, you can use tags like: {Post Title}, {Post Description}, {Post Author}, etc. Just click the Show Smart Tags option and pick whichever tags fit your content.
Then select the Posting Type. I have chosen the Product Image as the posting type for this example.
Well, now comes the most important part. In the Templates section, scroll down to the First Comment section in your template. This is where you can add your comment with hashtags and details.
I will add the Price of the product and some relevant hashtags in the first comment.
You’ve been through all the steps. Now it’s time to see if everything is working properly. Let’s add a product now and see if it is being posted with the right template or not.
Note: Instagram posts need at least one image. Add a featured image or product image before testing the auto-post.
Well done! The product details have been posted automatically to your Instagram account.
From now on, every time you publish a post, you can add the first comment with it. And it will automatically be posted on Instagram.
First Comment works only when used smartly. So here I’m adding some tips to follow when adding your First Comment on Instagram.
Post it immediately: Timing is everything on Instagram. As I already mentioned, the first 10-15 minutes after posting are critical. The earlier it goes up, the better chance your post has to gain early engagement.
Add relevant hashtags: Don’t just dump random hashtags. Use hashtags that are actually relevant to your post and audience. Mix popular and niche hashtags for better reach.
Keep it between 5 to 15 hashtags. Going overboard can actually make your post look spammy.
Include a clear CTA: Tell your audience what to do next. Add something like, “Shop now via link in bio.” “Save this for later.” “Drop your thoughts below.” When people take action, such as likes, comments, and saves, it boosts your engagement signal instantly.
Add extra post details: You can add anything that didn’t fit in your caption, pricing, sizing, FAQs, ingredients, etc. Give your audience the full picture.
Ask a question: A simple question sparks early conversation. When people answer the question in comments, it feels natural. Early comments signal to Instagram that your post is worth pushing to more people.
The process is to present one simple idea of the Instagram Algorithm, that is, posting on Instagram isn’t just about creating great content. It’s also about giving that content the best possible start.
The first comment strategy is one of those smart moves. It helps you keep your caption clean and readable. Placing hashtags where they work helps you to get engagement in those critical first few minutes when the algorithm is watching closely.
For brands and creators, this isn’t about adding more work. It’s about making your existing efforts more effective. And as you’ve seen, doing this consistently doesn’t have to be complicated. Using a tool like Bit Social, you can plan both your post and first comment together.
Try the first comment strategy on your next post using the hashtags smartly. Because sometimes the biggest improvements come from the smallest changes.
Yes. You can use Bit Social to prepare an Instagram post template and add the first comment before publishing.
You can add hashtags, product details, pricing, size information, extra context, or a short CTA.
Both can work. Many creators place hashtags in the first comment to keep the caption cleaner.
Yes. Bit Social can auto-share WooCommerce products and use smart tags to add product data to the caption or first comment.
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