How To Schedule Posts On Instagram …For Reals!
Ask any social media manager or business owner around what their least favorite part of social media managing is and I bet you’ll hear the woes of posting to Instagram from at least 50% of those polled! For years now, posting to Instagram has been a huge thorn in everyone’s side. Some folks literally carried around multiple devices in order to post to each Instagram profile. Others played the log in/log out game multiple times a day in order to manage their profiles. So, when Instagram announced a few weeks ago that you can now schedule seamlessly to your profile, the whole social media world jumped for joy!
Scheduling your posts to Instagram allows you to be extremely strategic in what you are posting. You can also be more selective and careful about the exact photos you are using. For those of us who are trying to simplify our lives, scheduling posts to Instagram in one sitting can save us a TON of time.
So, here’s what you need to know…
You have to have a business profile on Instagram.
If you haven’t already converted your account, now is a great time to do so. Instagram business profiles offer you a few extra perks compared to the personal profile:
- Post promotion
- Tracking of post performance and audience demographics with Instagram Insights
- Space to add business contact information so customers can reach you through the app
- Scheduling posts from a 3rd-party software
To create an Instagram business profile, you must have it linked with a Facebook Business Page.
- Go to your Instagram profile and click on the small button that looks like a gear.
- Scroll about halfway down the list on the Options screen that opens up and tap Switch to Business Profile.
- When you are asked to Connect to Facebook, select Choose Page and follow the prompts.
- Make sure your Instagram profile is set to Public.
- On the Set Up Your Business Profile page, review your business’s contact information and select “Done.”
Scheduling Your Posts to Instagram:
- You’ll need to be using a third party scheduling tool like SocialReport or Hootsuite. Most programs have the ability to schedule to Instagram now, so feel free to use your tool of choice. [Need some ideas of what tool is right for you? Here’s a blog post we did comparing some of the big softwares out there.]
- Connect your business Instagram account. If you’ve already been using the old way of scheduling to Instagram, you may need to disconnect and then reconnect your Instagram profile.
- Set up your post to schedule as you normally would. The previous prompt to select a mobile device is no longer there because you don’t need it. It’s that simple!
- *Tip: While you can post rectangular images to Instagram, sometimes this automated setup that is now available gets confused. For a more seamless post, use a square ratio for your images!