Yay! You can now schedule your Instagram posts!
This is a move many business owners have been waiting for. Previously you could (kind of) schedule Instagram posts by using apps to organise & schedule your content, BUT, you would then receive a notification at the scheduled time & had to be around to press GO for the post to go ahead. This is no longer the case.
You can now schedule Instagram posts in a similar way you may schedule your other platforms by using software such as Hootsuite or Sprout Social. You load up your content, schedule your chosen date & time, & hey presto your Instagram account is active. Good news! (Please note: Scheduling is not an in-built Instagram function you will have to use this 3rd party software to take advantage of this change.)
Hootsuite is one of the first to implement the new Instagram changes & here’s what the Hootsuite team have to say:
“The scheduling and publishing of Instagram content has been the number one request for our 16 million customers,” said Hootsuite CEO Ryan Holmes, in a statement. “Now, they can manage large volumes of content, multiple team members and multiple Instagram accounts with ease and security. Hootsuite is excited to partner with Instagram to make this happen.”
Whilst we do think this is good news – we are often wary of scheduling. Scheduling is fantastic as a time saver & a way to keep your Social Media presence consistent over a holiday or particularly busy period, BUT, posting is only half of what you should be doing on Social Media. Using Instagram as an example; engaging with your home feed, reposting amazing content from your customers & creating amazing Instagram stories cannot (and shouldn’t) be scheduled. You now have a way to ensure you are ALWAYS consistent on the platform but please don’t forget about these arguably more important features of Instagram.
With the great boom & success of Instagram stories & the fact Instagram is a great platform for spontaneous, on-the-go content don’t fall into the scheduling trap if you don’t need to. Beware that there are reports that posting from 3rd party apps can reduce engagement so do monitor this carefully.
It’s interesting that this change has occurred now within this big Instagram Boom (daily active users have grown by five times in less than a year) & we are watching with great interest to see what the next change will be. Instagram is becoming more business focused with Insights, Scheduling & joint Facebook/Insta ads – we wonder what’s next?
In summary, “engage to get engagement” is our mantra at Introtweet & this will always remain. Scheduling is great (and we are pleased to see this change) but don’t forget the rest!
We run Instagram for Business workshops monthly in Taunton, please email us at hello@introtweet.com if you would like to be informed of our latest dates or click here to find out more.
