It can be incredibly useful tool to have at your disposal to be able to schedule posts on Instagram. Whether you’re posting for fun or building a brand. Especially if you post to Instagram often.
Unfortunately, scheduling posts on Instagram isn’t as simple as clicking a button. Instead, you have to jump through a few hoops. With that in mind, here’s how to schedule posts on Instagram.
Consistency is key to nailing your Instagram strategy. And an Instagram scheduler is your best tool for making that happen. With one billion monthly active users and 15 million business profiles, it’s not easy to rise above the noise. Instagram no longer shows posts in reverse-chronological order. But it uses an algorithm that rewards posts that get lots of engagement.
Whatever your business goals—more followers, more leads, brand awareness—you’re aiming to become a welcome, if not outright beloved, part of your audience’s daily life. Ambitious, right? Scheduling your posts has a ton of benefits. Here in this post we will tell you how to schedule your posts on Instagram and what are the benefits of doing that.
Benefits of scheduling Instagram posts
1. Use Your Time Wisely
The optimal time to post to reach your audience isn’t always the most convenient time for you.
Scheduling ahead of time will save you spending your Saturday morning dredging up a half-baked post. Instead, you can block off a few fresh hours to craft your week’s narrative, create and schedule the posts, and turn your attention to the next task.
2. Cultivate a Consistent Look and Feel
Crafting several posts at once makes for a unified aesthetic and voice.
Consistent colour palettes, hashtags, and captions are important. 60 percent of brands use the same filter on their Instagram posts, according to a Webdam report. Why? Because colour affects emotion, which affects behaviour.
What do you want people to feel when they see your brand? What tone are you hitting with your captions? Are you achieving an emotional ping with every post?
An Instagram scheduler allows for a bird’s eye view of your creative planning.
3. Upload Visuals from Your Desktop or Laptop
As social media managers we’re often glued to our smartphones, but there are advantages to creating posts on the big screen.
Avoid the extra step of emailing yourself that huge video file, or that photoshopped image fresh from the design team. Whether you’re managing one account or twenty, save yourself a file management headache.
4. Encourage Engagement
A successful Instagram feed is like a compelling story that never ends.
Build flow and relevance for your followers by thinking medium- and long-range, without sacrificing daily quality. Research by Union Metrics confirms that engagement doesn’t dip with increased posting. In fact, posting more frequently may be the only way to ensure followers see your posts, given time zones and the mysteries of the algorithm.
Post more, but always follow the golden rule: all killer, no filler.
5. Gain Followers
Brands that post seven times or more a week increase both engagement and follower counts. They also noted that follower counts increase four times as fast when brands post once a day rather than once a week. Attracting new followers takes thought and work, and scheduling posts helps with the work so you can focus on the thought.
Who Can Schedule Posts on Instagram?
This feature is not accessible to all Instagram users. Only users with a Business Profile (one of the common Instagram terms you should know about) can use the auto-schedule feature. It should be noted, however, that despite the name you don’t need to have a business to use it.
If you’re trying to expand your reach, or if you’re an influencer, you should think about switching to a Business Profile.
Doing so gives you access to detailed stats for each post. Which means you can analyze and decide what is the best time for you to post, and where your biggest fans are located. A Business Profile also lets you add call-to-action buttons in your bio.
Making the switch to a Business Profile is quite simple, but it does require you to create a Facebook page first. Thankfully, it doesn’t have to be an active page. Just make the Facebook page, link it to your Instagram account and you’re now using a Business Profile.
For now, you cannot schedule a carousel post (photos or videos). All posts need to be one with a single photo or video.
How Scheduling Works on Instagram?
The scheduling feature itself is quite simple. Once everything is set up, you can use a third-party service to schedule posts (Instagram itself does not have an official tool).
For instance, Buffer lets you schedule photos from mobile apps as well as the web. So, using Buffer, you can design and upload Instagram posts without ever touching your phone.
After you’ve connected your Instagram account to the scheduling tool, you can use the app’s interface to add a photo, write the description, add a location, tag users, and select the date and time for publishing the post.
There are a couple of services that now support the Instagram auto-publish feature. If you’re already using a scheduling tool for Facebook and Twitter, see if it supports Instagram.
Which Services Schedule Posts on Instagram?
Our recommendation for the best Instagram scheduling tool is Buffer. Buffer is extremely versatile, and the free plan works well enough for most users. The app is easy to use and has a simple interface. It works well on iOS, Android, and the web as well. Buffer can also be used to repost Instagram photos from other profiles.
Buffer’s free plan lets you add three social media accounts and you can have up to 10 scheduled posts in the queue at any given time. If you’re scheduling for just one account for a couple of days, you shouldn’t exceed the limit.
Later is another good option but the free plan is severely limited. You are only allowed 30 posts/month under the free plan. A $9/month premium plan kicks this up to 100 posts/month. Hootsuite also has a limit of 30 scheduled posts/month.
How to Enable Scheduling on Instagram Using Buffer?
As Buffer is the best option, we’ll use Buffer to show you how to schedule posts on Instagram.
- 1st step: Open the Instagram app, go to your Profile, and tap on the Hamburger menubutton. Then, tap on Settings.
- 2nd step: Here, tap on Account.
- 3rd step: At the bottom of the page, tap on Switch to Business Account.
- 4th step: Tap on Get Started.
- 5th Step: On the next page, you’ll be asked to connect your Facebook Page to your account. If you already have a Facebook page, select it from the list (it shows up if you’ve already connected your Instagram account to your Facebook account).
- 6th step: To create a new Facebook page, tap on Create a New Facebook Page.
- 7th step: Fill in the details for the page title, select the category, and tap on Next. From the next page, review your contact info.
- 8th step: Now, your Instagram profile has been turned into a Business Profile. Now, open the Buffer app and start the process for connecting a new Instagram account.
- 9th step: Log in with your Instagram account and grant Buffer access to your Instagram account.
- Last step: Buffer will now ask you to authenticate using Facebook. Tap on Authenticate with Facebook to start the process. On the next screen, you can choose to enable reminders.
And that’s it. The Instagram scheduling feature is set up. Now, let’s schedule a post.
How to Schedule Posts on Instagram Using Buffer
It is smooth sailing from here. Open the Buffer app and tap on the big Plus button on the bottom toolbar. Write the description, and add a photo or video. You can also add a location if you want.
Tap on Share and select Schedule Post to specify the time and date. Finally, tap on the Schedule button. Buffer will now automatically post the photo at the given time.
Once you’re comfortable scheduling posts with Buffer, you can go ahead and create a publishing schedule.
Go to Settings, choose your profile, and tap on Posting Schedule. You can then select multiple time slots in a day when you want to post. The next time you schedule a post, just add it to the queue, and it will automatically go online in the next designated time slot.
Bottom Line
Now that you know how to schedule posts on Instagram, you should be able to claim some time back to focus on other things. You could spend the time offline and outside, or you could spend it trying to build more of a following on Instagram. Hope this article was useful for you. If you have any other tips or ideas for scheduling Instagram posts, share with us in the comment section below.
