The Automation Moment We’ve All Been Waiting For
What could be better than winning the lottery and getting free pizza for a year? Ok, maybe that was gong a little too far, but this news is still super exciting: Instagram now allows for post scheduling. Digital marketers rejoice!
Not sure what that means? Allow me to explain: When using a social media scheduling automation service like Hootsuite or Sprout Social, in the dark ages of post scheduling (i.e. before January 30, 2018), a scheduled Instagram post would not automatically make it onto your Instagram feed. Instead, you would get an alert from the automation service at the scheduled time (after downloading their app, of course) and have to stop what you were doing to copy and paste the post into Instagram. So archaic.
But those days of pseudo-scheduling are over! Instagram published on their business blog that now, thanks to the Instagram Graph API, you can schedule posts. Hallelujah.
This exciting update applies to Instagram Business Profiles, and it will make the growing business-friendly platform all the more accessible to marketing strategies. Here’s what you need to know:
— If you have an Instagram business profile, you’ll be able to utilize a Facebook marketing or Instagram partner to schedule your Instagram posts. Hootsuite and Sprout Social are approved partners, and you can find more here and here.
— Graph API will allow for Mentions API, Business Discovery API, Insights API, and Comment Moderation API. These features allow for more depth in understanding the performance of your account and opportunities to interact and learn from other business accounts. (Unclear about what exactly the Graph API— or API in general— is? Read our blog post about it here.)
— The one downside to this tool is that the scheduling feature does not include ads at the moment, but technology is always changing fast!
— Don’t forget to carve out some time to transition to the graph API, since support will end for the Instagram API Platform by early 2020.
Hootsuite released a quote by CEO Ryan Holmes, where he mentions, “Scheduling and publishing of Instagram content has been the number one request for our 16 million customers. Now, they can manage large volumes or content, multiple team members, and multiple Instagram accounts with ease and security. Hootsuite is excited to launch our new integration with Instagram to help our customers achieve their business goals and succeed with social.” We couldn’t agree more.
As exciting as Instagram scheduling is, it’s still something that takes time and energy. Kraus Marketing is a digital marketing agency that is skilled in scheduling and automation, so contact us today to learn how we can help you make the most of this exciting Instagram update.