How to schedule posts on Instagram
Have you created an Instagram page to dedicate to your favourite activities and would you like to manage it better to increase the public’s interest in it? Well, one of the steps necessary to achieve this is undoubtedly to publish interesting content, at regular intervals and with relatively high frequency. Although you are perfectly aware of this, you don’t always have the opportunity to post interesting photos and videos, due to the work that, most of the time, keeps you busy. In this regard, you could consider the option of preparing a series of posts in advance, during your free time, then using a tool that can publish them, in the future, for you.
How do you say? Such a solution would be ideal but you don’t know where to find it? Then know that you are in the right place, at the right time! If you give me a few minutes of your time, I can in fact tell you how to schedule posts on Instagram acting both as a smartphone and as a tablet and computer, using a series of safe and legal tools that can help you achieve your goal. Do not worry if you are not a top technology expert, as the solutions that I will report to you are very simple to use and also suitable for those who, like you, are not very accustomed to procedures of this type.
So, without hesitating further, take a few minutes of your free time to devote to reading this guide of mine and put my suggestions into practice: I guarantee you that the result obtained will fully satisfy you. Having said that, I can’t help but wish you good reading and have fun!
Preliminary information
Before going ahead and showing you, in practice, how to schedule posts on Instagram, it seems only right to provide you with some information on the dynamics with which this happens: at present, it is not possible to schedule posts on Instagram in a “direct” way, unless using the Facebook for Creators tool for computers, which I’ll tell you about later.
There are, however, social management platforms, perfectly legal and very privacy-conscious, which allow you to “prepare” in advance the content of your interest and to receive a notification, at the set time, which allows you to quickly publish everything.
Instead, I invite you to be wary of unofficial apps and systems (and/or of dubious privacy management) that promise to program and publish on Instagram automatically. In fact, by providing your access data to certain services, you could seriously endanger the security of your account and risk, in the worst case, identity theft or total loss of the account and its contents.
Furthermore, Instagram does not look favourably on the use of unofficial tools for the direct publication of content, so it could also penalize your account if you use them. Then don’t tell me I didn’t warn you!
How to schedule posts on Instagram for free
Having clarified the details on privacy and security mentioned above, it is time to take action and understand, in practice, how to schedule a post on Instagram using the tools available on the Net.
Below, in particular, I am going to illustrate the operation of Crowdfire, a social management platform also available in the form of an app for smartphones and tablets, and of Facebook for Creators, the official tool that allows you to program, via computer, the publication posts on Instagram company profiles linked to a Facebook page.
From smartphones and tablets
One of the best tools for scheduling Instagram posts from smartphones and tablets is Crowdfire, which is available as a web service and as an app for Android and iOS. In detail, it is a social management platform that includes, among the various features provided, also the possibility of creating scheduled posts on Instagram.
Crowdfire is a platform distributed under a commercial license, however, it has a completely free plan that allows you to schedule a total of 10 monthly posts between the various connected social networks.
Having clarified this aspect, it is time to take action. After downloading the app on your device, start it and press the Connect with Instagram button to start the connection phase between the platform and your social profile.
Now, if you are using iOS, you must give the app permission to access Instagram via the Web by tapping the Allow button. Subsequently, use the screen that opens to log in to the social network (by pressing the Continue as [name] button, if you have previously logged in to the social network from a browser, or by entering the credentials in the proposed form) and authorize the connection between the two platforms, by touching the Authorize button.
Next, enter your email address in the text box identified by the wording name@example.com and, to complete the initial Crowdfire configuration, touch the Done button and the Skip item (top right).
After this step too, you should see the main screen of the app: to program content, tap on the Compose tab located at the bottom, then tap the OK button and authorize the app to access the device memory (and possibly send you some notifications), by tapping the Allow and OK buttons.
To start the creation of a new scheduled content, then tap the Compose a New Post button, touch the camera-shaped button (bottom left) to specify the photo or video to add and, if you wish, press the button in the shape of a placeholder, to insert a geographic tag.
Finally, tap on the Whats On Your Mind? Text box to add a caption to the content: if you want to view a list of common hashtags, you can press the hashtag button (#) at the bottom.
Now, to set the publication date, tap on the ▲ button located next to the Best Moment item, choose the Publish item at a custom time from the available options and, using the panels that are proposed to you, specify the date and time where you want to receive the published notification for the post.
When you’re done, tap the Schedule button and you’re done: at the set time, the app will send you a notification to allow you to publish the post prepared previously.
When this happens, All you have to do is open the notification received and, when requested, press the button to start Instagram and, finally, indicate whether to publish the post in the Feed or in the Stories.
To view the scheduled posts, go back to the main screen of the app, tap the calendar with the clock icon and access the Scheduled tab (top). At any time, you can change the post or the date of programming, by pressing the Edit button or delete it, by tapping the ▼ button and, subsequently, on the Delete item.
From PC
To schedule posts on Instagram from a computer, you can use Creator Studio: the official tool made available by Facebook, which allows you to manage the publication of multimedia content by corporate Instagram accounts connected to a Facebook page of the same type.
To be able to use it, you must connect the business Facebook page, together with the related Instagram account, to the Creator Studio service. To do this, connect to the official Creator Studio website and, when requested, log in using the data linked to the company page of your interest.
Next, click the Get Started button and skip the first use wizard by clicking the Complete Later button. Next, click on the Instagram icon (at the top), then on the Connect your account button and authorize the members of the Facebook page of your interest to share access to Instagram, by clicking on the OK button.
At this point, use the new screen opened to log in to Instagram and finalize the connection between the two services. Once the connection phase is complete, you can finally use Creator Studio to schedule the publication of photos and videos in the Instagram feed or to publish vertical videos in the IGTV section.
How? It’s that easy. First, click on the Create Post button located in the upper left corner of the screen, indicate where to publish the post of your interest, choosing between the Instagram or IGTV feed and, as a next step, select the media file to upload, taking it from the computer disk (From the uploaded files) or choosing it from the contents already uploaded on the Facebook page linked to the account (From the Facebook page).
Once the file has been uploaded, if you are going to publish content in the Instagram feed, add the caption by intervening in the appropriate box and specify, if desired, a geographic tag (Add a place).
If, on the other hand, you are working on an IGTV video, you have the possibility to customize the Title and Description (using the appropriate fields). If you wish, you can also upload a cover image, in order to further customize the content you are about to publish.
To schedule the publication of the post in the Instagram Feed or on IGTV, click on the ▼ button located next to the Publish button (bottom right), use the fields displayed on the screen to set the time and day of publication and, finally, press the Publish button to schedule the post. It was simpler than I thought, wasn’t it?
