In a long awaited move that will bring smiles to the faces of social media managers everywhere, Instagram announced it would now allow business profiles to schedule posts. But before you get too overjoyed, there are a few important things you should know.
This feature is only available to business profiles – at least for the time being. Personal profile users will still have to post live. Instagram did say it plans to add scheduling support to non-business profiles, but not until 2019. Additionally, if you’re sharing videos, you’re going to have a bad time. Scheduling only works for photos. And perhaps the biggest catch… You will have to use third-party software to schedule posts. You cannot schedule posts natively. Translation? If you want to schedule out posts, you’ll have to cough up the cash for a subscription service like Hootsuite, Sprout Social, or another Facebook or Instagram Marketing Partner.
This move is part of a larger plan to transition from the older Instagram API platform to the new Instagram Graph API. In addition to schedule management, the new API includes a Business Discovery mode that allows users to view information and media of other businesses, and Mentions, which allows business profiles to view posts they’ve been tagged in.
You will have to use third-party software to schedule Instagram posts. You cannot schedule posts natively. Click To TweetInstagram shared on its blog that the move will “allow for better content planning and secure account management, removing the need for employees to share login credentials to gain account access to create a post.” Ryan Holmes, CEO of Hootsuite (the first Partner to implement the API), shared, “Scheduling and publishing of Instagram content has been the number one request for our 16 million customers. Now, they can manage large volumes of 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 networking.”
This is the first time Instagram has dabbled in the scheduling waters. Until now, the social network has prioritized live posting and staying true to the “insta” in its name. What will this shift mean for Instagram and its 500 million daily active users? We’ll have to wait and see…
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