Instagram is unlocking a new feature for professional accounts that will allow them to schedule content in advance on the app. This would be a breeze for marketers and content creators.
Scheduling content from the app has been unavailable until now. And content creators and publishers had to use third-party apps to schedule their content in advance.
But, now they can use the Instagram app to schedule the content skipping the third-party apps.
This blog will uncover everything that you need to know to make the best use of this Instagram feature to grow your business or brand online.
Keep reading.
Who Can Use the Instagram Schedule Feature?
The Instagram schedule feature is being rolled out globally to professional accounts only. Creator and Business profiles are professional accounts that have access to this Instagram feature.
So, if you’re a business owner or a creator, you might have a professional account already.
If not, you can simply switch to a professional account inside your Instagram account settings.
There are three types of accounts on Instagram; Personal, Professional, and Creator. Every account is set to personal by default. You can switch to Business or Creator profile inside the profile settings.
How To Schedule Posts On Instagram?
You might be wondering, how to schedule posts on your Instagram account. Well, the process is pretty simple and takes a couple of taps to get the task done.
Here are the steps involved;
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Tap on the (+) button in the bottom middle of your Instagram app
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Select the type of content you want to create (image, carousel, reel, etc.). You will find this option at the bottom
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Tap Advanced Settings and select Schedule this post
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Select the date and time you want your content to be published, and tap schedule
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Great! Your content is now scheduled and will go live on the selected date and time.
How Far in Advance Can You Schedule an Instagram Post?
Creators can schedule their content on Instagram in advance for up to 75 days. As creators, we know important it is to be implementing process automation in digital marketing.
This is a very handy Instagram feature for creators, businesses, and digital marketers alike.
Posting on social media is no different. Batch uploading content on Instagram increases productivity and makes sure the content schedule is implemented without glitches and unwanted surprises.
There is a lot of stuff going on in everyone's life. And we are forced to switch plans and postpone things that we thought were crucial initially, and we might just quit on a brilliant idea due to unexpected happenings.
Scheduling Instagram posts in advance helps creators avoid all those uneasy scenarios.
When To Post On Instagram
As a creator on Instagram, you can use this awesome Instagram feature to your advantage in a number of different ways. One of the best ways is to publish your content at prime times.
You can look into your audience insights and figure out the times your audience is most active. These will be your best time to post on Instagram.
You can schedule your content at those prime times to get the most visibility and engagement, which will boost your account very fast.
Here are a few key factors that should be considered to get the most engagement on your Instagram posts.
Best Time to Post on Instagram
Posting around 7 am or 8 am will be a perfect time since after people wake up, they can’t resist the temptation to pick up the phone and scroll through social media for a few minutes. If you want to boost your content and make it famous on Instagram, you will need to know the best time to post on Instagram.
This is your best chance to grab their attention and get a great engagement rate on your posts and reels.
Also, people scroll their social feeds after lunch. So, posting between 11 am and 1 pm works great as well.
Posting around 6-8 pm on Sundays is also great because people usually consume online content to relax.
Who Is Your Target Audience
First of all, you need to figure out your target audience to plan out an effective content creation and publishing strategy. This will give you information on what time zone they are in.
Try to schedule your posts around the morning, lunch, and weekend time slots mentioned in the previous section to get the most engagement.
Another key Instagram algorithm feature is that it promotes the most recent content published. So, knowing the time zone of your audience and publishing accordingly can make a big difference in the success of your marketing strategy.
Why Are My Scheduled Posts Not Posting On Instagram
There are a couple of factors that might be the reason your scheduled posts are not posted on Instagram.
Your account might have ‘direct scheduling’ disabled, or it is quite possible that your Instagram posts don’t meet the criteria for direct publishing.
Here is the checklist for the ‘direct scheduling’ Instagram feature to work;
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Set Instagram Reminders for all posts’ should be turned off
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Your image or video should meet aspect ratio requirements
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Your video should be between 3 seconds and 60 seconds to be scheduled directly
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Reels should be between 5 seconds and 90 seconds. Otherwise, they will not be published as per the schedule but rather scheduled as a reminder
Final Words
If you have made it this far, then we believe that you have everything in your basket to effectively use this Instagram feature to grow and scale your brand or business.
What is your biggest takeaway from this blog?
Do you plan to figure out the prime times considering your target audience’s time zone? Or maybe you will switch to a professional account from a personal account now.
