Trust us you’ll get a sense of how excited Mel is about the new Instagram Scheduling availability – read on…
I probably should have put that heading all in CAPS because I seriously want to shout this from the rooftops!
Facebook have (finally) released the ability to schedule Instagram posts directly from their Creator Studio!! Can you feel the excitement, this is huge!!!
Working part-time, remotely as I do, I can’t always be available to post for my content management clients at exactly the best time. Who can?! You’ll find insights into the ways to work out those best times in our previous blogs which explain the metrics behind the different platforms. I’m still to write one specifically on Instagram, so watch this space now I have this brand new tool to play with.
Whilst there are other scheduling platforms out there eg. Hootsuite, Buffer, Tweetdeck & Spout Social to name a few and you can still use these for LinkedIn and Twitter, like any third party apps they have their limitations. For example Hootsuite removed the ability to @mention anyone on Instagram during the recent data scandal.
Do you like our natty new cover pic btw?
Anyway, back to the excitement
If you don’t know how to get into Creator Studio let me explain. Seriously, it’s great and hands down the best place to schedule to your Facebook Page from. So you’re on your page, happily hovering over the menu and what should pop up, Publishing Tools, that’s what!
They actually will, honest!
So you click on it absentmindedly and just stumble into the holy grail. There’s so much in there. What you want now though is the big blue button right in the middle of the screen.
Do what it tells you to and as they say in these parts, voilà! I’ve never actually heard anyone say that in real life, but hey.
If you haven’t seen this, you need to now!
Once in there, you’ll find all manner of brilliant menu options for both Facebook and Instagram. Toggle between the two using the icons in the centre at the top.
More additions predicted
They’re still rolling out additions for the latter so it’s bit limited, but we predict further big things are afoot. Saw this one coming weeks ago.
Having used it for the first time today, it is still limited in the fact that you can only schedule a week from now, for Instagram anyway. Scheduled Facebook posts are allowed much further into the future so fingers crossed that’s coming.
That said you can now post to both Facebook and Instagram simultaneously in real time from a browser, although the ‘Additional details can be added to your Facebook post after you’ve published to Instagram’ prompt didn’t actually pan out that way in practice today. I’m sure they’ll get that sorted soon.
It really does make the whole hashtagging thing easier.
My favourite bit is that I can now not only @mention up to 30 people and other brands (I won’t use them all), I can also add a location to scheduled posts along with the usual up to 30 hashtags. Are you excited to try it? I hope so.
When they give with one hand and take with another
Whether this is related or not, I’ve also noticed and am not quite so excited that the Pages Feed has disappeared again. Here’s a reminder of the workaround to get it back.
Thank you for making me more excited about social media marketing than I’ve been for a long time Facebook. Well, not that long. I do love my job!
Mel!
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