Content Scheduling on Instagram

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Karen Lin

Instagram Tools | Sep 22, 2021

Want More Real Instagram Followers?

Instagram success, whether you have a brand or personal account, is largely defined by engagement rate. The busier your account is with regards to likes and comments, the more successful it is. Engagement, in turn, is determined by the kind of content you publish and also when you publish it. “Organic” is a big word when it comes to engagement, but programming content posting can actually be beneficial to your engagement success.   

Why You Should Schedule Your Content Posting

Automation often helps increase efficiency, and while Instagram discourages the use of automation tools and bots, content programming is acceptable and also practical. 

Scheduling the publication of your content offers several advantages:

  • It will save you time
  • You don’t have to worry about forgetting to post your content
  • You can optimize your content posting schedules based on analytics
  • Content programming is more convenient as it can be done via your computer
  • You can design an editorial calendar to strengthen your content strategies
Content Programming on Instagram

How Content Programming Works

Content programming on Instagram simply involves the use of a third-party application to schedule your posts. These apps allow you to create your posts in advance and then line them up for publication according to a schedule you set. Publishing the content can be automated or it can still be done manually with the help of notification reminders. Depending on the app, you can program your content for scheduled posting on your computer or through the mobile app. 

Content Programming Tools for Instagram

Instagram allows the scheduling of posts via the platform’s own posting options or by using a third-party app. Instagram’s scheduling option, as well as some third-party apps, don’t require monitoring as the scheduled content automatically goes live. Other apps only offer content programming with the help of notification alerts, i.e., you receive an alert to publish a saved content draft. 

Content scheduling tools are suitable for businesses as regular posting is critical to constant brand presence engagement, especially during specific hours when the brand’s reach is known to be at its highest. Automated content posting can help improve a brand’s marketing efficiency and makes it easier to create a regular stream of new and carefully crafted content. 

Here are some of the most useful auto-posting tools for Instagram. 

Publishing Content from Your Mobile App

  • Later (Formerly Latergramme). This is a  widely used Instagram scheduler app for mobile — but can also be used from a computer. It offers free, monthly scheduling of up to 30 contents to your Instagram account. However, the app does not do auto-posting; it sends alerts to your mobile phone to remind you to publish your saved content.   
  • TakeOff. This smart scheduling app is very user-friendly and is free for both Android and iOS. You can set the number of posts you want to upload and schedule them throughout the day. The app also schedules posting based on the best times to reach your target audience; it also offers suggestions for hashtags and the best times to publish your content. 
Content Scheduling on Instagram

Web-Based Publishing

  • Hootsuite. This well-known app is an approved third-party automation tool for Instagram. It offers a wide variety of options for scheduling and auto-posting content, which includes single photos and videos, carousel, and stories. It also offers wonderful editing tools to optimize content prior to scheduling and publishing. 
  • ScheduGram. The web-based app has an easy-to-use interface for uploading images and videos, and for scheduling posts. It can be used to post different contents to multiple Instagram accounts and also allows multiple users to make IG account management easier.  
  • Onlypult. This app is one of the most affordable scheduler and publishing tool for Instagram, and can also be used to post content to multiple Instagram accounts. It has a clean user interface and offers in-app editing of photos and videos. 
  • InPic (Formerly InstaPic). This is a Windows app that offers content editing tools and various other tools for Instagram account management.  

Final Thoughts

Remember that using third-party automated tools on Instagram is mostly discouraged. The platform closely monitors spam-like and bot-like activities, so make sure to only use legitimate third-party apps for scheduling and auto-publishing content. At the same time, keep in mind that Instagram imposes limits for specific activities on the platform, including the number of posts per hour and per day. 

Scheduling and auto-publishing apps can be invaluable in optimizing content creation and marketing. With the advantage of being able to plan your posts in advance, you should also keep track of how many posts you schedule throughout the day to make sure that your account doesn’t get flagged for spamming. 

Lastly, don’t forget to use Instagram analytics to choose the best times to schedule and publish your content. Most of the apps mentioned above also offer their own analytics tools to help you better plan your content publishing strategy.