How to Schedule Posts on Instagram

Are you a management wizard who already has a ton of user-generated content pre-planned and ready to be posted on your business Instagram account? You cannot post it all at once. Expert content creators recommend a steady regularity between social media posts (ideally a gap of two days to one week), including Instagram stories. So, do you think the next step would usually be setting up reminders for the successive posts? No need if you know how to schedule posts on Instagram without wasting much time! And we can get you trained to start scheduling fast as a bunny. But before doing that, let us understand the benefits of scheduling posts on Instagram.

Benefits of Scheduling Instagram Posts

Maintaining regularity between Instagram posts isn’t the only benefit of scheduling tools. These automatic posts come with a whole host of other advantages.

• More Time for Doing Other Social Tasks

When you schedule posts on Instagram, they are automatically uploaded to the app at the stipulated hour. This automatic posting saves a lot of time compared to manual posting schedules, which you can use to do other social tasks on the platform. 

• More Time for Developing Quality Content

While the frequency of posting does matter, it will all go to waste if you don’t have any good quality content to share. The ability to schedule Instagram posts leaves you with enough time to work on original content rather than going for content curation. That means enough time to develop exactly the kind of quality content based on social media analytics that your business needs.

• Updating Your Content Strategy

Remember those days when we used to scramble through our drafts to choose a post to upload on Instagram just to meet our weekly deadline? After all, our followers expect new content every week. With the scheduling feature, you don’t need to worry about posting at all. You can use the time saved to update your content strategy into a best-performing content campaign. A pro tip: add more carousel posts to your feed!

• Focus More on Organic Growth

When you don’t have to constantly worry about timing your posts, you can focus on growing your followers organically. Better yet, you can hire an organic growth service like SimplyGram and concentrate on the other aspects of expanding your business on Instagram. These other aspects could be anything, from improving your engagement ratio to planning a comprehensive marketing strategy.

Scheduling Instagram posts frees up much of your time to accomplish other social tasks that you may not have considered doing so far. So the question on your mind probably is, can you schedule a post on Instagram and set something up for those other tasks as well? The answer is controversial. The official “Creator Studio,” now called “Meta Business Suite,” can help you do something like that, but it is not artificial intelligence to completely manage your account in your place.

How to Schedule Instagram Posts Using Creator Studio (Meta Business Suite)

Creator Studio is a tool that lets Facebook and Instagram users manage their accounts efficiently. It was recently incorporated into the Meta Business Suite, an all-inclusive, popular platform to manage your Facebook and Instagram needs. Scheduling Instagram posts using the Creator Studio is easy. But you will need to have a Facebook page to access the Meta Business Suite. Here’s how to create a new page on Facebook.

1. Login to your FB account.
2. Scroll down to the bottom of the left pane and click “Pages,” followed by “Create New Page.”
3. Type in the “Page Name” and select the “Category” of the content.
4. Hit the “Create Page” button.

Once you have created the Facebook page, head to the Meta Business Suite and log in with your Instagram or Facebook account. You can easily understand how to schedule posts on Instagram through the instructions in the Suite. To simplify the process, here are the basic steps.

• Post Scheduling on Desktop

1. On your Meta Business Suite’s dashboard, click “Posts & Stories,” “Content,” or “Planner.”
2. Select the “Create Post” button.
3. From the two options and show up, choose “Instagram Feed.”
4. Add the content of your post (images, text, captions, etc.).
5. Instead of clicking the “Publish” button, click the “Schedule” button.
6. Select the date and time you want to publish the post and hit “Schedule” again.

• Scheduling on Mobile

1. Open the Meta Business Suite and tap the “Post” button.
2. Select your Instagram account.
3. Add the content of your post (images, text, captions, etc.).
4. Tap the “Schedule for later” option.
5. Set your preferred time and date, and tap “Schedule.” You will get a mobile notification on the date you’ve set!

Scheduling Instagram Posts for Businesses

It’s great to be able to schedule posts for a personal profile, especially if you tend to create content quite often. But the scheduling features truly shine for businesses. You, as a business owner, can schedule as many posts as you want. The steps for scheduling posts for Instagram business accounts remain the same as above.

Did you know that you can schedule posts up to 90 days in advance? Thus, if your business posts new content daily, you can create 90 different posts and select various scheduled times and dates for those. The drawback of the Meta Business Suite/ Creator Studio is that you can schedule Instagram posts manually only, one at a time. But the added benefits of the Suite are the detailed analytics they provide. For scheduling content in bulk, you may consider using third-party social media management tools.

How to Make the Best Out of Your Scheduled Posts?

Now that you can schedule posts on Instagram, a few questions may still linger in your mind. You may be wondering how can you schedule a post on Instagram in the most efficient manner. Is there a particular social media strategy to follow? How can you make the most out of your scheduled posts? All your questions will be answered with these simple tips and tricks.

• Schedule as if Your Post Is Going Live Right Now

When scheduling multiple posts, you tend to add the content as quickly (often haphazardly) as possible, thinking that you will have time later to edit the post. You won’t! Chances are, you will completely forget about the posting time, and your slipshod, unpolished content will go live without getting the required edits. Don’t think of scheduling as saving a post to draft. Schedule it as if the content will go live right away, open to thousands of followers and millions of potential customers.

• Schedule Content for the Peak Hours

The peak hours of Instagram are usually the opposite of the real-life peak hours. The working hours of most people are 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. So they will normally be active post 5:00 PM. And don’t forget the hour-long lunch (around 1:00 PM). Instruct your marketing team to schedule posts in these optimal timeframes and see the magic!

• Scheduling Excessively Ahead of Time? Not Recommended

Social media trends tend to change quite often. A particular type of content may be popular right now, but it may become outdated in a matter of weeks. You don’t want to post stale content on your business profiles, do you? We recommend that you don’t schedule further than a week in advance.

Conclusion

Scheduling Instagram posts is vital because it allows you to maintain a consistent and active presence on the platform, ensuring that your followers stay engaged with your content. By planning and scheduling your posts in advance, you can effectively manage your time and streamline your social media marketing efforts. Scheduling Instagram posts is easy with the Meta Business Suite, the official tool by Meta. You can also use third-party apps for this purpose if you want. Now that you know how to schedule posts on Instagram, you may want to focus on growing the number of followers on your business account. Our organic web service, SimplyGram, will help you on your way!