Written by
Julia CohenPosted last year
According to research by the Pennsylvania State University, the best times to post your content on Instagram are between 8-9 PM. Content posted during this timeframe always receives more interactions.
So, whether youâre a business or a Creator, scheduling your Instagram content can help improve your profile performance. When you plan your Instagram posts in advance, you donât have to constantly worry about whether or not youâre posting at the right time, if you posted at all, or how much content you have left before you have to create a new batch. Plus, your content will always arrive at your audienceâs screen the moment they come online!
In todayâs guide from Flick, weâre going to walk you through how you can schedule your Instagram posts, optimize your calendar to your most successful posting times, and analyze your results â all in one! Letâs go.
Jump to a section â¨
Is it safe to schedule Instagram posts?
In short, the answer is yes â as long as you are using a tool that plays by Instagramâs rules (like Flick!). Learn more about the safety of scheduling Instagram posts here.
How do you schedule Instagram posts? đ¤
There are two different ways you can schedule posts for Instagram â either by using a third-party automation tool, like Flick, or by using Facebookâs own desktop scheduler, which should be linked to your Facebook page and Instagram account.
You may wonder: âWhy should I buy third-party schedulers when Facebook has one for free?â
Itâs not without reason that many successful Instagram influencers and content creators prefer to use third-party schedulers. Although they are (usually) charged services, they come with better features and support than Metaâs freemium tool.
Within these two options, there are also two different ways to schedule: auto-posting and push notification posting. A post can be set to go live at a specific time, without you having to manually post anything (auto-posting), or you can be reminded via notification to publish a post (push notification posting).
Can you schedule Instagram Stories and Reels? đš
Yes, you can schedule both Stories and Reels! You can now auto-schedule your Instagram Stories inside Flick. Want to auto-publish your Stories? Hereâs how to do that:
- All you have to do is log in to your Flick account
- Click on âSchedulingâ on the left-hand side of the screen
- To upload your Story, click on âNew Postâ
- Make sure youâre only uploading to Instagram, and click âStoryâ
- Upload your content or select content from your media library
- Select the date and time you want the Story to post
- Click âScheduleâ and youâre done!
Want to auto-publish your Reels? Hereâs what to do!
- Go to your Flick account and click âschedulingâ on the side
- Upload your Reel to Flickâs Media Library
- Write out your caption, add hashtags, location, and more
- Crop the video if you need to
- Select the date and time to schedule your Reel
Et voilĂ ! Flick will automatically push the Reels onto your Instagram account at the exact time and date you set!
đĄ Flick tip: Due to API restrictions, only original audio can be used for auto-publishing. Flick doesnât have access to music, so be sure to add the sound to your Reels before uploading to our Scheduler.
Can you schedule an Instagram carousel? đź
Yes! You can schedule and auto-schedule an Instagram carousel using Flick!
If you want to auto-publish an Instagram carousel post with Flick, itâs super simple!
- Go to your Flick profile and click âSchedulingâ on the left-hand side
- Click âNew Postâ in the upper right-hand corner
- Upload your content from the Media Library and/or upload new files
- Drag and drop the images in the order youâd like them uploaded on your profile
- Write out your caption, add a location, add your hashtags, select the time youâd like it posted, and schedule!
How to schedule Instagram posts using Flick â
To schedule a post using Flick, youâll need to have your Facebook account connected to the app (if youâre already subscribed, this should be the case anyway!).
You can then navigate to the post scheduler, where you should see a blank calendar, just asking for content to be scheduled into it.
The calendar can be set to âWeekâ or âMonthâ to suit your posting schedule.
To the left side is your Media Library. You can upload and store all the contents you want to share on your Instagram account. Just drag and drop files from your computer!
Each file can be marked with âUsedâ and âUnusedâ, and you can filter the Media Library as such. That way, you wonât accidentally post the same picture twice.
In the scheduler, to make a new post, press the blue â+ New Postâ button at the top right-hand corner of the screen.
Alternatively, you can drag and drop the picture you want to upload onto the calendar, automatically turning it into a new post. All you have to set the precise time and add the metadata, like captions and hashtags!
In this screen, you can choose to upload either onto one or many social media platforms.
At the moment, Flick supports scheduling for Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn.
Next, import your favorite hashtags saved in your Collections in Flick. All the hashtags generated by Flick are optimized to have the highest chance of Reach and view.
The next step is to finish up your post! Trim the video or image, edit the thumbnail, add captions, location tags, etc.
Now that you have gotten a finished post, you can choose to schedule it for auto-post (or push notification post) or save it as a draft. Saving it as a draft can be useful if you donât have the content to upload yet and are merely using a placeholder.
When you start to choose the upload time and date, Flick will suggestâbased on live view dataâthe best time to upload your content to maximize view and reach.
If your post, for some reason, canât be properly scheduled, we will notify you of the issue via email. And even if you set the upload mode to âAutoâ, weâll still send you a notification when your content goes live. This way, youâll always stay on top of your Instagram account operation!
Running multiple accounts? You can also connect them to Flick! That way, Flick can serve as the âcentral commandâ for your social media accounts and keep all your data and posting schedule in one place!
How to schedule a post using Facebook â
To schedule an Instagram post using Facebook, youâll need to have a Business or Creator account, and a Facebook page that is linked to said account. Click on the page, then select âPublishing Toolsâ from the lefthand column. Here, you will be able to draft a new post on either your Facebook or Instagram page, by selecting the âcreate a new postâ button. You can upload a photo or video, add your caption & location, tags and schedule for your selected date and time. Facebookâs native scheduler doesnât offer the best times to post, or suggested hashtags, so youâd still need to do this manually.
How to schedule Instagram posts on your phone đ˛
On the go, or just not feeling a Desktop scheduler? You can also schedule posts directly from the Flick or Facebook Business Suite Mobile Apps.
Within the Flick app, youâll still be able to follow the exact same process as on the desktop, in order to schedule your posts, and youâll also get a view of upcoming content in case you need to swap things around or make a caption tweak at the last minute.
Compare the usefulness of Flick to Facebookâs own app, and youâll see that Flick is considerably more intuitive.
In Facebookâs Business Suite Mobile App, youâll also be able to publish your content in a similar way to their desktop option, youâll just have the same, limited access to your content library, options for hashtags, and auto-commenting.
Tips and tricks to grow your account with Instagram scheduling
Scheduling your posts is an excellent way to improve your profileâs visibility. But this only applies when you use the scheduling function correctly. But there are a few rules of thumb when it comes to Instagram scheduling if you want to see the best results possible:
Pay attention to the best times to post â°
Posting at a time when your audience is online will give you the most engagement, and will likely push your posts more rapidly to new audiences. If you post at a time when no one is online, you wonât get the momentum you need to rank on hashtags, have your content promoted, or gain the opportunity to reach new audiences. So, how do you know when the best time to post is?
Itâs different for everyone, but you can either find out through your scheduling tool or directly on Instagram. If youâre using a platform like Flick, it can calculate and suggest your best times to post, based on previous post success, and when your audience is most frequently online. You can also see these analytics within Instagramâs insights tab, however, they arenât as granular and are thought to be less accurate.
Once you have known the posting time, all thatâs left to do is create your content and queue it up in the schedule for automatic upload!
Use the right hashtags #ď¸âŁ
Specific hashtags will increase your postsâ performance, depending on how easy or difficult it is to rank on them. Certain hashtags can improve the performance of your posts, depending on how easy or difficult it is to rank on them. The more competitive the hashtag, the harder it will be for you to rank on.
Your ability to rank depends on how competitive a hashtag is, in comparison to your account. As a result, easy yet relevant and popular hashtags are always sought-after by Instagrammers.
Fortunately, Flick can give you a headstart by combing Instagramâs data and finding these hashtags for you.
For more information, you can read this post about finding and selecting the right hashtags with Flick via this link.
đĄ Flickâs tip: Want to get the best hashtags for your caption without scrolling through endless hashtags? Flickâs AI Assistant will do the heavy lifting for you! All you have to do is enter your caption and the AI Assistant will discover the best hashtags for your captionâin seconds. Start your free 7-day trial with Flick to get started.
Track your performance đ
Within Flick, you have access to your Analytics, where you can directly compare the results of your scheduled posts, to find out which days bring you the most growth and engagement. This can help you make decisions as to how often you post on a given day, as well as whether itâs worth shifting your strategy to publish on certain days and not others. This will also help you plan out your Instagram content.
Remember to still engage with your audience đŹ
Just because your posts are going out automatically, saving you time and stress, doesnât mean you should forget about them altogether. It is still vitally important to keep track of and respond to your comments and DMs after you post if you want to grow a dedicated community. When you get a notification that your content has been successfully published, why not check in every 30 minutes, to ensure youâre up to date on your responses?
Plus, being able to schedule and automate the publication of your content can be a huge time-saver. You can use your spare time to do other things, like creating new content for your viewers or engaging with them!
We hope you loved getting stuck into our guide on how to schedule your Instagram posts. Now youâve got everything you need in order to get scheduling, start saving time by being more organized and grow your following as a result. If youâd like to check out another of our handy Instagram guides, just click here!
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