As an official Instagram Marketing Partner, Social Report has been granted early beta access to Instagram new direct Publishing features. For years, Instagram remained the only platform that did not allow tools like Social Report to publish directly.
As a result we had developed other options like mobile app notifications, sms and email. These days are finally over. You can now schedule directly to Instagram—just like you can to all other platforms.
Please review the below article to important setup steps you would need to take and few limitations that are currently in place.
Important Steps Required Before Scheduling Content to Instagram
1. Convert your Instagram Personal to Instagram Business
To be able to schedule posts to Instagram directly you will need to make sure that your Instagram Profile is an Instagram Business Profile. Converting to a business profile is simple, free and there are lots of good reasons for it. We explained this process in this article.
2. Reconnect Instagram profile to Social Report
Once you've converted your Instagram from Personal to Business, you need to reconnect it to Social Report by clicking the (+) sign on the upper right part of the page and re-authenticate the profile.
3. Reconnect Facebook profile to Social Report
Instagram Business requires a Facebook page attached to it. You would need to reconnect that Facebook page to Social Report as well. Even if your Facebook page is already connected - you still need to re-connected as this grants the necessary permissions.
You know that everything is setup correctly if your Instagram profile says 'Instagram Business' and 'Yes' for publishing.
Note: Any user with personal profile or those who have not followed the reconnection instructions will still have ability to schedule using mobile/sms/email.
Posting on Instagram for Business
1. Compose your message and attach the photo:
2. If your image does not follow Instagram image guidelines, you will be prompted to edit the image:
Aspect Ratio - between 0.8 to 1.91
Minimum Resolution - 150 x 150
Maximum Resolution - 1920 x 1080
3. Once you click edit, the image resolution will automatically be adjusted to optimal settings. If it is an aspect ratio issue, you would need to select "Crop" and edit the photo based on the provided aspect ratio requirements. The image's aspect ratio and resolution will appear on the lower left part of the photo editor screen and will be marked RED if it doesn't meet the minimum requirements.
4. You can also add comments in the Composer window (Note that this option only appears if you have Instagram selected as your target profile).
5. Once published the post should now appear directly in Instagram:
Limitations
Instagram is still working on their publishing and as a result few limitations do apply:
- While you can include the links in posts—they won't be clickable
- Currently only one image can be posted
- Posting of GIFs is not currently supported
- Posting videos is not currently supported
- Images must be within 0.8 to 1.91 aspect ratio range
- Minimum resolution: 150x150 (lower resolutions will be scaled up to the minimum)
- Maximum resolution: 1920x1080 (higher resolutions will be scaled down to the maximum)
Instagram is actively working on it and will add more features soon. Stay tuned for future updates.
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