Many social media experts say to gain traction on your social accounts you have to show a consistent presence. The problem is, posting in real time is a guaranteed way to become inconsistent. The two main reasons are you may not know what to post about and you have to actually remember to post! The great news is there are various apps in which you can plan your social content and schedule it to post in advance. The only prerequisite for auto posting to Instagram is that you have a business Instagram account, so if you donโt have one, consider switching over soon! Today I will be sharing 7 apps that allow you to post to Instagram automatically- and not just a push reminder, an actual post to your feed!
1.Preview
This is the app that I currently use to plan and schedule my Instagram content. The app includes many features such as Reels and Story planning, but my favorite feature is editing. I love to simplify and streamline processes, so an all-in-one app that handles photo editing/adjusting, planning and posting is golden!
2. Planoly
This is also a feed planning and scheduling app with many features such as analytics and hashtag help. This is a popular app among content creators because of its ease of use and various options in the app.
3. Buffer
Buffer has been around for a while and itโs still one of my favorite tools for auto-posting content to social media. You can link different social platforms to your Buffer account such as Twitter and Pinterest, so if you want to auto-post to these other platforms this is a great option of an app to use. Buffer does not have a visual feed planner, however, you can view your scheduled content to know whatโs coming up in your content calendar.
4. Tailwind
Tailwind is also an app that will post contents to various social platforms automatically. There is a more robust calendar feature and their SmartSchedule feature is incredibly helpful by scheduling you IG posts based on the times that your audience is most active. Since standard posting time tips donโt apply to every account, this feature is awesome because you will get personalized information!
5. Hootsuite
This app has also been around for a LONG time. I remember when Twitter first started gaining traction, Hootsuite was there to make Twitter interaction more seamless. Now that Instagram is a part of Hootsuiteโs supported apps, you can also use this to auto-post. Like Buffer, this is not a visual feed planner, but you can still plan and view your IG content with Hootsuite.
6. Later
I have not had the pleasure to use Later yet, however, I often hear great things about it. The great feature with Later is that there are two views for your content- your feed planner and your calendar to see when things are scheduled to post. This is the best of both worlds because you need to see your feed in different ways for different reasons. Maybe one day you just want to know how much social content will be posted for the week, so you arenโt concerned with the visual feed at that moment. No need for a visual if thatโt not the information youโre seeking. Or maybe one day you just want to see if your feed flows well visually. There's no need for the calendar when youโre not looking for the content schedule. Having both options in one app accommodates both situations and sounds like a time-saver to me!
7. Facebook Creator Studio
This Facebook feature is becoming more and more popular. Why not just use the tools available from the company that owns the app, right? With Facebook Creator studio, you can plan and schedule your Instagram content (Facebook as well), and view analytics. I tend to trust/believe the stats provided by the company that owns the app being used because they are more vested in the data being accurate since it is their platform. There is also an app for Creator Studio, so creating and scheduling your content is even that much more of a breeze.
These are the most popular platforms being used to auto-post to Instagram. There are only a select few that Facebook has provided this type of API access to, so if an app is allowed to auto-post, itโs a great sign in their security and various protocols to keep your data protected.
One last thing to note- when you post to Instagram automatically, itโs good to be aware of the times so you can be around to respond to comments! Engagement is the key of social media, so itโs not cool to auto-post and never show up. That totally defeats the purpose of social media.
Do you use any Instagram feed planners to auto-post? If so, who do you use and if not...go ahead and jump on it! The sooner you do, the sooner you can start gaining back time in your day to work on growing your business and less time trying to remember what and when to post to Instagram in realtime.