How to Schedule Instagram Posts in 2024

More than 100 million photos are uploaded on Instagram daily. Staggering numbers, aren’t they? And to be visible in this clutter on your audience’s feed, it becomes crucial to be consistent with your posting.

But let’s be honest.

Maintaining such consistency and quality over time takes a lot of work.
Hence, a tool that schedules Instagram posts becomes an important weapon to have in a marketer’s arsenal to keep up with this difficult task.

By scheduling Instagram posts in advance, you will:

• Save time by automating the tedious process of manual posting.
• Utilize that extra time by having brainstorming sessions to create campaign strategies.
• Be able to make high-quality posts that resonate with the audience.
• Have time to think of solid captions that perfectly match your content.
• Interact with your audience in the extra time to form a connection with them.

As a result, almost all of the pro-marketers schedule Instagram posts.

If you have recently transitioned from handling a single account to managing multiple accounts, then scheduling is a must for you.

And if you are wondering how to schedule Instagram posts for free, here are three ways to do it:

1. Using Meta Business Suite.
2. Using Instagram mobile application
3. Using SocialPilot’sInstagram post scheduler

You’re now standing at a crossroads, wondering which is the best way for scheduling Instagram posts, right?

Hold your horses,

It is not the time to make a decision just yet. First, let us see how you can schedule Instagram posts using these tools. After learning, you’ll have an idea of which tool is convenient for you and your business.

How to Schedule Instagram Posts Using the Instagram App?

Professional accounts on Instagram can use the Instagram mobile application to schedule their Posts, Reels, and Carousels. It is an easy way to schedule your tweets while on the go.

Let’s break down the steps:

1. Open your Instagram mobile application and tap on the “+” icon to upload your Post or Reel
2. Edit your Post or Reel as usual, using the inbuilt editing feature of Instagram, and tap on the next
3. In the caption window, locate the “Advanced Settings” option and tap on it
4. Toggle on the “Schedule Post” option
5. Select your desired date and time for the post to go live.
6. After adding the time and date, tap on “Back (←)” and tap “Share”

You can view and make edits to your scheduled posts by navigating to the “Schedule Content” section within your account’s “Settings and Privacy” menu.

How to Schedule Instagram Posts Using Meta Business Suite

If you have a business account on Instagram, then you can use Facebook’s Meta Business Suite to craft and schedule Instagram posts.

Follow these steps to schedule your Instagram posts using Meta Business Suite.

1. Go to business.facebook.com and log in to your Facebook account
2. Click on “Create Post”
3. From the ‘Post to’ box, select ‘Instagram’
4. Upload your media and preview the post on the right-hand side of the screen
5. Scroll down to the scheduling options and Select ‘Schedule’
6. Enter the date and time as per your requirement
7. Click on ‘Schedule’

Now, you know how to schedule a post on Instagram using Meta Business Suite. However, the Meta Business Suite may not be sufficient if you’re looking for advanced features like collaboration, bulk scheduling, and more.

That’s where third-party tools like SocialPilot come into the picture. SocialPilot’s comprehensive social media management tool offers advanced features to manage and schedule your social media content across multiple platforms, including Instagram.

So, if you’re an individual, brand, or agency handling multiple Instagram accounts, SocialPilot is the perfect tool to streamline your social media management and take your Instagram strategy to the next level.

How to Schedule Instagram Posts With SocialPilot

When you have a great marketing strategy to execute where you have to post cross-platform, it is convenient to use a third-party Instagram scheduling tool like SocialPilot.

SocialPilot goes a step further in Instagram scheduling and allows you to create content drafts by directly uploading files from Google Drive. It also enables hassle-free automated posting with the help of advanced functionalities. You can schedule feed posts, reels, carousel posts, stories, and Instagram ads using SocialPilot.

Note: In order to schedule posts on Instagram using any Instagram scheduling tool, you need to have an Instagram business account linked to a Facebook page.

Before we see a step-by-step process of seamlessly scheduling an Instagram post, sign up on SocialPilot and start your free trial (no credit card details required!) and follow the steps with us as we proceed.

Let’s dive in.

Step 1: Connect your Instagram Profile

First things first, you need to log in to SocialPilot and connect your Instagram Business account by clicking on “Connect Business.”

Step 2: Prepare your Queue Timelines

After linking your Instagram account, you’ll be redirected to the Manage Accounts page.

As the name suggests, you’ll be able to manage your linked accounts here.

Hover over an account, and you’ll see options like “Analytics,” “Pause Account,” “Edit,” and “Delete.”

If you’re a pro marketer and already know the active time of your audience, then click on “Edit” and add custom days and time slots for a particular account.

If you don’t know your audience’s active time, stick around until the end. We’ve got the solution for you!

Step 3: Create Post

This is the part where you will need to wear your creative cape.

Once the accounts are connected, go to the “Create Post” option in the SocialPilot sidebar.

Here, put your creative brain to work and compose your Instagram post using SocialPilot’s post composer. You can create a draft for all platforms or customize it for a particular platform.

You can also use SocialPilot’s AI Assistant to generate post captions and hashtags at lightning speed. Even if you’re experiencing a creative block, this tool has got you covered. With its Instagram-specific prompt templates and tone preset, you can churn perfect captions in seconds.

Access it by switching tabs from “Create Post” to “AI Assistant” in the top navigation bar.

You can also experience the power of AI Assistant right at this moment. Simply hop over to our Instagram caption generator, give it your topic, select a tone, and watch it whip up captivating captions that keep your audience engaged and drive them to take action.

Now, let’s come back to the steps. Since we are scheduling posts for Instagram, select the Instagram icon beside the original draft.

You can customize your post by selecting “Post,” “Story,” or “Reel.” With SocialPilot, you can directly schedule all formats of content directly without any mobile reminders for business accounts.

After composing your post, click on “post preview” to see how the post will look on the feed.

To further enhance your post, you can use advanced features like:

1. Image Editing: Use the built-in editor to fine-tune, crop, or apply filters to your images before publishing.
2. Creating posts using Canva: You can also go more creative by using the Canva integration inside the tool to craft your post.
3. Adding a custom field: You can create account-specific fields to automatically add any preset information (franchise address, legal disclaimer, tagline, hashtags, etc.) to your captions.
4. Instagram first comment: Keep your image caption clean and clear by putting your hashtags in your first comment.
5. Location Tagging: To expand your reach further, you can tag a target location for your post.

Step 4: Select Account and Scheduling Post

After customizing your post, it’s time to select the account.

On the right-hand side, you can see the list of accounts. Select the accounts where you want to publish your post.

As a marketer, you must manage multiple social media accounts for the same clients.

While scheduling instagram posts, selecting each account every time can be difficult for you.

SocialPilot saves you from this inconvenience by letting you create a group of accounts. One click and all the accounts are selected.

Pretty cool, right?

Here’s how you do it.

Click “Groups” from the SocialPilot sidebar and select “Create Groups.”

Select the accounts and give a name to your group.

Your post is created, and the accounts are selected; now, all that is left is to schedule this post.

Let’s discuss the different ways to schedule your Instagram post.

In the drop-down menu, you’ll find different ways of scheduling.

Remember the time slots we created earlier? Now it’s time to see how they fulfill their purpose.

If you select “Add to Queue,” your post will queue-in in the next available time slot.

Selecting “Share Next” will schedule the post at the next time slot after the time you set it for the schedule.

There’s no denying that your followers are not online 24/7. So they might miss your post the first time. You can reach the audience you missed the first time by repeating the post and gaining the missed engagement, traffic, and leads in the process.

Using SocialPilot, you can decide how many times you want your post to repeat in a day/days by selecting “Repeat Post.”

“Share Now,” as their name suggests, will share the post immediately.

If you want to schedule your post on a specific time & date other than your defined time slots, select the “Schedule Post” option.

Enter the date and time when you want your post to go live, and click “Schedule.”

Easier than brewing coffee!

And that’s not all,

You can also schedule posts for your personal profile by linking it to SocialPilot. You’ll receive a push notification on your phone via the SocialPilot app for your posts exactly when you have scheduled them for.

How to Schedule Instagram Posts in Bulk [Upto 500 Posts]

As a social media marketer, you have to deal with multiple things like events, campaigns, product launches, etc. While still keeping up with your social media posting throughout the month.

Naturally, you’d have already planned a month’s posts in a spreadsheet to be published. In that case, scheduling posts individually would be a hassle.

Lucky for y’all, using SocialPilot’s bulk schedule feature, scheduling up to 500 Instagram posts simultaneously is easier done than said.

Moreover, you can use this bulk schedule feature for multiple platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, Google Business Profile, etc.

That’s cool, right?

Let’s break down the process of scheduling multiple Instagram posts at once with bulk scheduling using SocialPilot.

Step 1: Upload your CSV file

Bulk scheduling is as easy as drag-dropping your CSV file.

Step 2: Review your Posts

Before publishing, it’s better to check again at the last minute for any errors in the posts.

Thereby, after uploading your CSV file, you’re directed to the preview page.

You can review all of the posts alongside their images and text content. You can make any required changes here.

Also, you can see the posts for whom you have assigned accounts in the CSV file and the posts for which you are yet to assign an account.

You can select the accounts for all the posts with no account assigned.

Now, click the “Select Account” button on the top right.

Step 3: One Click to do the Trick

One final step, click “Schedule Posts.”

Your posts are all scheduled and ready to be published once their time comes.

SocialPilot vs Meta Business Suite: Overview

Now you know how to schedule Instagram posts using both tools, it’s time to answer the question, “which one is the best for Instagram scheduling?”

The answer totally depends on your tool usage and your business’s scale.

Meta Business Suite is a handy tool if you’re a solopreneur or your focus is posting only on Facebook and Instagram.

But, if you’re an agency or social media marketer who posts across all the social channels, you need a dashboard that’s got them all.

Using SocialPilot, you can schedule your content for Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and more from one place. Moreover, you can post the same content across multiple social media channels without switching tabs.

Not just that,

SocailPilot also offers advanced features like a secure client management system, client approval workflows, bulk posting, sophisticated internal team management, and so much more! All of these features are missing from Meta Business Suite.

For a better understanding, here’s a comparison between the features of SocialPilot and Meta Business Suite.

Instagram Scheduling Best Practices

You know how to schedule posts on Instagram now. You can finally sit back and let the tool do the publishing, right?

Not quite.

You can’t line up posts on the calendar ahead of time and expect your Instagram to flourish automatically. You need to keep a few things in mind if you want your Instagram account to prosper.

But what are they?

Don’t worry! We have curated a list of best practices for Instagram scheduling for you guys.

1. Use the Best Times to Post on Instagram

Creating quality content and scheduling your Instagram post won’t fetch you any engagement if you publish them when your audience is inactive. You must post when your audience is most active to engage with your post.

Using SocialPilot’s Followers Online Activity in Analytics, you get a heat map that analyses the average number of followers active at each hour and day of the week in the given time range to provide you with the best time to post on Instagram.

You can even access the analytics of several Instagram accounts using the advanced reports feature. This will allow you to combine the analytics of multiple social accounts so you can track them from one place.

2. Keep a close eye on Content Calendar

As mentioned earlier, don’t schedule your content and forget about it. There may be times of crisis, or your content may not align with the current social space scenario.

In such cases, you should pause your Instagram scheduling and rethink.

With SocialPilot, pausing scheduled posts is as easy as clicking the pause icon of the account in Manage Accounts.

3. Don’t Bombard with Content

The benefit of scheduling Instagram posts is that you can increase the number of your posts without sacrificing their quality.

But that doesn’t mean you over-schedule your posts. If you increase your number of posts per day, your engagement will decrease. The reason for this is you are bombarding your audience with content without giving them time to engage with it.

If you have less than or equal to 1K followers, then the optimal number of posts is twice per day. But if you post more than that, your followers will have zero time to interact with your content.

And with so much content and no time to interact, your audience will be annoyed and probably unfollow you.

Remember, it’s not the number of posts that counts. What counts is how many people interact with that post. Give your audience a breather to interact with your content.

So try not to be spammy.

Conclusion

You need to start scheduling if you want to build a better presence on Instagram and free up more time in your busy day.

While it may appear straightforward, making the most of Instagram scheduling requires understanding the analytics of your account and how to engage followers effectively.

With the above tips and tools like SocialPilot, you can do just that and so much more!

So, what are you waiting for?

Get Set Schedule!