How To Schedule Instagram Posts: A Detailed Guide

Table of contents

Open Table of contents

• Benefits of scheduling Instagram posts 
  • 1. It saves time 
  • 2. Takes care of aesthetics
  • 3. Takes care of consistency
  • 4. Post from PC
  • 5. Manage More Accounts 
• How to schedule Instagram posts?
• Instagram scheduling tools 
  • 1. Later.com 
  • 2. Hopper HQ
  • 3. SkedSocial (ScheduGram)
• Wrapping up!
• The shorter version

Benefits of scheduling Instagram posts 

1. It saves time 

Let’s start with the most obvious benefit and the biggest reason why many people decide to use scheduling tools for Instagram. 

Your calendar is probably quite busy, and some things can slip through your mind. 

If it happens once, it might not be a big deal but if you continuously slack with posting on Instagram the chances of your account getting big are quite slim. 

Moreover, there are certain times of the day and week where posts are more viewed, and at those times you might have other obligations and not be able to post. 

Scheduling posts exactly when the time is right for your audience, and planning that ahead is a great benefit that comes from using scheduling tools.

That being said, you can take a few hours every week where you line up the visuals and content for the whole week or more, put them up on your social media calendar, and relax. 

The posts will be published automatically and you don’t need to think about it again, until the next time you’re scheduling. 

2. Takes care of aesthetics

Instagram is a visual social media platform and that makes aesthetics extremely important for every profile. 

Whatever you’re selling on Instagram, you have to make sure that it looks nice and that it has the right colors, tons, and compositions presented in the grid. 

This can be quite hard to achieve when you’re posting pictures one by one and you decide on them at the moment. 

The overall look can be messy and not compatible. 

This is where scheduling tools can come in handy because when you’re planning more posts at a time you can see the bigger perspective of the grid and adjust it accordingly. 

Another thing that is a plus here, is that you can observe posts that need to go public in the future and catch some pictures that might not fit well into the plan but you initially thought they would. 

This way, you can optimize your future content the most you can. 

3. Takes care of consistency

Consistency is a must on Instagram and it plays a key role in how successful your account will be. 

If you are publishing posts consistently and frequently, the people that follow you will learn to expect your posts in the future. 

For example, let’s say that you are a cycling clothing business and you share results of relevant races all the time.

In the future when a certain race is happening your audience will think of your profile when they want to see who won or what are the highlights of the event. 

This means that by being consistent, you will build up loyalty among your followers on Instagram.

4. Post from PC

Sometimes switching back and forth between your PC and phone can be an exhausting process. 

If you are a social media manager, it might be quite easier to create and schedule the content through a desktop. 

You might have the needed content in your PC because you are editing the images there, so you should have the opportunity to post them on Instagram without re-sending them to your phone. 

Editing the images and videos is also quite easier on the desktop than on a phone. 

You can also spot more things on a bigger screen like for example typos, or some details in the images that are not quite fit for publishing. 

Relevant: Make money with Instagram

5. Manage More Accounts 

If you are a social media manager and you deal with multiple profiles, scheduling posts might be the best thing that ever happened to you. 

And I’m not overstating. 

It is quite difficult to keep track of one single account, let alone plan and post from several Instagram accounts. 

If you want to be more organized and effective, leave publishing posts to the tool that will take care of automatically. 

Your only job would be to oversee the whole process and fix things that need fixing. 

This way, you can spend less time executing repetitive tasks and have more time and energy to be creative when it comes to Instagram content. 

How to schedule Instagram posts?

The easiest way to do scheduling on Instagram is by using the Instagram Creator Studio. 

The Creator Studio was first available only for Facebook, but then Instagram was incorporated and people are now allowed to edit images, add Instagram captions and tags, set locations, and schedule posts for both social media platforms. 

The process of connecting your Instagram to the Creator Studio is quite easy and everybody can do it. 

First, you need to do the following things: 

1. Make sure that you have both a Facebook Page and an Instagram account 
2. Make sure they are connected 
3. Be certain that you are using the right profile or Creator Account 
4. Open the Creator Studio on your desktop and click the Instagram icon
5. If you have a Facebook page that is already connected to the specific account click to connect to that page
6. If you don’t have a Facebook page connected to an Instagram account, click “Connect to Instagram”

Once you are connected the process is quite easy.

1. Choose the content that you want to schedule. You can do this either by choosing images and videos from your computer or from your Facebook page.
2. Crop your images if you need to 
3. Add a caption and location if you want to 
4. Click on the arrow on the right of the “Publish” button, and select “Schedule”
5. Appoint the wanted date and time

That’s it. The posts will be published when you appointed them, and you don’t need to get involved anymore. 

The minus side of this feature is that not everybody can use it. Only business accounts and Instagram influencers can. 

Instagram scheduling tools 

There are a lot of third-party tools out there that can help you with your quest to properly schedule your Instagram posting. 

Some of the best ones are the following: 

1. Later.com 

Later is one of the most used tools for scheduling Instagram posts and with a reason. 

You can get different types of plans, one of which is a free version. 

With the free version, you will be able to add one account and schedule up to 30 photos per month. 

You can also search and repost content with the free version. If you want more functionalities, you can choose some of the paid accounts with starting prices at just $7.5 per month. 

If you need scheduling for multiple accounts, there are plans suitable for you as well. 

2. Hopper HQ

Another good tool is Hopper HQ. They offer quite some functionalities that you can use.

You can post and schedule posts even from your phone, post automatically with no reminders, and post both images and videos.

The good thing about Hopper HQ is that it’s Instagram approved so no spam accounts. 

The only free option they offer is a 14-day trial period where you can check out the functionalities and see if the tool suits your needs. 

Otherwise, their plan prices start at $19 per month. 

If you choose to pay annually, the prices are lower. 

3. SkedSocial (ScheduGram)

Another very used tool among the Instagram schedulers in ScheduGram. 

It offers quite some features like uploading photos and videos from the web, editing images, bulk uploading, managing more accounts, access to multiple users to manage the content, etc. 

The pricing starts at $25, and there are several plans available with different functionalities. 

If you want a free trial, they are granting a 7-day trial where you can explore the tool.

There are a lot of other tools that you can choose from like Crowdfire, Viraltag, Onlypult, Machinegram, Buffer, and many others.

Wrapping up!

To sum up, whatever way you choose to schedule your posts, making that decision will be a life-changer for you and the path to getting more Instagram followers.

It doesn’t matter if you are a small business that is just starting to grow its Instagram account, or a social media manager that works with tens of different accounts- you will be thankful for making this decision.

As we’re all aware time is invaluable and spending yours on the right tasks and creative ways is what will make you even better at what you do. 

When making the decision on which tool to use, try to define first what features are important to you and then do deep research on all the available options. 

Maybe even try the free trial versions on some of the tools available and see how it goes and what works for you the best. 

Got some helpful information? Check some of my other “how to” posts:

• YouTube subscribers – how to increase them? 
• How do I use Google analytics? 
• All you need to know about Twitter marketing

Drop a comment letting me know what to write about next when it comes to Instagram.

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The shorter version

If you’re reading this because the workflow it describes is eating your week, that’s the kind of loop I build AI agents for. Two build slots open at a time.