Auto Posting to Instagram took us all by surprise in early 2018. No more waiting for a smartphone notification to tell you to post to Instagram. No more missing your notifications and having the best times to post pass you by. No more weekend and vacation reminders that social media marketing never takes time off.
In a perfect world, though, you’d be able to choose on a post-by-post basis whether you want to schedule Instagram Stories with notification reminders or schedule an image to auto post. AND, you’d never have to worry about posts failing because your image is the wrong size. Well, welcome to that perfect world! 😍
Let’s take a look at how you might schedule a post to publish automatically and one that uses notification reminders. First up though, what’s the big deal with Instagram Stories?
Posting Instagram stories is an unbeatable way to share your behind-the-scenes stories, your product updates, or even (if your account is verified or if you have a business account with more than 10,000 followers) a blog post image with a link to the post! In fact, our first attempts of posting a story with a link resulted in a 32% click-through rate! You can get creative with Instagram stories with a day-in-the-life stories, a takeover event, or even a mini slideshow.
But, setting aside the time to keep your story active (each will disappear after 24 hours) can be a daunting challenge. And sometimes, well, you’re out making memories and don’t want to stop to record a story. Enter story scheduling!
Scheduling an Instagram story is as easy as scheduling an Instagram post! With just a little bit of forethought, you can have an entire week’s worth of Instagram stories ready to go in under an hour. Don’t believe me? Check out this Instagram hack Tailwind Marketing Manager Melissa Megginson came up with!
Try links in stories for unbelievable click-through rates. One of ours had a 32% CTR!While your reasons for scheduling a story are as varied as can be, in this case, I’m posting a story (a static image) which will link to a blog post – THIS blog post, in fact! To entice more people to check out my story, I’ll also auto post a regular Instagram update and let people know that there is a link to the blog post in the story (your account must have at least 10K followers to add a link). Here’s how I do it:
Because my account auto posts by default, I’ll need to opt to receive a notification reminder. Click the new posting method menu (where you’ll see “Auto Post” selected by default) on any post in either your Drafts or Schedule page and select iOS or SMS (for Android) notification reminder.
The first time you choose to use notification reminders, you’ll hit the “Enable” button to be taken through a quick one-time setup. Then just choose iOS (Apple devices) or SMS (for Android) and wait for your notification!
3. When you get the notification reminder to publish the story, click on “Yes! Let’s do this” after you’ve verified you are logged into the correct account. We will automatically copy in your link here.
4. The image will open up in Instagram. Select “Story”.
5. In the Story editing screen, you can add the link we copied for you by clicking on the little link icon.
6. Hit “Your Story” and you’re done!
7. Your regular photo post from step one will automatically post to Instagram at your scheduled time.
If you want to schedule a video story (using a clip up to 15 seconds in length) to Instagram, you’ll need a slightly different method, because it’s not yet possible to directly schedule videos for posting on Instagram.
For the sake of consistency in this case, I’m again posting a story (this time a video) which will link to this blog post. As I did above, I’ll also schedule a regular Instagram post and let people know that there is a link to the blog post in the story. Here’s how to do it:
Will you use this method to schedule your Instagram stories? Have you figured out another method to schedule your Instagram stories? Let us know!
Ready to give it a go? Get a free trial of Tailwind for Instagram now!
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will there ever be an android version of the mobile app. could really use this new tip while i'm out and about here in tampa.
Hi, Tony! I don't have an ETA on that, but it's coming! You can send a message to help@tailwindapp.com and we will make sure you're among the first to get updates! Have fun in Tampa! ~ Alisa
Thats great but how do get a verified account?
Hi Liz. It's in testing right now, so there isn't anything you can do to speed it up. But, you can still schedule stories! ~ Alisa