In the past years, social media users have grown exponentially so that even the most credible brands use social media marketing to develop their business. From startups to established firms, every business wants to promote itself on social media. While Facebook, Twitter, and Google AdWords might be the preferred marketing mediums for businesses, Instagram has apparently become a favorite among marketing experts as well. With over 1 billion users, Instagram is among the top five social media companies in the world and is really popular among younger people. Well, with all the hype around social media marketing, it wouldn’t come as a surprise if you want to join the Instagram marketing bandwagon and start posting on a regular basis. However, what we all realize is the fact that, unlike other social media sites, managing an Instagram account with consistent posts and updates takes a lot of time. This is where the Instagram schedule software helps you get more productive. Our list of automated checklist software will help you increase your productivity even more. Social media management and scheduling tools allow you to schedule posts at your convenience and let the tool publish the photo according to the schedule automatically. For any social media and scheduling service to work with your Instagram account, note that you need a business profile.

How do I set up a business account on Instagram?

As stated above, in order for any automated scheduling software to work with your Instagram, you’ll need to convert it to a business account. Keep in mind that your Instagram account might already be connected to a Facebook page. If that’s the case, you can solve the issue after reading this article about fixing Instagram account connection problems. There are various social media management and scheduling tools online, but no single tool fits all sizes. We have selected the most reliable Instagram schedule software with a distinct set of features to help you find the one that meets your requirement. Therefore, let’s have a look at the best software for direct Instagram posting and scheduling. Most of these tools have a free plan or trial period that will help you determine their value.

What are the best social media automation tools?

Later – Great for beginners

Later is among the most popular applications for scheduling and posting. It is a social media management service that offers direct scheduling and publishing to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and more. For instance, in just a few minutes you can make and deploy your own chatbots on Twitter and Facebook with Sprout’s Bot Builder. The tool uses unique conversational components with rules-based logic that will engage the users and provide them with meaningful information. Sprout Queue helps you automatically publish your messages at scheduled times or when your audience is at its peak engagement. That’s because the ViralPost built-in technology analyzes your audience, engagement patterns, and other criteria to send and deliver the content at the right moment for the greatest impact. Another great feature is the Suggested Replies which formulates automated replies to make your job a lot easier when you answer Twitter messages. But that’s not all! Sprout Social measures your NPS and CSAT scores and sends automated surveys after every customer interaction. All in all, the solution is trusted and used by 30,000 world-class brands and organizations of all sizes so it’s definitely a strong choice to consider. Take a look at Sprout Social’s key features:

Strong automation features AI and machine learning algorithms Measures your NPS and CSAT scores Easy chatbots creation with great conversational components Publish messages at scheduled times or when the engagement rises

This service integrates a scheduling feature for Instagram posts and stories that lets you plan your posts in advance. You can prepare them, add them to the calendar, and Combin will automatically publish them on the time and date you set up. The app’s main aim is to make things simpler, so it will just post your scheduled content without any annoying reminders or notifications. The tool also has some image optimization features that let you crop out your image so it better fits the Instagram ratios. When it comes to Instagram stories, the system is pretty similar. You can select one or multiple images and schedule them to be posted as stories. Combin also includes other useful tools that can help you improve your social media presence. For example, it can give you a quick list of the accounts that do not follow you back. Not only that, but it can also give you a quick assessment of your audience. With machine learning, it will be able to distinguish real followers from bots and see how engaged these users are with your posts. Other key features of Combin include:

Add location tagging to your scheduled posts Manage hashtags and account tags Manage multiple accounts simultaneously Gender, language, and audience size targeting Automates repetitive actions

A less well-known feature of the app, specifically the Canva Pro app, is that it also lets you create scheduled posts for multiple social media apps. The cool thing about this app is that you can use it both to create and post your designs. Canva has tons of Instagram post presets that you can use as a basis for your own. The Content planner feature connects to your Instagram account and lets you post your design directly from Canva. You can create and schedule both Instagram stories and feed posts. You can find the feature in the main menu.Just like all the other features in Canva, this one is very simple and intuitive. When you open it, you get a calendar view with the current month. To schedule a post, select a day. Then you have two options: to create a new design that will be posted on that day, or choose a design you already made and saved into your Canva account. Then you just have to click the share button, pick Instagram or another social media platform of your choice, edit the date and time, set a caption for your post, and then press the Schedule Post button. That’s about it. You can schedule multiple posts for the same date and if there’s anything you want to change about your original scheduled post, you can easily do so by just selecting it from the calendar view. Besides Instagram, Canva also lets you connect and schedule posts for other popular platforms. These include Facebook pages and groups, Twitter, Pinterest, Linkedin, and Tumblr. You can connect multiple accounts of the same type. So if you want to schedule posts for more than just one Instagram account, you just have to add your credentials. Other key features of Canva include:

Drag and drop editor Templates and presets for all social media platforms Huge library of royalty-free images and videos In-app guidelines and courses

While the scheduling is a Canva Pro feature, you should know that the app has a free version that is somewhat limited but gives you a good understanding of what it has to offer. Plus, they do offer a 30-day free trial, if you want to try it out without commitment.

Visme – Great free version

Visme is another good option if you want to take care of all your endevaours in one place. It’s a graphic design app with several tools that will help you build your brand and create a marketing strategy. One of this tools is of course the Content Calendar. You have to connect your Instagram Business account with your Visme account. The process is straightforward. You get a calendar view, select the date you want to schedule a post for, and add your post. Visme has many social media templates. There’s a lot of diversity in its catalog. You will find presets for pretty much any type of post, from product promotions, campaigns, and more. If you want to create and implement your marketing strategy at a higher level, you can even use its marketing plan templates. This can be of help if your approach is more elaborate. It can be a good addition to the Content Calendar. Visme has many useful resources that will help understand how to successfully create your designs and how to implement them in your strategy. Other key features of Visme include:

Stock images and videos Support for animation and video editing Brand kit creator Drang and drop editor

Visme is available as a free tool, but also has a premium plan with some more advanced tools. The free version is however highly functional, with minimal limitations.

PromoRepublic – Useful analytics

When starting a small business or scaling up, you need a tool that could streamline things and make them quicker and easier. Especially when it’s about social media posting. Content creation does take a lot of time. But when you have the right tool, you can really grow your business. Spare yourself from the tedious task of constantly having to post things on various social media platforms. You won’t have to keep track of anything either. This tool can be mastered pretty fast and once it becomes a part of your working routine, you can plan everything and massively reduce the time spent before. Additionally, you can check how your posts fare on social media. Engagement rates will showcase the number of times your posts have been accessed by people and their reach rate. Beyond words are the facts, and you can test it yourself for free without a credit card to benefit its efficiency. Here’s a list of its key features:

Multiple social media app integration Engagement rate Quick scheduling SaaS support 5 offices across the globe and counting

SemRush is already used by 7 million marketing professionals all over the world to reach a wider audience on digital networks like Instagram. This platform will certainly help you interact with your customers or followers on social media. Using SEO-friendly content and informative It’s likely as well to automate your posts and schedule Instagram content in order to get more interaction and engagement from your online community. Semrush also sends an Instagram reminder on your email 5 minutes before you need to deploy a post which is extremely convenient. In other words, this social media automation service is everything you need for content management, SEO, advertising, and much more. Here’s a list of its key features:

Running technical SEO audit Track SERP positions daily Brand mentions tracking Actionable tips for SEO content Analyze traffic for your posts

It is a premium service but offers a free starter account for new users. Buffer makes it easy for business and marketing teams to analyze social media performance, schedule posts, and manage multiple accounts. Premium account members can add multiple team members and assign each account different access right. Buffer is also available as a smartphone app for Android and iOS and a browser extension for Chrome. Using the free account, you can enjoy three social media accounts and schedule 10 posts per profile. While the free account has access to the image editor and GIF and video uploader, it misses out on RSS feed, Calendar access, and advanced social media analytics features. The Pro account is divided between the premium, small and medium plans that offer more user access, posting slots, etc. depending on your business size. SPONSORED The working of Buffer is similar to Later. After creating an account, you need to link your Instagram account with the service. Next, schedule a post with media, and a caption and buffer will post the content to your account on time. Here’s a list of its key features:

Manage Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram accounts Add multiple team members and assign each account different access Analyze social media performance, schedule posts, and manage multiple accounts Diverse automation features Friendly, web-based interface with intuitive menus

⇒ Get Buffer It offers a limited free plan to the new users that offers access to 3 social profiles, 30 scheduled messages, and 1 user access.  Thirty scheduled messages mean you can only schedule 30 messages at any point unless the scheduled messages are deleted or published. The premium plan, on the other hand, comes with more features. It includes key performance metrics, automated post scheduling (no limit), increased ad spent limit, team message assignments, and more. You can also benefit from custom analytics reports that can be exported and increased user access with up to 35 social profiles limit. The Hootlet extension allows you to find content on any web page and curate a post from it. In addition, Hootsuite also allows you to import content from third-party cloud storage services including OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, and more. Hootsuite is a powerful social media management and scheduling platform with analytics and collaboration features. You can begin with the free plan to understand if it is something that can benefit your business and solves your social media management woes. Here’s a list of its key features:

Schedule and post on multiple social media accounts at the same or different times Comprehensive web-based dashboard Cloud storage services include OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, and more Custom analytics reports Find content on any web page with the Hootlet extension

⇒ Get Hootsuite  It is premium indeed, but anyone can get started for free. The free account offers 1 social profile per platform, 1 user access, 30 Instagram posts, 50 Twitter posts, plus 30 Facebook and Pinterest posts. With premium plans, you get more posting slots as well as additional features such as video and story scheduling, tag locations and users in photos, Basic + Pro Instagram and Pinterest analytics, and more. Note that the feature varies across plans, so read the official pricing page for the detailed features list. After creating an account, proceed with setting up the Instagram account using Later. It asks you to link your Instagram account with Later for direct posting. You can now start uploading photos from your PC to your Later calendar and schedule them for direct publishing on your Instagram business account. It’s also possible to upload media from Google Drive and Dropbox accounts. Later is an excellent tool for new users to learn social media automation and you can always upgrade to the premium account if you need more features. Here’s a list of its key features:

Very easy to use Cloud storage integration Direct scheduling and publishing to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and more Adapted for beginners and advanced users alike Great features for the free account

⇒ Get Later

Apart from scheduling and publishing content, Zoho offers a powerful set of tools for businesses and agencies to grow their presence on the social media platforms Zoho offers a free account for a new user with limited features. This account offers one user access, social profile set up for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google my Business, and LinkedIn accounts. It also has a publish feature alongside engagement insights from the earlier mentioned social media accounts. Unfortunately, the free account does not support post-scheduling. Scheduling and other features like SmartQ, Pause/Resume Scheduled post, bulk scheduler, repeat post, publishing calendar, custom audience targeting, and a few others are only available for premium users. The Social Media Calendar lets users craft posts at any date in the future. There is a button to instantly post something, and if you changed your mind, you could reschedule the posts. Moreover, if you plan to create content in bulk, you can schedule it in one go, right from the spreadsheet, and also post it under multiple authors. Zoho Social is an excellent social media management service with Zoho CRM integration. If you are already using Zoho tools for your business, Zoho Social might just fit your bill. Here’s a list of its key features:

Create posts and schedule them when your audience is most active Powerful set of tools for businesses Engagement insights for all connected social media accounts Supports Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google my Business, and LinkedIn accounts Social Media Calendar for scheduling and managing posts

⇒ Get Zoho Social  You can customize, edit, and post on each platform simultaneously. More so, Sendible lets users create their own scheduled slots for each platform. This is great when working with multiple audiences that wish to see different amounts of content at various times during the day. For example, LinkedIn users consume business-related content, while people on Facebook like lighter content. Unlike other SM automation tools, Sendible does not offer a free account, but there is a free trial account that you can try. The service offers a unified social inbox for each brand to keep everything on priority mode. The content recommendation engine analyzes your posting patterns and profiles and suggests the best content for your brand. With the calendar, you can create a workflow to approve your teams’ content. When it’s time to make a presentation show the progress reports generated from social media analytics. Sendible is specifically designed for social media agencies rather than individuals. If you are an agency looking for a social media automation tool, give it a try. Here’s a list of its key features:

Customize, edit, and post on each platform simultaneously Unified social inbox for each brand Analyzes your posting patterns and profiles and suggest the best content for your brand Built-in workflow calendar Progress reports generated from social media analytics

⇒ Get Sendible  Unfortunately, the service doesn’t offer any free plans, but you can take the tool for a spin and see what it’s capable of using the free trial. You can begin by creating a free trial account and linking your Instagram account. To schedule a post, start by uploading media files to your account. Use the Tailwind Create feature to automatically create hundreds of variations and eye-candy designs to attract your audience. Reach more people with the Hashtag Finder. The feature will search for popular and relevant niche hashtags and mix them up. Insightful analytics will provide all the data needed to improve your Pinterest posting. See what’s working with Report, Top Pins, Pin Inspector, and Board Insights. It is possible to schedule an entire week of pins, all at once. Publish your collection of posts from one place with a seamless, time-saving workflow. You can also capture media and customize it with hashtags, then schedule it. Tailwind will automatically publish the post when it is time. You can easily manage the time slots from the Calendar. Here’s a list of its best features:

Works with Pinterest and Instagram Smart scheduling, profile and board metrics Searches for popular and relevant niche hashtags Insightful analytics tools Schedule an entire week of pins, all at once

⇒ Get Tailwind While social media management for your business is important, you can’t have all of your resources allocated for this task only. Let one of these tools do the job for you!

How can I create engaging social media posts?

When posting content on social media, you need to follow some unwritten rules if you want your audience to notice your posts. ➡ Do some thorough research Posts containing relevant information will attract more people. Everyone is thirsty for knowledge! Show them something new, or teach them some facts they didn’t know before. You may take a little bit more of your time to do thorough research on the subject before posting it. Searching for broader subjects is good, but people have their own interests, so don’t expect to please everyone. ➡ Choose a popular social media platform If you plan to gain more followers, posting on social popular social media platforms is really important. At the moment, Facebook is by far the biggest platform, followed by YouTube, which recently added highlights for their content creators. ➡ Cater to your audience Creating relevant posts is not enough to keep the audience engaged. All of your posts should be written in a manner that speaks and touches the followers. LinkedIn is made for senior executives, employees, and employers, therefore a post written on that platform needs to be more serious and official. On the other hand, a Facebook post that will probably be read by children, parents, and everyday people can be heartwarming and use light language. ➡ Make your posts unique While your social media posts should cater to the audience, they must also reflect your voice, your own opinions, and your character. Create content that will remind people of you or your company and make it stand out from the crowd. ➡ Positivity goes a long way Always try to see the glass half full! For many, social media is a way to escape real life in order to cool off after a stressful day – remember that when writing something. These social management tools help you better organize your social media accounts without having to wait for the right time to publish a post. Even more, keep in mind that social media has a huge impact on trading, especially cryptocurrency. If you’re interested, check out this list of the best social media trading software. What do you think? Have you used any of the scheduling/posting services for Instagram? Share your experience with us in the comments. SPONSORED Name * Email * Commenting as . Not you? Save information for future comments
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