Instagram is a cool tool if you have your smart phone in your hand and can post in the moment.
But what happens if you have more than one account, are offline for a day or so, or find yourself running out of time to manage all of your social media accounts?
Enter AutoGrammer, one of the coolest tools out there to schedule your posts on Instagram.
I must admit, I was a latecomer to the Instagram craze. I didn’t really get it and had no desire to post a bunch of pictures when I had an active Twitter account.
Until two of my social media clients wanted me to manage their accounts on Instagram. Of course I said yes and then scrambled to figure out how I was going to accomplish that task!
Instagram does not allow any API’s to upload images, so Autogrammer solves this problem by uploading images to their backend.
From there, they have physical devices that run the official Instagram app where they upload your posts so they legitimately are uploaded directly, not from an API.
Sounds complicated, but it works and to date has not failed me yet!
Here’s how your posts can successfully be scheduled to Instagram.
I. Schedule as Many As You Want
Sign up for a free account for seven days. After that, it costs $19/month per account you want to manage. Simply add as many as you want!
It’s easiest to begin with a single image upload. Just select an image from your picture file – in jpg or png format; recommended size 640 X 640.
II. Beautify Your Images
Your image will be uploaded and you will have the opportunity to crop it and add a frame, text, or several other filters and special effects.
I just put some text over this sample picture. When you are happy with the image, click Continue.
If you have more than one account, select the account to which you want to schedule your Instagram post.
- Choose your timezone.
- Select the date.
- Select the post time.
- And write your caption, apply a frame and any special effects you desire.
- Click Schedule and you are done!
Two important things to note.
- If you want to be notified via email when your post goes live, check the Email Notification box.
- AutoGrammer will not allow you to schedule posts within less than an hour of each other. If you try to, you will get an Alert; just reschedule for later. (good social media strategy – built in!)
AutoGrammer does have a built-in warning that your first post may not work, with directions as to how to remedy. This has not happened to me or my clients. But, if it does, follow the steps outlined in yellow.
AutoGrammer’s Activity Log is a handy thing to have. You can view all of your posts; scheduled, pending, and published. You can also post them again, edit, and delete posts. Just click the “load more” button at the bottom to see all of your posts.
Click the image icon on the right to get a thumbnail view of your post.
III. Bulk Upload
AutoGrammer also lets you bulk upload images. This comes in handy when you have a series of images all ready to upload at once. Just click the green Add files button to bulk upload. However, you still have to individually set up each image with the time, date, etc.
The best thing about the Bulk Image upload feature is the ability to view all of your images and reschedule, delete, or update.
For the busy business owner who wants to save some time and who works for hours on a desktop, AutoGrammer is a handy tool to have.
Note you cannot comment, engage, and follow people from AutoGrammer; you still need your smart phone or tablet for that. But, to set up images and organize yourself it’s invaluable.
Would you invest $19/month to be able to schedule Instagram posts? What do you like best about it? What questions do you have?
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