*Updated January 2021

Last week couldn’t have brought better news for community managers everywhere.

In case you haven’t heard, Hootsuite has introduced its new integration with Instagram!

(Pause for applause.)

Hootsuite Instagram Integration Tips

As a community manager in the ever-changing social scene, there was always one thing I hoped for as I sat with phone in hand, waiting for the optimum time to unleash that content… and it was the ability to schedule posts.

Finally, Hootsuite has heard the desperate cries of social media marketers everywhere and made our dream a reality!

Hootsuite Instagram Integration

Instagram has resisted the aspect of scheduling for a while, and for obvious reasons (they don’t call it INSTAgram for nothing).

But with this new breakthrough, there is still one caveat.

Instagram is sticking to its rules about not allowing third-party apps to post content to their platform.

Instead, they’ve found a clever loophole to leverage.

And here’s how it works:

  1. The new scheduling feature does indeed allow you to schedule multiple posts from multiple accounts. That’s right, no more user-generated content getting captured and forgotten in the abyss of your photos.
  2. Once you’ve scheduled them, you then need to make sure you have the updated Hootsuite App on your smartphone.
  3. When the post is ready to go live, Hootsuite will send you a push notification to your device and from there you can upload it manually.

So while technically it isn’t your typical Hootsuite scheduling function, it’s still a huge step forward to increasing productivity and planning capabilities.

Tips for Community Managers

So, what exactly does this new scheduling function mean to us in the social media realm?

Our new Hootsuite-given superpowers include:

  • Being able to schedule and publish content, which makes planning Instagram content strategies more streamlined and sticking to schedules simple
  • Using a more structured process for monitoring and engaging with Instagram audiences (structure is awesome, especially when you have lots of goals to hit and clients to keep happy)
  • Being able to securely share access to Instagram accounts across teams
  • Creating team workflows with the full power of assignments and approvals…but for Instagram!

All of these new abilities come together to help the eternally busy community manager free up some time and introduce a bit of order into their Instagram campaigns.

Final Thoughts

I just want to give a big thank you to Hootsuite, I’m sure community managers everywhere are toasting their name and anxiously waiting to see what’s next.

Want the official overview?

Watch this video to see the integration straight from the Owl.

For more social media updates and other marketing tips for the digital world, keep in touch with us on Twitter and Facebook.

You can feel free to send us a shout out with your questions on Twitter, too, and we’ll answer them for you in our next Thanks Tips blog post.

We’ll leave you with this amazing resource from Kicksta, which takes a deep dive into scheduling posts on Instagram!

The Complete Guide To Scheduling Instagram Posts in 2021 – Everything you need to know about scheduling Instagram posts in the year 2021. Kicksta explores why it should be part of your social media strategy, the tools that you use to schedule posts, and strategies to make sure that you get it right.

Till next time!

honeypot bee