Using Facebook’s Creator Studio, you can easily schedule Instagram posts up to six months in advance.
Access Creator Studio at facebook.com/creatorstudio and you’ll be automatically logged into the accounts and pages you’re connected to with your Facebook account.
From the dashboard, you can crop your image, add a caption and hashtags, set the location and schedule the date and time you want it to go live. Here’s how!
1. Connect your Instagram account to your Creator Studio.
If your Instagram account is connected already, you’ll see the Facebook and Instagram icons at the top of the browser window. If your Instagram account isn’t yet connected, select the option to connect it.
Now click on the Instagram icon at the top of the page.
You’ll see a large blue button in the top left corner that says Create Post. Click it, then select the Instagram Feed option. Choose the Instagram account you want to use and the window will expand.
2. Create your post.
VISUALS
Add your visual content and crop it or change the orientation if needed.
- You can upload up to 10 photos and videos into one carousel post.
- There are no editing options for videos.
- Video files must be 3 to 60 seconds in length and in 4:5 or 16:9 formats.
CAPTION
The same formatting rules apply to captions in Creator Studio as on Instagram.
- No spaces after the last character of a paragraph.
- You can’t use multiple special characters at the end of a paragraph, just one.
Include your hashtags in the caption (there is no option to create a comment on the post) and add your location if you like.
Kinda cool: As you type and add @mentions and hashtags, the counter beneath the caption box shows how many characters, @mentions, and hashtags you still have available.
3. Finally, schedule your post.
Select “Schedule” by clicking on the arrow on the right of the “Publish” button.
Choose the date and time you want your post to publish to Instagram.
After scheduling your post, you’ll see it in your Creator Studio Content Library as a scheduled post.
And that’s it!
FYI: Once you’ve posted or scheduled an Instagram post via Creator Studio, you can’t edit the post from Creator Studio. You need to go to the live post on Instagram on a mobile device to edit the text on the post itself.
In conclusion, while there are other third-party scheduling tools that may have more robust functionality than Creator Studio, for many marketers, Creator Studio is much easier to use and it’s free!