Instagram is a popular social networking site among millennials & that’s what also makes it a hot social media site for brands. This is one of the biggest reason that you will find most of the popular & upcoming brands being so active on Instagram.
Earlier I have shared a pretty amazing desktop based tool call Gramblr which let you schedule updates on Instagram from the desktop. Today, Buffer (The popular social media management app) added support for Instagram. Considering the popularity of Bufferapp, this update is not only huge but also useful for an end user like you or me. What great about this integration is; the update is available for free & pro user.
Unlike other integration which works on complete automation, the Instagram & Buffer integration is semi-automatic. The below image will give you an overview of this new workflow for Instagram automation using Bufferapp:
How to Automate Scheduling Instagram updates on Buffer
This feature is available for free & paid users. Free Buffer users can add only one Instagram account whereas paid users can add multiple Instagram account. Create a free account on Buffer.
Moving on.
Login to your Buffer account & click on connect a social network to link your Instagram account. Here is the direct link (Use it once you are logged in)
Click on connect beneath Instagram reminders & this will take you to the Instagram page where you need to authenticate the access. If you are not logged in to your Instagram account, it will ask you to login first.
Click on Authorize & this will finish the integration. Now, the first thing you need to do is to setup the scheduling time.
Once you have setup the scheduling, from here the real task starts. You can start adding updates for your Instagram account (Refer to below screenshot)
At the scheduled time, you will receive a push notification on your smartphone (You need to have Buffer app installed on your device) to publish the post. Here are the screenshots to help you understand the workflow:
Once you click on the push notification, it will take you to the below page where you can click on Open in Instagram. Do note; that scheduled image will be downloaded to your device photo library.
And once you click on Open in Instagram, it will open the posting page & image will be automatically added. Tap at the text area & click on paste to add the text that you added at the time of scheduling your Instagram post.
It’s good to have Instagram feature added on Buffer, but this indeed doesn’t solve the need for full Instagram automation. But, something is better than nothing.
While we are talking about Instagram automation, here are few of my favorite IFTTT Recipes to help you get few things done:
- Recipe 1: This will help you post Instagram pics on Twitter as a picture.
- Recipe 2: Share your Instagram pics on Medium.
- Recipe 3: Automatically post your Instagram photos to Tumblr
- Recipe 4: Auto creates a blog post on WordPress when you publish a new Instagram pic.
Well, overall it’s a welcome integration & as a pro user of Buffer, it’s going to be handy for me. At least, this will ensure that I will have at least one useful update on every day. If you are active on Instagram, you can connect with me here.
Beginners Guide 