In the last decade, Instagram has become more than a photo-sharing platform.
With 1.21 billion monthly active users, the Gen-Z favorite social platform is now a potent marketing tool for businesses of all sizes. In fact, 70% of shoppers explore Instagram for their next purchase.
In short, a thriving Instagram presence is a must for building business awareness today. And that needs a consistent Instagram posting schedule, which can:
- Diversify your content strategy
- Target the right audience at the optimal time
- Drive better time management and high-quality posts
- Help you stay on your audience’s radar
- Reduce your marketing team’s stress of real-time posting
But Instagram post scheduling isn’t just about queuing up content for the week or month. It needs strategic planning and flawless execution, where manual operations can fall short. To streamline the process, brands need a reliable scheduling tool.
In today’s article, we bring you a list of the best Instagram post schedulers and discuss how to choose the right one for your brand.
What to look for in Instagram post schedulers
Here are some qualities to look for while choosing Instagram post schedulers for your company:
- Content Calendar
The core features of an Instagram scheduler should support planning and organizing your content schedule in advance.
So ensure your chosen social media solution offers a clean and comprehensive content calendar. It will maintain a clear overview of what you post over time, confirming alignment with your marketing goals and campaigns.
- Visual Preview
Instagram is a visual platform. So, aesthetics play a significant role here. However, while creating content, it’s often difficult to gauge how it would look on your profile after posting.
To avoid that, your scheduling tool should have a visual preview feature. It lets you see your content’s appearance on your Instagram feed before actually posting it. This way, you can ensure that the published images, videos, and captions represent an on-brand and consistent visual style.
- Scheduling Flexibility
Perfecting your optimal posting time is essential for social media marketing. Your efforts must reach your target audience when they are the most active on Instagram.
So, your chosen Instagram post scheduler should allow you to select specific dates and times for your posts to go live. It will help you maximize engagement.
- Bulk Scheduling
Your best Instagram scheduler must allow bulk posting to make the process more time-efficient. This particular feature also lets you plan your content calendar more strategically.
You can align multiple posts with marketing campaigns, product launches, or events. Bulk scheduling will ensure your content supports your overall business objectives.
- Hashtag Suggestions
Relevant hashtags can enhance your Instagram content’s visibility. However, it’s immensely difficult to find the right hashtags manually for each post while scaling and diversifying your content strategy. But the best Instagram schedulers dig out the best hashtags for every scheduled post.
- Analytics Insights
Scheduling Instagram posts isn’t enough. You must ensure your content calendar’s viability to achieve the desired outcome. For that, assessing your posting strategy is a must.
That’s why you need AI-powered analytics and reporting features in your Instagram post scheduler. It should be able to track engagement metrics and measure your social media reach. The insights should show whether your posting schedule is optimal to target the audience.
Make sure your Instagram scheduling app also generates insights into your followers’ demographics, behaviors, and preferences. It will enable better targeting and optimize your content’s efficacy.
- User Collaboration
Another vital element to look for in your Instagram post scheduler is seamless user collaboration.
Many businesses and content creators have teams working together on their social media strategies. A tool that allows multiple users to collaborate on a single platform streamlines communication and ensures everyone is on the same page.
Collaboration features also drive a proper review process before publishing. This leads to a more consistent, on-brand, and cohesive content portfolio.
Top 5 Instagram Post Scheduler Tools
There are myriad social media marketing tools available with scheduling capabilities. To help you make the best choice, here is a list of the top 5 Instagram scheduling apps:
1. Keyhole
Let’s start our list with one of the best and most comprehensive content scheduling tools out there. Keyhole offers multiple social media management features and simplifies your Instagram publishing process.
Our nifty tool offers data-backed optimization suggestions and lets you find the optimal time to post on Instagram. Users can publish content in real time or schedule it for later. The platform also provides seamless collaboration features and drives aligned team efforts.
Keyhole’s content calendar lets you map out your social media campaigns in advance. You can visualize your Instagram content at work and make adjustments accordingly. Moreover, apart from future post visualization, you can see your past content activity and benchmark accurately.
Pricing
Book a demo to get a customized quote.
Top Features
- Optimal Instagram posting time insights
- A clean and comprehensive content calendar
- Centralized data and visual preview
- Full-scale analytics to measure content performance and run Instagram audits
- On-platform collaboration features for all stakeholders
Best suitable for
From influencers and startups to multinational enterprises, Keyhole can cater to businesses of any size.
2. Sprout Social
Sprout Social is another popular name among brands for social media management. It lets you effortlessly plan, schedule, and deliver engaging Instagram content and save time.
The platform’s ViralPost technology assesses audience data and automatically posts your scheduled content at optimal engagement times. The Sprout reporting suite identifies your top posts and lets you repurpose them for other channels. It also helps identify trends and leverage them for future posts.
You can also schedule Instagram stories from Sprout Social for better convenience. Other highlight features include hashtag suggestions, accurate analytics, and team collaboration tools.
Pricing
Sprout Social offers Standard, Professional, and Advanced packages at $249/month, $399/month, and $499/month. You can also get custom pricing for the Enterprise subscription.
Top Features
- ViralPost feature to detect the optimal posting time for Instagram
- Collaboration tools
- Hashtag suggestions
- Analytics for posts and stories
Best suitable for
Sprout Social’s Instagram scheduler is best for agencies, SMBs, and corporations.
3. Planoly
Next up on our list is Planoly, an all-in-one Instagram management tool. Here, you can plan, design, and schedule your Instagram content, including reels and stories.
Planoly offers customization features to repurpose your Instagram posts and share them on Facebook & Twitter. Users can tailor UGC grids with Canva and stock photos.
This Instagram scheduling app lets you save commonly used hashtags and user tags. You can also tag shoppable products on the posts.
Pricing
Planoly offers three subscription packages, Starter, Growth, and Professional, at $11.25/month, $20/month, and $36.55/month.
Top Features
- Professional design tools to transform videos into reels and stories
- Repurposing features for Instagram posts and UGC
- Access to historical and current engagement data
- Automated content posting according to pre-defined schedules
- Hashtag suggestions
Best suitable for
Creators and SMBs will find Planoly suitable for their Instagram content management.
4. Publer
The fourth addition to our list is Publer, a comprehensive social media planner with impressive features. Its Calendar view lets you create and schedule diverse Instagram posts without fuss. Users can identify top-performing posts and recycle them for other platforms.
Moreover, you can create and preview your content in real time with Publer. The platform also offers social media analytics and tracks Instagram engagement.
Pricing
Publer offers its professional and Business package at $15/month and $30/month.
Top Features
- Calendar view
- Workspaces
- Bulk scheduling up to 500 posts
- AI Assist
- Analytics
Best suitable for
Publer is best suited for independent creators, marketing agencies, and SMBs.
5. SocialPilot
Last but not least, Social Pilot offers advanced social media marketing features, including Instagram post scheduling.
The platform supports posting automation for multiple accounts and provides image editors. You can draft posts, watermark them, and adjust aspect ratios. The content calendar is flexible, supports bulk posting, and has custom fields.
Pricing
SocialPilot’s Professional, Small Team, Agency, and Agency+ packages are available at $25/month, $42/month, $85/month, and $170/month.
Top Features
- Smart scheduling for multiple accounts
- AI Assist
- Bulk scheduling ‘
- RSS feed
- Analytics
Best suitable for
SocialPilot is the perfect choice for marketing agencies and enterprises.
Conclusion
In today’s gram-dominated world, your posting frequency has to please the algorithm to cut through the noise and reach your audience. Here, an Instagram post scheduler will accelerate your efforts and present your brand to your audience in the best light.
Instagram post schedulers simplify a diverse content strategy and ensure maximum engagement. It can detect trends, suggest relevant hashtags, and make your posts more discoverable. Moreover, it eliminates the tedious individual posting and frees up your time to focus on the content’s quality.
The best Instagram scheduler will offer a comprehensive calendar, run accurate analytics, and be scalable. Finally, keep innovating your content to keep your Instagram fresh and engaging.
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Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is an Instagram post scheduler and how can it benefit businesses?
An Instagram post scheduler is a tool that allows businesses to schedule their Instagram posts in advance, ensuring consistent and timely content delivery. It benefits businesses by saving time, maintaining a consistent posting schedule, and reaching their audience at the most optimal times for engagement.
2. How do Instagram post schedulers work and how can businesses utilize them effectively?
Instagram post schedulers work by connecting to a business's Instagram account and providing a platform to schedule and automate posts. Businesses can utilize them effectively by planning their content calendar, scheduling posts during peak engagement times, and analyzing post performance to refine their strategy.
3. What are some popular Instagram post schedulers available for businesses to use?
Some popular Instagram post schedulers include Keyhole, Sprout Social, and Planoly. These tools offer various features such as post scheduling, analytics, content calendar planning, and audience insights to help businesses manage their Instagram presence effectively.
