7 Best Instagram Direct Posting Tools (Most of Them Free)
7 Best Instagram Posting Tools: Instagram was not the most fabulous location for digital marketers to promote their products for a long time. They do not allow linking to signatures or stories for private accounts. For a while, they didn't even allow 3rd party app integrations. Marketers couldn't use other post-management platforms like Later to schedule and publish their content.
But everything changed with the advent of a business account on Instagram.
In 2019, Instagram published information that 90% of personal accounts on their platform follow some brand or business account.
Though Instagram still doesn't have a scheduling feature for posts - at least they now allow businesses to do so via an API. According to Hootsuite CEO Ryan Holmes, content planning is the number one use of the platform.
And why not? With 95 million photos posted daily on Instagram, businesses need to stay on their feet to stand out! And that's where Instagram's direct posting and scheduling tools come into play!
Why Do You Need A Direct Posting And Scheduling Tool For Instagram?
Businesses can post up to 200 images per account per month. Many of these posts advertise seasonal deals that were scheduled months in advance.
What happens if you forget to hit "Post" something at precisely 9 am on a Monday? A missed opportunity, that's what. And one that can be easily avoided.
The scheduling tool allows you to manage large volumes of media efficiently. Although Instagram has a new feature where you can store your edited photos, you cannot split them by any filter.
Some planning tools even have editing features and template builders. They can offer helpful information about top-performing times and current popular keywords.
Essentially, the direct post and scheduling tool allows you to do more than just schedule a photo to post.
It can provide a collaborative workspace, access to a media library, post-speech statistics, and data analysis tools. So, here are some of the best direct publishing and scheduling tools that can make your life a lot easier.
Before choosing any of the following tools, one requirement is to use Instagram Direct Publishing.
You must have a Facebook page linked to your Instagram business account. Professional Instagram users or accounts without connecting to a Facebook page will not work. Create a Facebook page if you don't already have one.
1. Social Networks
At its core, Sked Social allows you to pre-set post times for Instagram posts. They have a visual calendar where you can drag posts and set the time. You can customize this calendar depending on the country.
You can also use Sked Social to schedule Facebook and Twitter. One of the problems with Instagram is that you can't reorder your feed by dragging and dropping images. Hence, business accounts work very hard to keep the channels coherent and aesthetic.
With Sked Social, you can access a fake Instagram feed with your posts. You can drag and drop them as you see fit and then schedule them accordingly. Typically, Instagram only allows you to add one link per bio page. However, with Sked Social, you can add a link that directs users to a page from which they can follow several other links.
Many people work behind the scenes to make every post a success. And thankfully, Sked Social allows an unlimited number of employees to use a single account. They have a powerful analytical tool. Their reports include post-performance, average reach and rankings, and even your competitor's performance.
The average reach density at various times of the day is shown in the optimum time to publish the graph. So how is this different from regular Instagram insights, you ask. Instagram stories that disappear after 24 hours, along with their findings. With Sked Social, you can access these stories (they are archived) and check their previous reach and performance at any time.
Overall, Sked Social provides a complete Fundamentals package for $25/month. However, to get features like tagging products in your posts, you'll need to upgrade to the Essentials plan, which costs $75 per month.
Key Benefits
- Automatic publishing on three platforms
- Visual calendar
- User reach and engagement analytics
- Product labeling
- Multilinks for biography
- Unlimited collaboration
- Mass publication of stories
- Story metrics even after 24 hours
- Free Trial 7
2. IconSquare
For those who love numbers, IconoSquare is your choice. IG planning tool. IconoSquare relies heavily on user data, which means you'll get top-notch details for every action.
Their advanced analytics will let you know the reach of a post and moderate activity and automatically suggest the best posting times based on location. They offer separate statistics for stories and posts. You can also access data about what others tag you, the type of media they tag you in, and moderate comment activity.
For Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, IconoSquare creates special automatic reports. You can track the performance of the various hashtags you use. And even collect data on the performance of your competitor's hashtag. One of the critical features of IconoSquare is that you can place the files you want to publish in different folders. This makes it easier to manage posts that belong to the same campaign. You can upload your images to Dropbox or OneDrive, integrated with the service.
With their community analytics, you can break down your followers by age, gender, and location. Like Sked Social, IconoSquare also offers a dummy feed so you can check your posts.
You can try a 14-day free trial or subscribe to the Small Business plan for $49/month. You can create your dashboard containing the metrics you want to see at a glance. However, you'll need the $79/month Advanced Plan.
Key Benefits
- Automatic publishing on three platforms
- Community Analytics
- Advanced Metrics and Auto Suggestions
- Hashtag performance and competitor tracking
- Track brand mentions
- Custom toolbar
- Post-division by folders
- Free Trial 14
- PDF Reports
3. Social Pilot
For managing large enterprises, Social Pilot is best suited. Their mass scheduling feature allows up to 500 messages to be pre-assigned. This works for images and text updates, blog posts, and tweets. You can see all pre-fixed posts in their calendar at a glance. However, this is not a visual calendar like the one offered by Sked Social.
Unlike other tools that suggest popular keywords, Social Pilot offers an entire content curation platform. With their help in the search, you can find unique ideas and phrases and relevant content for each of them. This is a very well-done and in-depth feature. However, it may be more beneficial for those who manage Facebook profiles and blogs rather than Instagram.
You may assign hashtags in bulk, which is a handy function. For example, you can assign hashtags to all content that will be published on a specific day if it is a one-day event.
Social Pilot offers insights into content and audience performance in terms of analytics. However, it can also provide information for any post that has not been uploaded through Social Pilot. The unique feature is that they can narrow down the circle of influencers who have the maximum influence among your followers. This way, you can identify potential collaborations.
You can manage up to 25 different profiles. For only $25.50 per month, you can access the Professionals plan. Social Pilot has a solid support team, and with the Enterprise plan, you'll be assigned a full-time account manager to answer your questions.
Key Benefits
- Automatic publishing on five platforms
- Content curation platform
- Purpose of the hashtag
- Bulk scheduling
- User reach and engagement analytics
- Interaction with influencers
- Community Analytics
- PDF Reports
- Free Trial 14
4. Buffer
Buffer offers two types of tools, one related to publishing and the other related to analytics. So you can choose both or just one depending on your needs.
The scheduling tool lets you view your scheduled posts in linear and visual calendar formats. You can manage multiple Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest accounts. If you're not sure about a post, you can set up a notification for it. Before uploading, Buffer will email you a notification so you may take control. You may also incorporate the first remark in the post by scheduling it.
The analytics tool offers information about posts and demographic breakdowns of users. Before you sponsor a post, you can see the estimated reach for the post. This way, you can compare paid and organic reach and decide accordingly.
Buffer's strength is its audience engagement tool. Their engagement tool lets you see the comments and likes on each post at a glance from the grid view itself. You can set alerts for important message notifications and set up hotkeys for quick replies. Looks like
Buffer's free plan for posting allows you to use only one user and manage up to 3 social channels. You can plan up to ten posts ahead of time. While it's not much different than what an Instagram Business account offers, you can still try other features before investing more. Pro account starts at $15/month. Analytics plans are paid and start at $35 per month.
Key Benefits
- Automatic publishing on five platforms
- Separate publishing and analytics tool
- Community Analytics
- First comment
- User reach and engagement analytics
- Audience interaction tools
- Message priority
- Free Trial 14
5. Tailwind
A tailWind is a planning tool for Instagram and Pinterest users. Their SmartSchedule feature allows you to post at the best of times automatically. For speedy formatting, you may set up time-saving shortcuts and hotkeys.
TailWind has an editor that you can use to create unique designs! Simple and easy to use, you can access your media library and get templates based on your industry. You can try them out on TailWind's dummy Instagram grid. TailWind, like Sked Social, provides an entirely visual calendar to help you see your publishing schedule.
With each new strategy, you can check its viability with your reports. On Instagram, TailWind allows you to create posts and assign them to campaigns. You can customize reports to include the fields you want. The system will automatically update reports based on this. TailWind assigns each post a virality score.
In addition, you can track top-performing images and keywords. You may use the listening tool to listen to all mentions of your brand. You can access all the suggested hashtags for your content with one click.
You can narrow down the circle of influencers who have the maximum impact on your followers. The intelligent feature can add multiple links to a single bio. You can use the accessible version of TailWind forever to manage 1 Instagram account and 1 Pinterest account. After that, the Pro package starts at $119.88 per month.
Key Benefits
- Automatic publishing on two platforms
- User reach and engagement analytics
- Visual social calendar
- Shortcuts to save time
- Hashtag search and performance analysis
- Schedule first comment
- Access to photo editor and media library
- Multilinks for biography
- Forever free trial
6. Later
Later is a very visual planning tool. While you can manage up to 4 different social channels across platforms, Later focuses on Instagram users.
You can save articles, stories in bulk, captions in bulk, and first comments in bulk using Later. Later has a visual calendar for scheduling content releases. You can use this for both posts and stories. Based on the date and content of the post, Later will suggest the best hashtags. Like all planning tools, Later finds the best time to post. However, it may do so based on the location where you reset. It will provide the top 7 timeslots to post for that area.
You can view information about expired stories for up to 3 months. The system automatically adds authorship to messages. Later there is a built-in editor. However, it only allows basic functionality like resizing and adding text. You can access Unsplash's photo library through the editor.
Later, a completely free version allows you to manage up to 30 messages per month. However, you can have one account for their entire set. The single set includes Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter. The starter package costs $12.50 per month.
Key Benefits
- Automatic publishing on four platforms
- User reach and engagement analytics
- Visual social calendar
- Hashtag Analytics
- Community Analytics
- Stories metrics for up to 3 months
- Multilinks for biography
- First comment
- Forever free trial
7. Plans
If you want to sell products through Instagram, then Planoly is a great place to start. Planoly allows users to turn their Instagram page into an actual store! They allow you to tag products, links with multiple bios, and embed selling links in one click. Brands like L'Oreal use Planoly to manage their Instagram account.
Planoly has its editor, which has various templates for you to choose from. In the shape of a family, there are distinct templates for stories. This way, you can use a specific template family for some stories. With Planoly sticker maker, you can create and publish your animated stickers.
The platform offers a mock Instagram feed, per-post and story analytics, first comment scheduling, and automatic posting. You can separate scheduled posts under different campaign headings. Planoly is available for both desktop and mobile devices. Their app is available on the App Store.
Planoly offers a calendar for scheduling posts that you can change by location to see upcoming local events. A unique feature is the split tool which allows you to split images in a grid of 3, 6, 9, or more. Planoly's free edition allows you to create two social accounts. You are followed by the Solo profile for $7/month, followed by the Duo profile for $15/month.
Key Benefits
- Automatic publishing on two platforms
- User reach and engagement analytics
- Hashtag Analytics
- Community Analytics
- Divider Tool
- Built-in editor and template gallery
- Sticker maker
- Forever free trial
Conclusion
Each instrument has its unique features and atmosphere. Sked Social and Later are excellent possibilities for searching for a visual platform. Data-driven communities can check out IconoSquare.
Overall, Planoly offers many features designed to maintain an aesthetic look. They have a modern editor and hundreds of templates, stickers, and a split tool. Most of their clients are in the fashion and design business. Larger businesses may prefer Social Pilot as it is the most cost-effective way to manage many accounts.
But for those looking for a trail-free version, TailWind will be the best option. Even the free version offers various features and metrics not available in other free versions.
Basic features like dummy feed and hashtag search are available on every platform. However, the Social Pilot content curation platform can come in handy for those who want to keep up with all the trends. Let us know which one you think is best for your business!
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