The Facebook Content Creator’s Studio is live and I’m here to share some easy tips to use this amazing free tool to schedule to your Instagram account through the desktop Creator’s Studio. Also check out my guide to using Content Creator’s Studio for Facebook Desktop.
Why Use This Tool As Your Instagram Scheduler?
When Content Creator’s Studio rolled out, scheduling to Instagram (for free) was the #1 thing I was excited about. I’ve been using Hopper for a while now, and while it was one of the few that could schedule photos or videos, it also came at a cost of $19 a month. I’d tried Tailwind’s free version and just found it (and their Pinterest scheduler tbh) not super user-friendly. This eliminates the need for a third party app as this is Facebook’s own tool.
The only drawback here is that you can only schedule to Instagram through the desktop dashboard, it’s not available on the app yet. I’ll be counting down the days for that to launch (and word on the street is that stories scheduling is not far behind!), but in the meantime, here is a step-by-step guide to using the Instagram scheduler through the Content Creator’s Studio desktop dashboard and a bonus quickie guide to the easiest way to move media between your phone and your computer.
Here’s a step by step guide to scheduling to Instagram:
Step 1: Head to Content Creator’s Studio (Desktop)
First, on desktop, head to https://business.facebook.com/creatorstudio/ or if you like to arrive at websites via Google search, just be warned that there are a TON of ads for this search query. A ton. Below is what you’re looking for:
Here’s a screenshot of your initial homescreen. If your Instagram and Facebook pages are already linked through the Instagram app, you’ll see both your Facebook and Instagram icons on top. If you manage multiple pages, you’ll see those in bubbles in the left hand corner and can toggle between accounts that way.
Step 2: Switch to the Instagram Dashboard
On the top of the screen, just hit the Instagram icon to switch to the Instagram dashboard.
You’ll know you’re on the right track when your dashboard header turns purple.
Step 3: Write a Post You Want to Schedule
Click on create a post and here you’ll have the option to schedule to your Instagram Feed or IGTV feed. Today I’m just reviewing an Instagram Feed post.
Add your caption and hashtags — they will auto populate as you start to type — at the top box and then click “add content” as you’ll see in the screenshot below. You can upload a photo or video from your computer (stay tuned to the end of the post for a quickie guide to easily moving photos to your computer from your phone). You can also click to auto share it to Facebook as well.
Side note: when time allows, I try to never post simultaneously. A ton of hashtags looks strange on Facebook and the voices are just different enough that you should always give your caption a once over and never just straight copy and paste from one to the other if you can help it.
Step 4: Schedule Your Post
Click the small arrow next to the publish button if you’d like to schedule vs. publish now.
Choose your date and time:
And click schedule!
Step 5: Double Checking Your Posts
This step definitely cannot be overstated as I mentioned in the Facebook Desktop Guide. Always give your posts another read aloud for grammar and spelling. In addition, go in AT LEAST once a week to make sure nothing has changed that affects your scheduled posts (closed an extra day, promotion ended early, you’re out of the special, etc.). This is so key in maintaining trust with your viewers that what you put on social media is timely and accurate.
From the home dashboard, choose the the arrow by post status to filter you posts by all, published, scheduled, drafts or archived. Here you can see all your schedule posts to review or edit.
Quickie Guide on Easily Moving Photos From Your Phone to Desktop:
I tried emailing images back and forth between my phone and computer and let me just tell you that is for the birds. My favorite tool to quickly and easily accomplish this is Dropbox. I used the free version until I needed more storage, but you can get a lot done with the free version. Simply drop things into your Dropbox on desktop and open them in the Dropbox app on your phone and save them to the camera roll. Or, add them from your camera roll to your Dropbox app and pull them onto your computer from the desktop version. Fast and easy and saves a ton of time!
Be sure to check out my Facebook Desktop Guide here and stay tuned for my Mobile App Guide Coming Soon!
Recent Comments