Users of Vancouver-based HootSuite Inc.‘s social media dashboard will now be able to manage Instagram accounts with the cloud software … but there’s a catch.
Instagram might be about sharing the moment with your family and friends, but a business might have reason to share that moment at a more optimal moment in the near future. Now those that run brand accounts on Instagram will be able to schedule their posts, assign Instagram messages to team members, and access all of the engagement features on the Facebook-owned social network – except for actually publishing posts.
Hootsuite announced the new integration with an Instagram post, naturally:
While the Instagram messages can be scheduled in HootSuite, the app requires that they actually be published in Instagram’s native app. So HootSuite uses a workaround to solve this problem by using push notifications. Here’s how it works:
- A user has to install Instagram and the Hootsuite mobile app on their smartphone.
- The user turns on HootSuite’s push notifications for their Instagram account.
- HootSuite’s dashboard can be used to schedule images with captions at specific times.
- At the time a message was scheduled to publish with the dashboard, the user will receive a notification on their smartphone.
- Tapping the notification will bring up the post in HootSuite’s app with the button “Open in Instagram.”
- The user taps “Open in Instagram” the image will now load in that app. The caption that was scheduled is copied to the user’s clipboard automatically.
- The user pastes in the caption and publishes the post in Instagram.
This Hootsuite video explains how to add the network to your dashboard:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=13&v=V0hR3Awb4Xg
Hootsuite says the new feature will be rolling out to all users on Aug. 5.