[Web] Instagram Publishing with Vista Social – Vista Social

In the United States alone, Instagram has over 77 million active users per month with more than half of millennials using it every single day. That being said, whether you are a small business or a big brand, not being on Instagram is not a very wise thing to do, especially with its average engagement per post growing at a rate of more than 53% per year!

With Vista Social, not only can you directly schedule content on Instagram, but we also provide comprehensive reporting and the ability to respond to comments and messages!

In this article, we'll go over:

Supported Content Types
Scheduling Instagram Posts with Autopost
Additional Posting Features for Instagram
Planning Instagram posts with Reminder Notifications

Content types that can be published via Vista Social

Types of posts that can be published to Instagram

Single image posts
Multiple image posts - carousels.
Single video posts
Multiple video posts - carousels.
Reels (direct publishing, no notifications, no workarounds, no hacks)
Stories (direct publishing for Business Profiles)

Content-Type	Supported	Content-Type	Supported
Text only post	×	Single GIF post	✓
Text w/ in-line link	×	Single video post	✓
Text w/ link preview	×	Multiple video post	✓
Text w/ link + image	✓	Post w/ call-to-action button	×
Single image post	✓	Post w/ first comment	✓
Multiple image post	✓	Post w/ like	×
Carousel post	✓	Post w/ tagging	✓
Reels	✓	Stories	✓

Scheduling Instagram posts with Autopost

Note: Autoposting is only available for Instagram Business and Creator Profiles that are linked to a Facebook Page

To get started, select Instagram from your list of profiles, hover over the left side menu then click Create, then choose from the four posting options (New post, Bulk publishing, Find conten t, Smart publishing, and Instagram planner) as shown below:

Note: Instagram currently has a character limit of 2,200 and you can immediately see the post preview on the right side to get an idea of what it would look like once published.

Additional posting features supported by Vista Social

1. User tagging - the ability to tag Instagram users (public profiles only)

2. Product tagging - the ability to tag products from your shop on Instagram

3. First comment - automatically adds a comment to the post once published

4. Location tagging - the ability to add a location to the post

5. Enable/disable comments - by default, users can comment on the post but you may disable this at the time of scheduling

6. Share Reel in Feed - gives you an option to also show your reel to your Instagram feed

Below are some sample Instagram posts that were published via Vista Social!

1. Single image post

Image post which may or may not include a text or a text + link

2. GIF post

GIF is a short animation that is normally used for sharing emotions or memes that might be difficult to express through text

3. Single video post

Videos are used to gain more attention and increase conversion since they entertain the audience more than an image post. See video posting guidelines for Instagram here.

Screen_Shot_2022-02-18_at_5.38.23_PM.png

4. Carousel post

A carousel post is a post with multiple photos or videos that can be viewed by swiping or clicking left. you may directly schedule up to 10 images or videos in a single post.

Planning Instagram posts with Reminder Notifications

You can plan your Instagram posts in Vista Social using Reminder Notifications, if you'd prefer to not have the posts auto-post, by specifying the mobile device (yours or any of your team members) to be sent a notification at the scheduled time.

Step 1. Download the Vista Social application

Step 2: Run the app and allow notifications.

IMPORTANT: Allowing notifications is vital for you to be able to receive notifications.

Step 3: Log in with your Vista Social account

If you don't have an account please create one here. If you are a member of a team that uses Vista Social, please contact your account admin.

Step 4: Schedule your Instagram Post

Now, back on the web version of Vista Social, when scheduling a post, choose an Instagram profile.

After crafting your post, you will find an option to change from auto-post to reminder notification and be able to pick your "device" (the phone from which you have logged in) from a list.

If your device does not show up, please be sure to log in to the mobile app on the phone first and refresh the web screen.

Click Next and schedule your post!

Step 5: Open the notification and share on Instagram

You will receive a notification on your phone, like this:

When you click on it, it'll show you the caption and media for the post. Click on"Continue to Instagram", making sure to grant permission to access your phone's photos.

The caption will have been automatically copied to your clipboard, so you can paste it from here.

(Optional) Step 6: Mark your post as published

Simply click on the check mark to acknowledge the post (mark it posted) or the x mark to reject it (you don't want to publish it). This will help better track this post on your calendar: