How to Automate Instagram Posts with Metricool

Automating your Instagram content boosts productivity and helps you maintain a consistent, engaging presence online. With tools like Metricool, you can automate and schedule a variety of Instagram content, from images and videos to carousels and Reels. This guide will show you how to leverage Instagram automation, from bulk-uploading posts with CSV to creating Autolists with evergreen content using Metricool. By automating these tasks, you can save time and energy to focus on growing your brand online.

Why Automate Instagram Posts? 

Automating Instagram posts allows you to work smarter, not harder, and ensures your profile remains engaging, even when you’re not constantly posting manually.

Here’s why it’s important to automate your Instagram:

• Save Time and Boost Productivity: Automating posts frees up time to focus on other tasks like engaging with your audience and growing your business.
• Ensure Consistent Posting: Maintain a steady schedule, even when busy, to stay top-of-mind with followers and keep your profile active.
• Reduce the Mental Load: Batch create and schedule content in advance, eliminating the need to constantly think about what to post next.
• Encourage Audience Engagement: With posts scheduled, dedicate more time to interacting with your audience and fostering meaningful connections.

How to Automate Instagram with Metricool

Metricool is the all-in-one social media management tool that makes it easy to create, automate, and analyze your Instagram content. In addition to manually publishing your Instagram posts, Reels, and Stories, you can automate this content from one easy-to-use dashboard.  

Here are the different ways Metricool makes it easy to automate Instagram posts. 

Metricool Autolists

One of the key benefits of Autolists is the ability to automate your Instagram posts in advance. You can create a set of pre-written posts and have them automatically published on your account at the best times, ensuring a consistent and engaging feed for your followers.

Autolists can also be used to repeatedly publish “evergreen” content on a schedule. This ensures that your Instagram feed stays active with relevant and valuable posts, even during periods when you may not have the time to create new content.

To automate your Instagram posts with Metricool Autolists follow these steps: 

1. Go to your Metricool dashboard and click the “Planning” tab. 
2. Select “Autolists” and then “+ New autolist”.
3. Name your Autolist (ex: Instagram Autolist)
4. Configure your Autolist, choose which channels to publish your content, and how frequently.
5. Add content to your Autolist. This can be done by manually adding posts, creating posts with the Metricool AI Social Media Assistant, with a CSV to bulk upload content, or linked to an RSS feed.

Auto-publish scheduled Instagram posts

Here’s how to manually create and schedule your Instagram content to publish automatically with Metricool: 

1. Go to your Metricool dashboard and select “Planning”. 
2. Choose the best time to post for Instagram to see when your Instagram audience is most active and engaged or click “+ Create new post”.
3. Select Instagram from the list of social media platforms and choose whether you want to publish a post, Story, or Reel. 
4. Upload your media, add a caption, and choose the most relevant hashtags from Metricool’s Instagram hashtag generator. 
5. Use Metricool’s editing tools to crop, filter, or adjust the post visuals.
6. Toggle the auto-publish option to automatically share the content, and choose the date and time you want it to post.
7. Click “Schedule” and your post will be scheduled to automatically publish.

In addition to scheduling and auto-publishing your Instagram content, Metricool also offers the ability to send posts for review before they go live. Instead of scheduling your post, click the “Send to review” button and select the relevant reviewers. Once the post is approved, Metricool will automatically publish it to your Instagram account at the scheduled time.

Bulk upload CSV

Metricool offers a convenient solution for saving time and effort when automating your Instagram content – bulk uploading via CSV file. 

By creating a CSV template with your upcoming posts, you can quickly schedule multiple pieces of content in just a few clicks. To get started, download Metricool’s pre-formatted CSV template from your Metricool Planning calendar.

Be sure to include the following information in each column:

• Post caption
• Publish date and time
• Target networks (e.g., Instagram, Facebook, Twitter)
• Media links (up to 10 images or videos hosted on Google Drive or another URL)
• Post type (if applicable)
• When your CSV file is ready, head to Metricool and click the three dots in the top right corner, next to the filter icon. Select “Import CSV” to upload your file.

When your CSV file is ready, head to Metricool’s “Planning” section and click the three dots in the top right corner, next to the filter icon. Select “Import CSV” to upload your file.

Metricool will then populate your calendar with the uploaded posts from the CSV. Review the content to ensure everything looks correct, make any necessary edits, and use the preview feature to see how each post will appear on your Instagram feed. You can also drag-and-drop your content to change the publication schedule.

Tips for Automating Instagram Posts with Metricool

By taking advantage of Metricool’s powerful tools and  features, you can streamline your Instagram workflow and maximize the impact of your content. Here are some additional tips and ways to boost your Instagram automation: 

Choose the Best Times: Publish at the best times when your audience is most active. Metricool’s planner makes this easy by showing you when the majority of your followers are online. You can even view the precise percentage of active users for each time slot. 

Utilize AI: Metricool’s AI Social Media Assistant makes it easy to generate Instagram content in your brand’s voice and optimized for your audience. Choose the topic, tone, language, and which channels you want your content to be adapted to. From there you can further refine your generated post to perfectly match your brand.

Add SmartLinks: Metricool’s SmartLinks tool allows you to create a customized landing page right from your Instagram bio. This gives you the power to drive followers to specific business pages, product pages, or any other destination you choose. It’s a simple yet effective way to boost traffic and conversions from your Instagram presence.

Analyze and Optimize: Metricool provides comprehensive Instagram analytics to track your account growth, audience demographics, post engagement, and even your competitors’ performance. Use these insights to continuously refine and optimize your Instagram marketing strategy. The dashboard gives you all your key metrics at a glance, and you can even generate monthly reports to share with your team or clients.

Gretchen Oestreicher , 29 July 2024