By: Aditya Patwardhan

Now more than ever, it is crucial for businesses to invest in their social media presence. Social media helps businesses increase visibility, gain new clients, and engage their audience. If you want to learn more about the benefits of platforms like Facebook or Instagram for your business, read HERE. This begs the question, how can businesses make the most out of social media? One technique is called pre scheduling. This is where social media posts are scheduled to automatically get posted at a certain time. Pre scheduling can help businesses update social media with less effort and maximize viewership by strategizing their content and the times their posts are published. Facebook already offers pre scheduling for businesses, but what about other social media sites? Today, you will learn how to pre schedule posts on your Instagram business account by connecting it to your Facebook business page. Note that this will only work if the Instagram account being linked is a professional business account, not a personal one.

Here are the instructions to link your Instagram business account to your Facebook business profile:

  1. Go to your Facebook business profile. On the left side, you should see a sidebar titled “Manage Page.” Click on Settings.
  2. Under settings, click on Instagram.
  3. Click on the option to Connect Account and continue to your Instagram account or sign in. You will want to make sure it is the correct Instagram account before selecting this option.
  4. Now that the accounts are connected, if you go back to Settings > Instagram, you should see a page titled “Connected Instagram Account” listing account details.

Now, go to your page on business.facebook.com, and click on the “Publishing Tools” tab. Click on “Scheduled Posts” on the left-hand sidebar. When you click “Create Post,” you should see both Facebook and Instagram as options under “Placements”. Note that if you pre schedule a post for only Instagram (and not Facebook,) it may not show up under pre scheduled posts, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been pre scheduled. Be cautious to pre schedule posts for Instagram only once, otherwise you will end up with duplicate posts.