Social media Facebook has just announced that it’s making changes to Instagram’s graph API which will enable business profiles to schedule posts, without having to go through the current process of getting an alert and manually posting.This is great news for business owners.
Instagram explained :
“Last year, we began the process of updating the Instagram API to the Instagram Graph API, built on the Facebook Graph API. This change helps businesses manage their organic presence more effectively. Today, we’re introducing new features to the API, such as allowing businesses to schedule posts, view posts they’ve been tagged in and view other business profiles.”
See example above from Hootsuite, an Instagram partner.
According to Hootsuite CEO Ryan Holmes, Instagram scheduling and publishing has been their most requested feature update. Hootsuite introduced Instagram scheduling, in its current form, back in 2015 as noted, that process currently involves setting a schedule, which then forwards a reminder at the time you plan to post. Users then have to manually log in and publish the content.But now, with this update nothing manual is needed.
The update may also render many of the current Instagram-specific scheduling tools on the market obsolete, though it is worth noting that scheduling for non-business (personal) profiles won’t be made available till next year.
In addition to this, Instagram’s also rolling out two other updates for business profiles to their API:
Business Discovery – Discover and read the profile info and media of other business profiles.
Mentions – Read public media that a business has been photo tagged or mentioned in. Post comments on a business’ behalf on media it was tagged or mentioned in.
This will also enable users to manage multiple accounts from a single dashboard.
Given the rising popularity of Instagram, and with more than 25 million business profiles now active on the platform, it makes sense for parent company Facebook to be looking for new ways to better facilitate business interactions.
Scheduling, of course, adds additional business functionality, and as Instagram closes in on becoming the next billion user app, the monetization potential also grows in proportion.