When we work with scheduling social media content, there is a certain amount that we can automate. Especially when you build you own content, you can prep it all and put it into queues that some rather nice software platforms will automate the posting for you. It is a huge advantage for companies as they can moderate the time of postings, without having a physical person on payroll clicking the posting at that time. It is a larger advantage for us, we as manage multiple accounts for others.
Automation has never been an option with Instagram, until recently. Instagram, which continues to grow in audience scope is not tied into the major automation tools. So when one arrives as a solution, we pause and take notice.
There is a platform called ScheduGram, coming out of a company in Australia, which offers a desktop scheduling of Instagram postings.
[h1 style=”first-word double-color”]What it Does…[/h1]
Exactly what we all want it to. It allows multiple people to login and schedule the automation of content going to Instagram. You can even crop and edit the images, set times, and put content in a queue to go out. With the ability manage multiple accounts, it would appear that there is now a tool to help automate posts online.
They even offer multiple tiers of service to manage more accounts. Great right? I guess our reaction would be more appropriately defined as “proceed with caution”.
[h1 style=”first-word double-color”]Why we hesitate…[/h1]
When a software company wants to interact with other software platforms, they provide an API. That API (Application Programming Interface) is a set of instructions that specifies how software components should interact with each other.
Instagram has an API. They are very clear that it is not to be used for posting content.
You Shall Not: Use the Instagram APIs to post automated content to Instagram, including likes and comments that were not initiated and entered by an Instagram user.
ScheduGram is very clear about the Instagram API. They even state that they are not endorsed or supported by Instagram. They even go into detail on how it works as they emulate the interface of tablets to post content, acting as a self justification to what they are doing.
What is the Relationship between Instagram and Schedugram
[h1 style=”first-word double-color”]Advice ?[/h1]
Try it out and use it while it is working if it will help you be productive. Do not plan on it being around long, and fire staff for something you consider to be automated.
Typically these things do not end well. Instagram will likely put some effort to push ScheduGram into a dark abyss. Instagram APIs are written to protect the intent of how they want the App to work. When Instagram is ready, they will write their own scheduling for businesses and charge for that.
Remember, Instagram became a Facebook company two years ago. They have deep pockets, with big lawyers. If ScheduGram is not working with Facebook, they are working against them. That is never a safe bet.