But if you’re manually posting each Reel, especially multiple times a day, you’re doing more harm than good. Your team will end up spending hours each week on a repetitive task that can easily be automated with a social media scheduling tool.

Scheduling Instagram Reels in advance helps you post consistently, hit peak engagement times and focus on creating better content. It’s also a great way to keep the algorithm happy and rake up those views, likes, comments and shares.

In this post, we’ll show you 3 ways to schedule Instagram Reels.

Can you schedule Instagram Reels?

Yes! You can schedule Instagram Reels in three different ways:

• Natively using the Instagram app
• Using social media scheduling tools (e.g., Sprout Social)
• Using Meta Business Suite

We’ll show you how to schedule your Reels with each method below.

Note: Scheduling Instagram posts and Reels is only available for Instagram Business or Creator accounts (not personal accounts), so make sure you check your account type before diving in. Learn how to switch to a professional account here.

How to schedule Instagram Reels from the Instagram app

Third-party scheduling tools for Instagram have been around for a while, but the app itself did not support native scheduling until the end of 2022. Users can now schedule up to 25 posts daily and up to 75 days in advance directly through the Instagram app only. Scheduling is only available through the native app and not through desktop login.

Keep in mind, only Instagram Business and Creator accounts have access to this feature. Personal profiles are unable to schedule content.

Follow these steps to get started.

Step 1. Create a new Reel

Open your Instagram app and tap the + at the bottom of the screen or swipe right on your home feed to create a new Reel.

Select Reel from the content types at the bottom.

Step 2. Film or upload your video

Either shoot clips directly using the in-app camera, or upload videos from your phone.

Step 3. Edit and finalize your Reel

Add text, stickers, music, effects, etc., then add your caption.

Step 4. Schedule your Reel

Tap More options at the bottom of the screen.

Toggle the Schedule this reel option on, then select your preferred date and time from the menu that appears.

Go back to the previous screen and tap Schedule.

While Instagram’s native scheduling is straightforward, it has some limitations. For example, you can’t cross-post to other accounts. So if you need to share content across multiple platforms, check out methods two or three for scheduling Reels.

Using a third-party scheduling tool also gives you access to more in-depth analytics to track the performance of your Reels. We’ll talk more about that later.

How to schedule Instagram Reels with Sprout Social via desktop

Scheduling Reels through Instagram’s native app works fine for some businesses. But if you’re a business dealing with a larger social strategy, you’ll need a tool that lets you easily schedule and manage content across multiple platforms.

Sprout Social is one of those tools that let you do more than just schedule Reels. You can cross-post on other networks, collaborate with your team, engage with your audience and track in-depth analytics—all in one place.

Here’s how to schedule Instagram Reels with Sprout on your desktop.

Step 1: Sign up and connect your Instagram profile

Before you can schedule your Reels via Sprout Social, you need to connect your Instagram profile(s). Log in to your Sprout dashboard or sign up for a free 30-day trial here.

Click Connect a Profile and choose Instagram from the various options. Then, follow the on-screen guidelines to link your Instagram profile to your Sprout account.

Note: Link all your Instagram profiles to Sprout to schedule Reels to multiple accounts. You can also connect your other social profiles, including Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter (X).

Step 2: Compose your Instagram Reel

Once you’ve connected your profile, click Publishing on the left to open Sprout’s social media calendar. You can switch between list, week or monthly calendar views.

Hover on your calendar to schedule a Reel on a specific day. There’s also an option to leave notes (e.g., Reel ideas you want to share with the team).

You can also skip the calendar view and click the blue pencil/paper icon in the top right corner from any screen to create a new Reel.

Select the Instagram profile you want to publish to from the drop down menu.

Now, you can start composing your Reel. If you’re looking for inspiration, here are some Instagram Reel ideas to get your creative juices flowing.

Add your Reel video

Start by uploading your media. There are several ways to do this in Sprout:

• Upload your Reel video directly from your computer
• Import from Bynder, Dropbox or Google Drive
• Add a video from your asset library in Sprout

Once you’ve uploaded your video, you can change the thumbnail frame by clicking on the pencil icon that appears when you hover on the attached media. You can also upload a different image to use as your thumbnail.

This is also where you can toggle the option to share your Reel to your profile feed or have it appear only in the Reels tab.

Write your caption

Next, write an engaging caption for your Reel. You can also add relevant Instagram hashtags, or tag users and other brands in your caption (e.g. during a partnership).

Sprout pro tip: Use our Enhance by AI Assist feature to generate more caption ideas and speed up your creative process. If you’re not sure what to post about, Enhance by AI Assist can help you create content based on a draft you input into the Compose box. If you’re looking to change the tone of the content (think: confident, friendly or professional), try Suggestions by AI Assist to align captions with your brand’s tone of voice.

Set a Mobile Publisher (optional)

If you want to use audio from Instagram’s sound library in your Reel content, you’ll need to choose a Mobile Publisher. This person will post your Reel from Instagram’s mobile app and will get a reminder (push notification) from Sprout’s mobile app on their device when it’s time to do so.

Step 3: Schedule your Reel

Scroll down to When to post and select your preferred date and time. This is when your scheduled Reel will go live. You can also adjust the time zone if your audience is located in a different country or region.

If you’re not sure when to post your Reel, select Optimal Send Times to see data-driven recommendations when your audience is most likely to see your content. Sprout’s ViralPost™ technology suggests the best times to post based on your historical engagement data to help you maximize your Reel’s impact.

After finalizing the date and time, click Submit or Schedule to add it to your calendar.

How to schedule Instagram Reels with Sprout Social via iOS app

Scheduling Instagram Reels using Sprout’s iOS app is similar to doing the same on desktop, with some minor differences. You can easily schedule videos on the go from your phone.

Follow the steps below to schedule Instagram Reels using Sprout’s iOS app.

• Step 1: Tap the Compose box and select your Instagram profile.
• Step 2: Upload your Reel video from your iOS device or Asset Library to the Compose box.
• Step 3: Write a caption, add your hashtags and insert any mentions or tags.
• Step 4: Tap Done and add Mobile Publisher Notes.
• Step 5: Tap Notify and then choose a publishing date and time for your Reel.
• Step 6: Tap Save. Your Reel is now scheduled and will appear on the publishing calendar.

How to schedule Instagram Reels from Meta Business Suite

You can also schedule Instagram Reels using the Meta Business Suite.

First, connect your Instagram account to your Facebook page so you can access both from the Meta Business Suite. Then follow the steps below to schedule your Reel.

Step 1. Create a new Reel

Log in to the Meta Business Suite, and click Create reel.

Step 2. Add media and caption

Upload one or more videos for your Reel content.

This is also where you can write a compelling caption to go with your video. Include any relevant hashtags, location tags or mentions.

Step 3. Edit your Reel

You can make basic edits to your Reel before you publish or schedule it.

Crop your video, add trending sounds from the built-in library, insert text and even enhance the original audio. There’s a timeline editor at the bottom to make editing and syncing audio easier.

Step 4. Schedule your Reel

Hit Next and select a date and time to schedule your Instagram Reel.

You can also add a poll and adjust privacy settings (Public or Restricted) at this step.

When you’re done, click Schedule. Your Reel is now ready to go live at your chosen time.

Why should you schedule Instagram Reels?

If you’re like most marketing teams, you’ve figured out that Reels are your ticket to growing on Instagram. But if you’re posting your videos manually throughout the day, you’re doing it the hard way.

Here’s why scheduling your Reels in advance might be the best thing you do for your Instagram strategy.

Maintain a consistent presence

Scheduling Instagram Reels ahead of time helps you consistently post fresh content, which keeps your audience engaged and your brand top-of-mind.

It also signals to your followers that you’re active and invested in connecting with them. Without consistency, even the best content can get lost in the noise, and your audience may drift away.

Sprout’s scheduling tools make it easy to maintain a regular posting cadence. You can plan your publishing calendar well in advance and make sure you’re not just posting Reels but also mixing in other content types like image posts, Carousels and Stories.

Maximize reach and engagement

Reaching your audience when they’re online is key to getting your Reels noticed. Instagram’s algorithm rewards content posted at the right time with more visibility and engagement.

But figuring out the best times to post isn’t always easy, especially when your audience is active in different time zones.

That’s where Sprout’s ViralPost™ feature can help. It analyzes your audience’s activity and recommends the best times to post for max engagement. Instead of guessing, you can rely on data to schedule your Reels for when they’re most likely to make an impact.

Save time and improve efficiency

Posting Reels manually every day can take time away from other important things like strategy building or content creation. Scheduling lets you batch your work, which frees up time to focus on those big-picture tasks that truly matter.

Need proof? Our Social Media Productivity Report revealed 63% of marketers feel that manual tasks hold them back from doing high-impact work. With the right social media management tools, however, 59% find they have more time to finish their tasks.

With Sprout’s publishing tools, you can upload and schedule Reels in bulk, plan weeks ahead and eliminate the stress of daily posting. With everything organized in one platform, you’ll have more time to think creatively and engage meaningfully with your audience.

Improve content quality

Creating great Reels isn’t just about hitting “post”—it’s about planning, editing and crafting content that truly resonates with your audience.

When you schedule your Reels in advance, you have more time to research customer needs and preferences, brainstorm content ideas, refine your visuals, write thoughtful captions and pick the best hashtags to boost visibility.

Combine that with Sprout’s AI Assist to get caption suggestions and help with drafting posts. Our smart writing tools make sure every Reel you share is polished and high-quality.

Streamline your workflow

Managing social media content can get overwhelming, especially when you’re juggling multiple platforms or working with a team. Scheduling keeps you organized and prevents last-minute issues like mistakes, typos or missed deadlines.

Sprout Social simplifies this further with a centralized workflow for drafting, approving and scheduling Instagram Reels and other posts. Team members can collaborate on, review and approve social content, making sure it’s aligned with your brand before it goes live.

Make data-driven optimizations

Understanding how your Reels perform is crucial for improving your strategy. Metrics like reach, views and engagement rates reveal what’s working and where there’s room to grow. Without these insights, you’re just guessing what your audience wants.

Sprout Social’s powerful Instagram analytics let you track your Reels’ performance in real-time. With granular data on your audience as well as individual posts, you can adjust your content, target the right audience and improve ROI in the long run.

Start scheduling Reels today

Let’s be real: manually posting Reels throughout the day is probably not the best use of your time. Sure, Reels are crushing it on Instagram right now—but spending hours on publishing means less time actually creating great content.

Good news? Scheduling changes everything. You’ll keep a consistent posting rhythm and free up time to focus on growing your brand on Instagram. No more dropping everything to post a Reel right this second.

Using a tool like Sprout makes this even easier, giving you everything you need to manage, schedule and optimize your Reels in one place. Sign up for a 30-day free trial now and see the difference scheduling makes.

The post How to schedule Reels on Instagram in 3 ways appeared first on Sprout Social.

In this post, we take a deep dive into the art of social media listening for Instagram. We explain why it’s important, how it works and how to build an Instagram social listening strategy. Let’s get started.

What is Instagram social listening?

Instagram social listening is the process of tracking relevant conversations on the platform. It involves listening in on conversations about specific keywords, topics, hashtags and competitors. This helps you extract valuable insights to inform other aspects of your Instagram marketing strategy.

Not sure what to post? See what your followers are buzzing about to get inspiration for new content ideas. What memes are they sharing? What topics are they discussing?

Similarly, these conversations help you:

• Identify potential customers and influencers
• Assess your overall brand health and sentiment
• See what your competitors are doing
• Guide customers on their path to purchase
• Stay on top of the latest industry trends

Instagram social listening gives you firsthand, actual answers based on facts. So you’re no longer wasting your efforts and resources on guesswork.

Why Instagram social listening matters

Brands shouldn’t live in a bubble when it comes to their Instagram activity. Listening puts your mentions, interactions and comments into context. This helps you engage people and grow your account.

Below are some specific ways that Instagram empowers you to connect with customers.

Learning what your audience wants on a personal level

Social listening on Instagram lets you hone in on the needs and pain points of your target audience. It shows you what conversations people are having, even outside of your brand’s account. This gives you a better idea of what they want based on the posts they’re creating and the comments they’re leaving on a friend’s or influencer’s post.

These insights will then inform your social media content strategy and promotion strategy. Knowing what your audience wants can even guide your product development efforts.

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Providing more impactful Instagram customer service

“Good” service goes hand-in-hand with having a pulse on customer questions, comments and concerns.

This becomes challenging when people use Instagram to vent their frustrations instead of talking to you. Instagram social listening ensures that you never miss a @mention. It also helps you track posts containing branded keywords. So you can stay on top of customer service conversations beyond your direct call-outs.

That way, you can respond swiftly and step up your social media customer service efforts.

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This could be a game-changer, with 76% of consumers in our 2023 Sprout Social Index™ report valuing how quickly a brand responds to their needs. Our report found that consumers also equally appreciate it when a brand prioritizes customer support. 70% also expect to get a personalized response for their customer service needs.

Discovering meaningful customer content to promote your brand

Your customers are your best marketers. Listening can clue you in on valuable content and social proof you can promote yourself. This might include:

• Positive reviews, testimonials and customer success stories
• User-generated content (think: customer photos and videos)
• Shout-outs from potential co-marketing partners (think: brands, influencers and creators)

Rather than dig for these opportunities, listening ensures that they all come to you.

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Instagram social listening vs. social media monitoring

Quick side note! Let’s take a moment to break down what Instagram listening isn’t.

Listening is about more than @mentions, comments and #hashtags

Terms like “monitoring” and “listening” often get used interchangeably among marketers. They aren’t the same, though.

• Social media monitoring is the act of tracking @mentions, comments and hashtags. Monitoring is a crucial aspect of listening, but it’s only part of the process.
• Instagram social listening involves translating conversations and customer talking points into action.

Interactions matter, but so does context. Think about it. Someone tagging a fashion brand in their OOTD post versus calling out that brand’s products are apples and oranges.

A tag simply means, “This is what I’m wearing/using.” A call-out goes deeper into what they love about the product or why they chose it specifically. Also, not every mention of your business on Instagram involves a direct call-out or tag. This is likely to happen when people are complaining about your brand or expressing their frustration.

Social listening for Instagram is about deciphering the context behind those relevant conversations. This then empowers you to take appropriate action and make informed decisions.

The takeaway? If you’re only looking for mentions of your brand name or campaign key terms, you’re missing out on key conversations.

You’re also missing opportunities to intervene and take action to engage customers. That’s why it pays to be proactive via listening.

How does Instagram social listening work, though?

Good question! Instagram is a strange beast as far as listening to customer interactions goes.

For starters, you’re juggling a lot of different queries. Tags, mentions and branded keywords are just the beginning.

And although IG search has improved, you need to do some digging to find and pull together relevant conversations.

Instagram social listening involves the following three-step process:

• Creating queries based on your business, hashtags and terms relevant to your industry
• Monitoring mentions, tags, comments and interactions
• Assessing all of the above to take action

This action could be something as simple as responding to a post. Or it may involve a bit more complex process of solving a customer’s problem.

Starface uses brand tags and hashtags to find relevant customer content. The following Reel shows how a customer created a DIY bag charm using the brand’s star balm. Starface responds with a comment about how smart this is. Even a simple acknowledgment like this is enough to build a strong brand community.

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Features such as Instagram’s keyword search and tags can help you dig out content relevant to your brand. Coupled with your comments and brand tags, you have a decent idea of what people are saying about your business.

This is obviously a lot to sift through by hand. Again, Instagram doesn’t make listening particularly easy by default.

The good news is that there are tools out there to help. Sprout’s social media listening tool helps you hone in on relevant Instagram conversations. Brands can create their own listening queries for Instagram via Boolean syntax and rules logic.

Choose from existing templates to simplify your Instagram social listening efforts. Monitor brand health, discover industry insights and analyze your competition. Or check out how your campaign is performing and how people are responding to an event.

Sprout’s Query Builder is where you enter the words, phrases or hashtags you want to track. For Instagram, it’s crucial to include hashtags as a part of your Query since Sprout uses hashtags to collect data from the platform.

Not sure what words or phrases to track? Queries by AI Assist is a useful feature that automatically suggests additional words or phrases. Enter one keyword relevant to your industry and the capability comes up with other related keywords to add to your Query.

Optionally, exclude specific words and phrases and select industry themes to reduce noise in your social listening data. You can also configure your alerts and apply additional filters to streamline your search.

How to build an effective Instagram social listening strategy

Of course, understanding Instagram listening and how it works is only half the battle.

How do you turn all of these metrics and observations into action?

Your social listening strategy ultimately boils down to your goals. Below is how brands can use Instagram social listening to level up their marketing efforts.

Conduct competitive analysis to find ways to stand out

One of the best uses of social listening is competitive analysis.

Consider ultra-competitive markets such as the beauty industry, for example. New products are constantly popping up every day, with new brands adding to the competition. Tracking tags and trending discussions will show you which brands are dominating the space and why. So you can better position yourself in the face of stiff competition.

Meanwhile, direct mentions and branded hashtags highlight conversations specific to your brand. This helps you uncover what makes your brand different.

Uncover opportunities to improve your products

If you want to know how to improve your own products and services, who better to ask than your own customers? Prompted or not, followers can clue you in on new ideas.

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Of course, not all feedback from your followers is going to be direct. People might create posts or Stories complaining about your products without tagging you. Using an Instagram social listening tool will help you zero in on those relevant discussions.

Likes, comments and shares also help you measure how customers are responding to certain products. Look at an influx of interactions to see which products are a customer favorite. Alternatively, posts with a lower engagement can show you which items are falling flat.

Make valuable customer touchpoints on the path to purchase

The latest Instagram stats show that 70% of shoppers look to the platform for their next purchase. And over 60% research brands and products on the app. So if you take the opportunity to engage these potential customers, you could effectively grow your sales.

Instagram comments are a goldmine for finding folks interested in your products. This rings true for people who don’t know about you yet or might be looking for a new spot in your space.

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Listening makes it easier to maintain relationships with satisfied customers, too. This includes check-ins and opportunities to earn more UGC.

Discover industry and content trends relevant to your followers

Social listening is invaluable for tracking industry trends. For starters, you should know the tags your audience follows. But are how they responding to such trends? What’s the context behind those trends? How can you apply them to your own campaigns?

On a related note, Instagram listening can keep you from accidentally copying your competition.

For example, brands need to differentiate their tone, content calendar and captions if they want to stand out on Instagram. Effective listening can help you uncover tags and trends that your competitors might be missing out on and how you can fill the void.

Monitor your customer sentiment and keep people happy

Let’s say you’ve launched a new product or campaign.

You obviously want to know how your audience feels about it, right? Are you building the kind of buzz you expect? Or is the campaign falling flat with your audience?

Again, you may not always get those answers from direct mentions. Chances are there are users out there who can provide a concrete answer, though. You need to keep track of the posts people are creating about the product or campaign to get an idea of its impact.

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This is where sentiment analysis comes in, helping you gauge how folks are reacting to your brand on Instagram. Track the sentiment around specific campaign tags and products. Whether it’s “yay,” “nay” or “meh,” sentiment analysis can inform you to better serve customers and score more love from your Instagram followers.

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What Instagram social listening tools are available to brands?

Native Instagram search tools allow basic brand listening. But the process is manual and taxing, especially if you’re going all in with Instagram social listening.

After all, brands need to track multiple tags and competitors. That’s not even considering your own mentions and branded keywords. Given the sheer amount of content posted to Instagram daily, sifting through it all is no small feat.

Investing in a proper Instagram social listening tool saves you the trouble of digging through thousands of posts each day.

Sprout’s robust suite of social listening features is a game-changer for brands looking to step up their Instagram presence. Businesses can track dozens of queries beyond simple hashtags with the help of our Query Builder. This gives you a holistic understanding of your brand and industry to inform your larger marketing efforts.

Reporting and analytics provide a quantitative look at your listening so you can make data-driven decisions. Second-guessing a campaign or your next move on Instagram? Look no further than your numbers for peace of mind.

Listen, learn and grow with Instagram social listening

Social listening on Instagram helps you tap into the pulse of industry trends and conversations. These insights inform various aspects of your business—from your content to your product development.

Stay on top of those critical conversations with Sprout’s robust social media listening solution. Try it for free for 30 days to see how it can power your Instagram social listening efforts.

The post Instagram social listening: Transform your brand’s strategy appeared first on Sprout Social.

Learning how to schedule Instagram posts in advance frees up your social media team to focus on more important tasks, like building an Instagram marketing strategy, creating quality content, analyzing performance and engaging with your audience in real time.

In this article, we’re going to talk about the different ways you can schedule your Instagram content, the benefits of doing so and a few great scheduling tools to consider in your techstack.

Can you schedule Instagram posts?

Absolutely! There are several ways to schedule Instagram posts:

• Using Instagram’s native app
• Using Meta Business Suite
• Using social media scheduling tools (e.g. Sprout Social)

We’ll walk you through each method in the next few sections.

But first, let’s talk about why scheduling is so important for brands on Instagram.

According to our Social Media Productivity report, 63% of marketers feel that manual tasks hold them back from doing high-impact work. But with the right social media management tools, 59% find they have more time to get things done.

Think about it: when you’re not scrambling to post content manually or setting alarms for optimal posting times, you can focus on what really matters—creating unique, compelling content and building authentic connections with your followers.

Now, let’s look at the different ways you can schedule Instagram posts in advance.

Quick note: Scheduling is only available for Instagram Business or Creator accounts (not personal accounts), so make sure you check your account type before diving in.

How to schedule Instagram posts from the Instagram app

After years of users asking for it, Instagram finally added in-app scheduling near the end of 2022. Users are able to schedule up to 25 posts per day and up to 75 days in advance.

Keep in mind, only Instagram Business and Creator accounts have access to this feature. Personal profiles are unable to schedule content.

Follow these steps to get started:

Step 1: Open your Instagram app and tap the + at the bottom of the screen or swipe the home feed to the right to create a new piece of content.

Step 2: Select Post or Reel, depending on the type of content you’re creating.

Step 3: Either take a photo or record a video using the in-app camera or upload one from your camera roll.

Step 4: Add any text, stickers, music, effects, etc., then add your caption.

Step 5: Tap Advanced Settings at the bottom of the screen.

Step 6: Toggle the Schedule this post option on, then select your preferred date and time from the menu that appears.

Step 7: Go back to the previous screen and tap Schedule.

Keep in mind, scheduling within the Instagram app prevents you from cross-posting to other accounts, such as a Facebook profile or Page or even Threads. If you’d like to schedule and cross-post to other accounts, explore the next two options.

How to schedule Instagram posts from Meta Business Suite

You can also use the Meta Business Suite to schedule your Instagram content. First, connect your Instagram Business Account to your Facebook Page so you can access both from the Meta Business Suite.

Then follow these steps:

Step 1: In Meta Business Suite, click Create post or Create reel.

Step 2: Specify which Instagram account you want to share your post or Reel to. It may also include your Facebook Page—it’s up to you whether you also want it to post to your Facebook Page or only to Instagram.

Step 3: Upload your media, then write out your caption. Be sure to include your mentions and hashtags (you can even save hashtags to reuse in your content). You can even geotag a location if you wish.

Step 4: Click on Schedule, then select your preferred date and time. Click Active times to access a popup showcasing some of the upcoming times that your audience is active.

Step 5: Once you’ve selected your time, click Save then click Schedule.

How to schedule Instagram posts using Sprout Social

Scheduling Instagram posts natively is straightforward, but how about when you have a larger social strategy across multiple platforms to plan and schedule?

With a dedicated social media publishing tool like Sprout, you can do so much more. Cross-posting, team collaboration and permissions, in-depth analytics—the list goes on.

We make it so easy to schedule all kinds of Instagram posts, including single posts, Reels, Carousels and Stories. Whatever you want to upload, simply finalize your content and schedule it on desktop or mobile. You can also use Sprout’s Instagram grid planner to visualize how your scheduled posts will actually look on your profile.

Follow the steps below to learn exactly how to schedule Instagram posts using Sprout.

Step 1: Connect your Instagram profiles to Sprout Social

The first thing you need to do is log in to Sprout Social and link your Instagram profile (If you don’t already have an account, sign up for a free 30-day trial).

From the dashboard, click Connect a Profile and select Instagram from the different options. Then, follow the on-screen instructions to easily connect your Instagram profile.

Quick tip: Have more than one Instagram profile? Connect them all. Sprout lets you manage and schedule posts to multiple accounts from one dashboard. In fact, you can also link your other social profiles, including Facebook, Twitter (X) and LinkedIn.

Sign up for a free 30-day trial

Step 2: Open your Sprout publishing calendar

Once you’ve linked your profile, click Publishing in the left menu to open Sprout’s social media calendar. You can view this as a list, week or monthly calendar.

Next, it’s time to choose the image(s) or video to post. If you’re not 100% sure what you should publish, check out our in-depth guide on Instagram post ideas.

You can directly schedule posts or leave notes by clicking through the spaces in your calendar. This keeps you organized and gives you a bird’s eye view of your content strategy.

Step 3: Compose your Instagram post

Hover on your calendar to schedule a post on a specific day, or click the blue pencil/paper icon in the top right corner of your screen to create a new post.

Choose the Instagram account you want to publish to and specify the type of content you want to schedule—post or Story.

At this point, you can start composing your post. Start by writing a compelling caption for your content. You can also add relevant Instagram hashtags or tag users in your caption.

Sprout pro tip: Use our Enhance by AI Assist feature to generate more caption ideas and speed up your creative process. If you’re not sure what to post about, Enhance by AI Assist can help you create content based on a draft you input into the Compose box. If you’re looking to change the tone of the content (think: confident, friendly or professional), try Suggestions by AI Assist to align captions with your brand’s tone of voice

Now, upload your visuals. There are several ways to do this in Sprout.

You can upload an image(s) or video directly from your computer or mobile. Another way is to choose a visual from the Asset Library. This is helpful if you already have shared media uploaded on Sprout, such as company or product photos.

Upload images directly from Canva

If you don’t have any premade assets to upload and want to create beautiful Instagram posts on the spot, our Canva integration can save the day.

To create and export images directly from Canva, click Upload Media in the compose window and select Design on Canva from the drop down.

Log in to your existing Canva account on the screen that pops up or create a new one in a few minutes. Then, select a template, customize it and click Export to Sprout when you’re done. Easy!

Step 4: Select your preferred date and time

Scroll down in the Compose box to the When to post section. Choose your preferred date and time. You can also specify the time zone if your audience is located in a specific region.

Alternatively, select Optimal Send Times to see data-driven recommendations when your audience is most likely to see your content. Our ViralPost technology suggests the best times to post based on your historical engagement data for maximum reach opportunity.

Step 5: Stage your post for scheduling

After your content is edited and approved, you can click Schedule to add it to your calendar.

Other scheduling options in Sprout are to Draft, Queue or Submit for Approval. Let’s take a look at each option:

• Draft: Not sure if your post is ready to go live quite yet? Want to create multiple “backup” Instagram posts for the future? Draft is a great spot to park your unfinished content or items that still need approval.
• Queue: The Sprout Queue is ideal for edited posts ready to go live—especially if you’re not sure when to post your content. When you queue your Instagram posts, Sprout picks the best time to publish within the window you specify.
• Submit for Approval: Choosing an approver ensures your content is properly edited, timely and on-brand. Select specific approvers to review your content before it goes live. This option is perfect if you have or plan to establish a social media workflow.

Benefits of scheduling Instagram posts

Businesses have begged for scheduling features on Instagram for years. But why are so many marketers eager to queue up their content? Below are some of the biggest benefits of scheduled Instagram posts.

1. Develop a more comprehensive and consistent content strategy

Food for thought: Different types of content (think: carousels, images, Stories and Reels) all receive different rates of engagement. This means brands need to diversify their content strategies and not just post the same type of content over and over.

When you schedule posts on Instagram, you give yourself time to actually assess your content calendar, identify gaps and opportunities, and gather the various assets you need to create fresh, compelling content.

Scheduling also enables you to stay consistent with your posting strategy, whether it’s one daily post or multiple posts a day. This helps keep you top of your followers’ minds (and feeds) and also gives you a boost with the Instagram algorithm.

2. Allows for more real-time engagement with followers

If nothing else, scheduling Instagram posts can free up some serious time in your schedule. That means more opportunities to interact with followers and reply to comments.

Even the best Instagram scheduler can’t do the legwork of building relationships with customers. When you stick to a social media post scheduler consistently, you create more time for dedicated customer engagement.

3. Better time management means increased productivity

Think about the effort that goes into creating Instagram posts or campaigns beyond writing captions and editing images. There’s also tagging accounts. Adding locations. Checking hashtags. And that doesn’t even scratch the surface.

Creating Instagram posts last-minute is a recipe for burnout. When you schedule Instagram posts in advance, you can batch your time and be more productive. For example, you could write all your captions in one sitting or edit a week’s worth of images at once.

This helps your brain stay focused instead of constantly switching between different types of work. The result? You get more done in less time and craft more meaningful posts.

4. Create seamless marketing campaigns beyond Instagram

Your social media campaigns shouldn’t be siloed.

From organic and paid social to email and beyond, all of your channels should be on the same page in terms of creatives, landing pages and promotions. This creates a better customer experience.

Through social scheduling, you ensure that your posts fire off at the right time. If you’re using a social media management tool such as Sprout Social, you can actually sync all of your social channels (think: Instagram, Facebook and TikTok) so you don’t have to publish manually or in real-time.

5. Encourage collaboration and brainstorming

Again, scheduling encourages brands to begin working on posts well in advance.

This means marketers and colleagues have time to partner on messaging and creative assets.

For social teams and brand marketers looking for feedback or approval workflows, collaboration and Instagram scheduling go hand in hand. Coupled with a social media approval process, it’s a cinch to get multiple sets of eyes on your content before it goes live.

Tips for scheduling posts on Instagram

We’ll say it again: You can’t just queue up your posts months or weeks in advance and expect your Instagram to grow on autopilot.

Below are some key considerations for brands looking to leverage Instagram scheduling.

1. Optimize your post timing to maximize engagement

A nice added bonus of scheduling is that your business isn’t beholden to “business hours.”

Based on our research on best times to post on Instagram, there’s a correlation between time of day and engagement:

Although these numbers aren’t the be-all, end-all of follower activity and vary based on your time zone, they’re eye-opening in terms of when the average Instagram user is active:

Marketers using Sprout social as their Instagram scheduler can increase engagement with our ViralPost algorithm that optimizes post timing. Rather than guess or decide when to post via trial and error, you’ll know exactly when to post, based on real follower engagement data.

2. Take extra care when crafting your captions

It’s no secret that Instagram captions represent valuable real estate when it comes to engagement.

They shouldn’t be treated as an afterthought. For each post, consider:

• Which hashtags are you using? How many? Are they in your first comment?
• Do you need to tag any accounts?
• Did you write a strong call-to-action?
• How does this caption compare to your most recent one(s)?

Much like your content strategy needs to be diverse, the same rings true for your Instagram captions.

When you schedule posts in advance, you have time to put your captions under the microscope and ensure there’s some variety. Likewise, you can confirm that you’re using the right Instagram hashtags and aren’t missing any key details before your post goes live.

3. Keep a close eye on your content calendar

Scheduling based on a defined content calendar encourages both variety and consistency in terms of your posts.

As you queue up your posts, ask yourself:

• Are we hitting the appropriate publishing frequency?
• Is there enough variation in our content schedule?
• How are we promoting this content to encourage engagement?
• Are there opportunities to cross-post or repurpose this content to other networks?
• Have the appropriate stakeholders reviewed this post before it goes live?

The answers to all of the above ensure more thoughtful, goal-driven posts that are poised to perform well. Below is a quick snapshot of what a content calendar looks like in Sprout:

4. Block off time to engage with customers

Despite popular belief, scheduling Instagram posts doesn’t make your presence more “passive.”

Quite the opposite, honestly.

Yet again, scheduling frees up your schedule to interact with customers in real-time.

Mind your notifications and make sure your comment section never gathers cobwebs. Be proactive and make a point to respond to social customers ASAP for the sake of satisfaction and loyalty.

In addition to Instagram scheduling, Sprout aggregates messages from all your social networks into a singular Smart Inbox that you can use to filter and categorize messages, while also allowing for real-time collaboration between your team. No message goes unanswered and you’ll also avoid response collisions.

5. Know when to hit “pause” on your scheduling

Whether due to a brand emergency or a bigger crisis management effort, sometimes you need to put a stop to your scheduled content.

Failure to do so could come off as inauthentic or result in otherwise poor engagement when your followers’ minds are elsewhere. For example, publishing promotional content during certain holidays, on somber occasions or in the wake of tragedies could result in adverse affects on your brand reputation.

This speaks to how Instagram scheduling is so much more than putting your brand on autopilot. Sprout has built-in features to pause scheduled posts and resume them when the time is right.

Instagram scheduling tools to use

Third-party tools can make Instagram scheduling even easier than the in-app tool. Additional apps allow you to schedule content to multiple social media platforms at once, offer more features and can help with your overall social media management, from automation to analytics.

Here are three tools you might consider.

1. Sprout Social

Sprout Social is a comprehensive social media management platform that allows users to schedule and publish content across various social media networks including Instagram. It provides a visual content calendar for planning and organizing posts and offers analytics to track post-performance and engagement. Sprout Social also includes features for social listening and engagement allowing users to monitor mentions and conversations about their brand.

2. MeetEdgar

MeetEdgar is a social media scheduling tool that focuses on automating content recycling and evergreen content. Users can create a library of content categorized by topic and schedule posts to be automatically shared and reshared across their social media channels including Instagram. MeetEdgar aims to help users maintain a consistent social media presence with minimal ongoing effort by automatically filling their content calendar.

3. SocialBee

SocialBee is another social media management tool designed to help users plan content across multiple platforms including Instagram. It offers features like content categorization, a visual content calendar and post-performance analytics. SocialBee also emphasizes content variation with options to customize posts for each social media platform, ensuring optimal messaging and format for different audiences.

Learn how to schedule posts on Instagram today

If you want to build a better Instagram presence and free up more time in your busy day, you need to start scheduling.

Doing so might seem simple, but making the most of Instagram scheduling means understanding the key details of any given post and how to best engage followers.

With the tips above and a tool like Sprout, you can create a compelling content calendar that does exactly that. Sign up for a free 30-day trial and check it out for yourself.

The post How to schedule Instagram posts: The complete guide for 2025 appeared first on Sprout Social.

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll dive into what Reels are and how your brand can take advantage of these bite-size videos. We’ll share tips from Meta for creating a successful Facebook and Instagram Reels strategy, including how to boost your Reels to reach a wider audience.

What are Instagram Reels?

Instagram Reels are short-form videos that offer you options beyond the square sizing of the network’s feed. Reels have a 9:16 aspect ratio and can be 15 to 90 seconds long. Users have the option to add background audio, whether a voiceover, music or trending sound. In contrast to long-form and typically more polished videos, Instagram Reels are bite-sized, casual and highly discoverable. When posting a Reel, you can choose to add it to Facebook and Threads too.

Joana Rocha, Senior Technical Partner Manager for Reels Ads, Video and Threads at Meta, says Reels are a major driver of Instagram traffic.

“Approximately 50% of time spent on Instagram is on Reels,” she says. “Reels is a rich, growing, creative canvas where brands can turn attention into action.”

Rather than showcasing long-form scripted content such as an in-depth tutorial, these are meant to be quick videos for entertainment or education. You can select a cover for your Reel, so it seamlessly blends into your main feed’s grid style. Instagram profiles also have a Reels section that displays a Reels only grid.

Instagram and Facebook Reels algorithm explained

Meta’s goal is for users to easily find and view content that resonates with what they enjoy and Reels play a key role.

“Our aim is to make Reels entertaining, relevant and inspiring,” Rocha says. “We know it’s important to recommend content that does that, and will continue iterating on the experience to make it better.”

Instagram and Facebook’s algorithm takes several factors into consideration when serving content to users. This includes inputs from individual users themselves and broader patterns from the community. The algorithm caters suggested content to users based on their interests and content they’ve liked or commented on. Trending and popular Reels from across Instagram are also suggested. Rocha says the goal is for both types of content to inspire individual users to create Reels of their own.

How to make a Reel on Instagram and Facebook

We’ve put together a quick start tutorial for how to make a Reel on Instagram and Facebook so you can get started.

How to make a Reel on Instagram

Follow these steps to create a Reel on Instagram:

1. To get started, navigate to your brand’s profile page and tap the plus sign at the top right of the app.

2. Select Reel from the Create menu.

3. Once you’re here, you’re ready to start making your Reel! If you’ve pre-recorded and edited a video, you can upload it from the initial Reels screen. Otherwise, choose Camera near the top right to record a new Reel.

4. Before you record, choose your timeframe. You can select 15, 30, 60 or 90 seconds from the Length option on the right side of the screen. This will determine how long you can spend recording your Reel.

5. You can stop and start recording at any point to switch camera angles, record different subjects or do quick costume changes. Be as creative as you want when creating a Reel on Instagram. You can also use different templates or effects on Reels when recording on your phone.

Before moving on to your next snippet, you can delete and re-record or trim any parts of your previous snippet. Instagram also gives you the option to speed up or slow down your Reels recording for an added effect to your video.

6. Once you’ve finished recording, you can add music and effects, including on-screen text. Press the forward arrow to preview your Reel and make sure it’s what you want it to be.

When adding text and overlay effects to Reels, keep in mind key video specs. Rocha recommends, “Work within the safe zones so your text sticker overlays, calls to action or key messages aren’t obscured by the Reels user interface. Keep the bottom 35% of your 9:16 creative free of text, logos and other key elements.”

7. Lastly, write your caption and search for Instagram Reel hashtags to add to your caption (or comments after publishing). Then decide where to share your Reel on your profile before you publish it.

How to make a Reel on Facebook

Publishing a Reel on Facebook is fairly similar to Instagram, especially in terms of features and effects. Follow these steps to create a Reel on Facebook:

1. Go to your brand’s profile page and select Video. Here, you’ll see a Create Reel option listed before your previously posted videos.

2. Begin recording or select a previously recorded video. You can select different effects, use a green screen, change the speed and more. You can stop recording and start again at any time to create a new scene. You can also add music or other audio and any additional effects before publishing. Remember Rocha’s tips about overlay and text placement apply to Facebook as well.

While you can craft a Reel in the Instagram and Facebook apps, Sprout Social’s platform makes it easy to upload and post Reels. You can upload a thumbnail image for the main feed. You can use the Compose feature to plan out your content in advance, schedule it and track performance against your goals. When choosing a day and time to schedule, consider the best times to post on Instagram or use Sprout’s Optimal Send Times™ to automatically select the time your audience is most active.

Reels best practices and tips

With so many options to create and customize your Reels, here are some best practices and tips to help you navigate where to begin.

Create engaging content

Sometimes the social media content you make doesn’t need to have a sales or conversion objective. Instagram Reels give you the opportunity to make and share content simply for your audience to enjoy, helping you build customer relationships and connection with your followers. Showcase your product, your team or your service in an authentic way by creating unique content.

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• Make fun content for your audience. The entire point of Reels is to make bite-sized content that excites your audience and gets them to follow along for more great content.
• Create tutorials. Instagram Reels is the perfect place to make short, easy-to-follow tutorial clips that showcase how to use your product or service, or how to do something that’s relevant to your industry.
• Share behind-the-scenes videos. Introduce employees, show off new products yet to launch, share how your product is made, etc.
• Show off products. Take videos highlighting new product releases or showcase how your products can be used.
• Repurpose videos. Has your brand already developed a presence on other networks that support video? Repurpose your videos to save time from creating net new content.
• Promote sales with Instagram Reels. Let your audience know when you’re offering sales and discounts by sharing announcements on your Instagram Reels.
• Make educational content. Instagram Reels is a great place to put 15-90 seconds educational snippets that explain a concept to your audience that’s relevant to your business or industry.

As part of your engagement plan, make sure you post your unique content during the best times to post on Facebook or Instagram to maximize visibility and engagement with your audience.

Add interactive elements

Reels can up level your visual content by making it more interactive. Beyond inspiring discussion in your comments, interactive stickers and text can grab viewers’ attention and keep them focused on your content longer. Add a poll or quiz to incorporate trivia or get a feel for customer opinion on a topic. Insert a question submission box as part of an “ask us anything” Reel and respond in future posts or on an Instagram Live. You can also add emoji sliders and animated graphics for additional quick but fun interactions.

Use trending songs and sounds

Instagram trends are often tied to specific audio. Newly released songs that trend on social media often find their way to the radio and older songs can experience a resurgence in popularity if they go viral. Audio and visuals go hand in hand in this medium, according to Rocha.

“Audio—whether that’s music, voiceover or sound effects—is a key driver of engagement and entertainment on Reels,” she says.

When making a Reel, browse trending sounds and select one that fits your content. Sometimes these sounds have memes or dances tied to them, so consider participating the way other users are if possible. Look for sounds emerging in popularity instead of one that’s already viral to stay ahead of the curve. Be sure to listen to the full sound and understand how it’s being used to confirm it’s brand appropriate. Also consider consulting with your brand’s legal counsel during internal content approval processes to confirm usage rights and legal compliance.

Respond to comments and feedback

Once you’ve posted your Reel, it’s validating and exciting to see comments roll in. Be sure to respond to comments, especially relevant ones, on a regular cadence. Whether answering questions or playing off of humorous comments, your brand’s audience will appreciate the reciprocation.

Sprout’s Smart Inbox will help you respond to comments across networks. Comments left on your posts appear in the Smart Inbox, eliminating the need to switch back and forth between apps and tools.

Partner with creators and influencers

Reels can be an impactful addition to your influencer marketing approach. Influencers and creators can be concepting and production partner for Reels. Rocha says influencers fuel the Reels ecosystem and can drive business outcomes from discovery to purchase.

“53% of people we surveyed agree they are more likely to purchase an item if it’s been promoted by a creator on Reels,” she says.

Rocha says that adding partnership ads on Reels to existing campaigns can led to a median 5% improvement on cost per result and a 20% higher conversion rate. In short, partnering with an influencer on a Reel can mean big return on investment (ROI) for your brand.

When selecting influencers to work with, look for those using Reels successfully. Sprout Social’s influencer marketing platform can help you locate and connect with influencers who’ll be a great fit for your brand. You can negotiate a partnership that includes Reels specifically, whether made by your brand featuring the creator or crafted by them.

Boosting Reels on Instagram and Facebook

Boosting your Instagram Reels extends your reach. You can boost Reels on Instagram when publishing them. You can also boost a Reel on Facebook by selecting the “Share on Facebook” option before publishing and then following the prompted option to boost to more people. To boost a Reel, choose it from your profile and then select Boost Reel in the bottom right. This will take you to a dashboard where you can choose a target audience, duration of ad and other specifics for your boost.

You don’t want to boost every Reel you post, however. Be strategic in your selections. You may want to boost Reels that tie to a broader campaign, feature new products or are part of your holiday marketing strategy, for example. You can boost a Reel you just published or previous ones that have performed well.

Within Sprout, boosting Reels on Instagram or Facebook is easy and shows up in several areas within the platform as an option. You can boost any post you publish within Sprout with the “boost post” option in the publishing workflow. You can also find options to boost in the content calendar and in reports. If you see a post is performing well, you can boost it with just a few clicks.

How to measure Reels performance

Once you’ve done the hard work of creating, editing and sharing a Reel, you’ll likely be eager to see how it performed. Track metrics like comments, shares, likes and engagement rate. For Reels specifically, you can add views as an additional video-specific metric.

Instagram insights and Facebook analytics enable you to monitor how your Reels are doing within native dashboards. You can see insights for individual posts and view them alongside all of your Instagram or Facebook content.

With Sprout’s analytics dashboard, you can track all of these metrics from Instagram and Facebook in one location. Reporting in Sprout streamlines data from all of your other social networks to give you a look at the bigger picture. This can help you understand how your Reels are received on Instagram and Facebook and uncover nuances between the two audiences and channels.

Start creating Reels today

There’s no better time to get started with Reels on Instagram and Facebook. With these short, digestible videos, you’ll be able to build a more engaged audience. Using the tips in this article, you’ll be able to start experimenting and find what resonates most with your customers. Once you find your rhythm, boosting will maximize your efforts and increase social ROI for your brand. Having the right tools in place will help you seamlessly integrate Reels into your social strategy–explore our guide to the top Instagram marketing tools to consider.

The post Your complete guide to creating a Reels strategy for Instagram and Facebook appeared first on Sprout Social.

But if you’re not thrilled with your Instagram growth and engagement, you’re not alone.

Competition on the platform is fierce. And cracking the code of Instagram’s algorithm can be tricky.

However, taking steps to grow your audience is absolutely worth it. That’s because the bigger your audience, the more opportunities to delight your customers.

In this post, you’ll learn about five powerful strategies to tweak your presence and get more followers on Instagram. Let’s break them down.

5 key strategies to get followers on Instagram (for free)

Before we get into the nitty-gritty, this post is about building an organic following.

And yes, the distinction matters!

Some brands want to take shortcuts when it comes to trying to get more Instagram followers. We don’t pretend these pay-for-play sites don’t exist.

But these services aren’t worth it for brands long-term. The Instagram algorithm weeds out low-quality accounts and faux engagement from paid bots.

Growing your audience authentically gets you results that actually matter to your business: brand awareness, revenue and loyal customers.

Read or watch the video below for our best tips on getting more Instagram followers (the right way).

1. Optimize your Instagram account

Before you worry about how to get followers, consider how your Instagram business profile is set up first. Ask yourself:

• Does your profile “look the part?”
• Can your audience easily find it?
• Does it encourage them to take action?

Here’s how you can optimize your Instagram profile for maximum impact.

Choose a professional profile photo

Your profile photo is part of your brand identity on Instagram.

For businesses, a high-quality and appropriately-sized logo is ideal. Any text in your profile picture should be legible on a smartphone screen.

Place keywords in your name, handle and bio

If you want more followers, your profile needs to be discoverable by your target audience.

For starters, add the right keywords to your account. There are three places to focus on here:

• Your username (or handle)
• Your profile name
• Your bio (description)

To have a search-friendly username, stick to either your brand name or whatever’s closest to your existing social handles.

If your name is too long, shorten it to a variation your audience would recognize (ex: Cold Stone Creamery’s account is @coldstone). You can always write the full version in your profile name.

Next is your bio. You can use this space to add keywords related to your niche, industry, products or services. Check out Peach Slices’ Instagram bio as an example.

With these keywords naturally weaved into the description, their account is more likely to pop up for search terms like “k beauty”, “skincare” and “acne”.

Organize stories as highlights

Ever created a killer story that you wish could live on your profile forever? With story highlights, it can.

Highlights are groups of select old (expired) stories. You can organize them by theme or topic, such as Q&As, tips or events — making it easier for people to find relevant stories.

Story highlights are also located at the top of your profile, which makes users more likely to check them first before scrolling down to your posts. Think of them as a curated portfolio that showcases the best of your brand.

Add your location and relevant links

Adding location info pushes your profile higher up in search results for local audiences.

This is especially important for businesses targeting nearby audiences or those wanting to drive more foot traffic to their physical store (e.g. restaurants).

Business accounts can also add multiple links in their bio. This is crucial for turning your followers into meaningful traffic or customers. On Instagram, bio links are your only way to funnel social traffic to your site and promotions.

Linking to your homepage is fine but not always ideal. To encourage more meaningful interactions, add links to specific product pages or even a social landing page that points to multiple links.

This gives your audience total control of how they engage your business next. That means a better experience for your followers.

Showcase your Instagram wherever you can

Don’t be shy about promoting your Instagram if more followers are your goal.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to promoting your ‘gram, either. Here are a few ideas:

• Add social media icons to your website and emails. Social media icons make it easier for people to find your business and help you connect with customers.
• Feature an Instagram feed on your homepage or product pages. Many e-commerce and consumer brands have dedicated UGC feeds on-site (see Sony’s example below).
• Re-share Instagram-specific content or announcements on other social channels. For example, you could talk about an upcoming IG Live via TikTok or Facebook.

Pro tip: Use Sprout Social’s social media scheduling and publishing features to easily plan posts across multiple social media platforms from one dashboard.

2. Develop a solid content strategy

Instagram success doesn’t happen by accident. It takes a clear strategy — one that shows off your brand’s unique side and helps you create content that clicks. When you nail that, engagement goes up, your community gets stronger and new followers roll in.

Let’s dive into the tactics that make this strategy work.

Schedule Instagram posts in advance

There’s no denying that brands are at the mercy of the Instagram algorithm for reach. Still, posting at the right times can still give your posts more visibility. Anything you can do to maximize engagement is a plus.

This speaks to the value of scheduling Instagram content. With Sprout’s newest tools, brands can schedule Stories, Carousels, Reels and Posts.

Scheduling content in advance ensures control and organization. Instagram scheduling tools ultimately help you hit that cadence we mentioned earlier. The ability to crosspost content from other networks helps here, too.

You can also use Sprout’s ViralPost feature to nail down your timing, too. Our platform analyzes your engagement history and identifies the best times to post.

Keep a consistent content calendar

Momentum matters on Instagram. In other words, you likely won’t get followers on Instagram if you post at random.

Creating content and providing value is what builds your audience. Doing so consistently is what helps you keep them.

That’s why sticking to a regular posting schedule is crucial.  In terms of when and how much to post, you don’t have to stick to a set-in-stone number. Most brands post daily or near daily. This tracks our own research on how often to post as well.

For reference, below is a breakdown of the best times to post to Instagram.  “Optimal” engagement is during the mid-to-late morning and early afternoons during the week.

If you’re worried about your posts not getting seen enough, we get it. Consider how features like Stories can get more eyes on your content if it wasn’t seen the first time.

Have a strong brand and Instagram aesthetic

Instagram is home to over 200 million businesses. That’s a lot of competition. To stand out, you need to have a strong, distinguishable brand on the platform.

Maintaining consistency in things like colors, aesthetics and post style can help users remember your brand and recognize your content at a glance. Here’s how Canva does it.

Notice how their story highlights and posts follow a similar, consistent style.

Why does strong branding matter? Because it directly impacts your bottom line. Research from Marq (formerly Lucidchart) shows brand consistency can increase revenue by 10-20%.

Leverage short-form video content

Sprout’s data shows that 66% of consumers want to see more short-form videos from brands. This means Reels should be on your radar.

Reels are fun, snappy and they’re algorithm gold. Think tutorials, product highlights or even quick behind-the-scenes peeks.

And since you only have a few seconds to grab attention, get creative. Use the built-in tools like stickers, cuts, filters, music, voice-overs and transitions to craft trendy, eye-catching Reels.

Cherry on top? These bite-sized videos can easily be cross-promoted on platforms like TikTok, helping you reach new audiences and attract more followers.

Post content that followers actually want to see

Easier said than done, we know.

Filters. Captions. Content types. Post times. That doesn’t even scratch the surface.

There are so many variables to consider, right? It doesn’t help that Instagram’s algorithm is fickle. What works for one brand might not work for the next in terms of format and timing.

For example, some brands swear by Carousels. Others are all-in on Reels. Both approaches can work. You’ll quickly find on Instagram that some content gets more likes than others. This is why testing is so important.

Instagram’s native analytics are surprisingly powerful. That said, investing in Instagram analytics tools will take things to the next level.

For example, Sprout makes it easy to benchmark and analyze Instagram content across accounts. Rather than second-guess what’s working and what’s not, our reporting spells it out for you.

Be confident in your content strategy by analyzing those variables we mentioned earlier.

And if you’re unsure where to start, try analyzing your competitors. A staggering 90% of brands say that social media data helps them keep up with competing social accounts.

You obviously shouldn’t copycat your competitors. That said, you can take notes on what they’re doing or posting that drives engagement.  Sprout’s Instagram Competitors report can provide a breakdown of what’s working in your industry. A little competitive research can go a long way.

Oh, and keep your ear to the ground with new Instagram trends. That way you won’t miss out on platform-wide opportunities to hop on trending content formats.

Go live on Instagram

Host Instagram Live sessions to interact with your audience directly. This helps foster real-time engagement and build a sense of community.

For example, you could host virtual events like product launches, show quick tutorials or simply have candid chats and Q&A sessions. If you’re an e-commerce store, users can even shop your products in real-time.

Plus, you can share these Live streams as stories that last for 24 hours, allowing followers who missed out to catch up later.

3. Engage with your audience and build relationships

When you make your Instagram followers happy, you’ll see the payoff in audience growth. The best Instagram accounts have fans and communities (hint: not just followers).

For many accounts, this means building customer relationships.

Here are some ways to engage with your audience and build relationships.

Create content that highlights your brand’s personality

Content that highlights your personality and the humans behind your brand can help you connect with your audience on a deeper level. This includes:

• Inspirational content
• Humorous content
• Re-sharing UGC with unique captions
• Storytelling posts
• Behind-the-scenes photos and videos
• Posts that raise awareness for social causes

Also, make sure your content aligns with your brand voice and values. Avoid coming across as needy, solely sales-driven or robotic at all costs.

Make meaningful conversation with your audience

Food for thought: 60% of marketers use Instagram as a service channel.

The platform is perfect for going back and forth with followers. Likewise, many popular Instagram post ideas center around asking questions and engaging in a dialogue for a reason.

Off-the-cuff questions, shipping concerns or praise for products are all fair game from followers. Check out how Cometeer responds to all of the above on their Instagram posts:

Being supportive and responding promptly shows people that you care. This also applies to any brand mentions or direct messages (DMs) you get.

You’d be surprised at how your Instagram followers increase once you start acting more personable. Our Index research shows that 89% of consumers will buy from a brand after following them on social media. Every interaction counts.

Again, try to respond to as many questions, messages, mentions or comments as possible. Doing so could make or break someone becoming a long-term follower or a customer.

Engage with customers and brand advocates

Figuring out how to get more Instagram followers means engaging your audience.

And one of the best ways to do that is through responding to and republishing their posts.

Enter the power of user-generated content. UGC campaigns build social proof by showing followers you’re invested in them. For example, Drunk Elephant regularly regrams their followers’ posts. They gather content with their #BareWithUs and #DrunkBreak hashtags.

But don’t just wait for UGC to happen — spark it yourself! Encourage your customers to create content by giving them a reason to share.

For example, you could run a Reels contest where followers show off your product in action. Winners could get free merch and a feature on your page.

4. Utilize tags and hashtags

Location tags and hashtags are powerful tools on Instagram. They can help your target audience discover your posts (and profile) faster.

Here’s how to utilize tags to grow your following.

Find hashtags where your followers hang out

Instagram hashtags have been a staple of the platform, like, forever.

That said, they don’t hold as much weight as they used to.

Dumping hashtags into your posts isn’t going to get you any new followers. Especially when there’s so much noise on the platform.

Be proactive by focusing on industry-specific hashtags relevant to your customers. For example, Lashify regularly posts content to the #LashEducation hashtag. Tags are less general and competitive than #beauty. Becoming more visible within these types of tags is meaningful for brands in the right niche.

Understanding how your hashtags perform on Instagram is critical. With Sprout Social’s hashtag analytics tools, you have direct access to in-depth performance and usage data. Figuring out which hashtags to use is just a few taps away.

Use geo-tagging to attract local followers

Instagram brought back location stories last year. But now, users can find them on a map. This feature helps people search for top posts and stories in specific locations, such as a coffee shop or a shopping mall.

And how do you get your content to show up on the map? By tagging the location, of course. Geo-tagging your posts and stories makes your content visible to people in the vicinity or users checking out the place where your photo or video was taken.

Wondering how to tag the location in your Instagram story? Simply use the location sticker and type in the location you want to tag.

5. Collaborate with influencers and other brands

If you want more Instagram followers, consider teaming up with others. Collaborations open doors to new audiences and help you build trust quickly.

Below are two ways to expand your reach with partnerships.

Find and work with influencers in your niche

Influencers have a loyal network of followers who trust their word.

Collaborating with influencers in your niche, especially those with small but highly engaged followings, can amplify your brand’s reach and build credibility.

That said, finding the right influencers to work with can be challenging. There are millions of creators on Instagram, and not everyone aligns with your brand or has an authentic following (hint: they might be bots).

Good news: Tagger by Sprout Social makes this task easy for you. Use smart filters to sort through vetted influencers that match your brand.

You can also check out our free influencer database by industry full of insights to help you plan your next influencer marketing campaign.

Partner with brands that are similar to yours

Strategic brand partnerships can significantly boost your Instagram reach and engagement.

It also gives your content a fresh perspective, making the entire experience fun for everyone involved, including your audience.

Think about what your customers like beyond your products to guide your partnerships. Look for brands that fit those interests but don’t compete directly with you.

Ubereats, for example, partnered up with Blueland (a sustainable home essentials brand) to let people buy the eco-friendly company’s products directly from the Ubereats app.

They created this Instagram Reel as part of their campaign.

When you reach out to potential partners, focus on mutual benefits. Suggest ideas that would help both brands grow.

Ideally, you should start small, like co-hosting an Instagram Live or sharing each other’s content. As you see results, you can build bigger campaigns together (like Ubereats did above).

How to get more Instagram followers (the wrong way!)

Disclaimer: Sprout Social does not endorse purchasing Instagram followers. We don’t recommend services that sell followings or “Likes.”

As the social space becomes more crowded and competitive, brands are willing to take risks for the sake of instant results.

We’ll say it again: brands shouldn’t buy Instagram followers. Nobody should!

Why you shouldn’t buy followers on Instagram

Here are some reasons why buying followers to grow your account is a serious mistake.

Your real followers know what fake followers look like

Social consumers are getting savvier. Privacy concerns and social scammers have made people hyper-aware of weird activity. In short, people today are spam-detectors.

A sudden follower spike is a red flag. Not to mention having bots stink up your account with endless spam followers. This all damages your reputation and keeps you from growing an authentic Instagram following.

Fake followers bring nothing to the table

You’re probably worried about your Instagram metrics and understandably so.

That said, your follower count doesn’t mean much if your “followers” don’t drive engagement. You might look “bigger” at a glance but who cares? Consider how your engagement rate on the platform will suffer if your follower count is inflated.

If nothing else, buying Instagram followers violates TOS

No surprises here.

Consider how Meta has taken direct action against buying engagement in the past. They’ve gone as far as to shut down companies that sell likes. That’s because this practice violates the platform’s terms of service.

How are you growing your Instagram following?

Listen: getting more followers on Instagram isn’t going to happen by accident.

And despite what you might have heard, there’s no silver bullet solution for making it happen.

The strategies above can help you build the foundation for an organic following that actually engages with you. Putting these tips into action is so much easier with a powerful publishing and analytics tool like Sprout.

Want to see our suite of tools in action? Start a free trial today and see for yourself!

The post How to get more followers on Instagram: 5 strategies to grow your audience appeared first on Sprout Social.

But before you jump the gun and look for automation tools, Instagram has terms and conditions in place on what you can and can’t automate. So let’s explore the topic a little further to understand how to automate Instagram the right way.

What is Instagram automation?

Instagram automation refers to the use of third-party social media automation tools to manage your account. These tools help you carry out tasks and/or interact with users without a human present.

Simply put, Instagram automation tools can be put into two buckets:

1. Services that effectively “take control” of your front-facing interactions with users. This includes interactions like comments and messages.
2. Tools that automate Instagram behind the scenes. This includes tasks such as publishing, reporting and analytics.

But does Instagram automation make your business look lazy? We say no—but only if you do it right. As with any other tool or strategy, there are pros and cons to weigh in before you automate your Instagram.

Here are some pros and cons to help you decide if you want to start automating certain tasks on Instagram.

Pros of Instagram automation

• Save time on smaller, tedious tasks: Growing an Instagram presence organically definitely requires a combination of time and strategizing. Instagram automation tools can pick up some of the slack, trimming down time spent on tedious tasks.
• Grow your follower count faster: Automation undoubtedly helps you boost your follower count. Simply spending time on the platform and interacting with accounts in any way, shape or form will set you up for more engagement by default. This brings in more visibility, which is crucial to get more followers on Instagram.
• Uncover important insights about your audience: The right automation tools help you learn more about your target audience. They encourage you to take a deeper dive into your audience’s preferences. So, you can discover what Instagram hashtags people use or what types of content interests them most.

Cons of Instagram automation

• Instagram isn’t a fan of automation “hacks”: Instagram has a history of taking action against tools that they consider spammy. The platform wants its users to engage authentically and organically. So Instagram sets limits and penalties for tactics they see as potentially gaming their algorithm. More on this in the next section.
• Poor automation looks spammy: People can spot a bot at a glance. Automating likes and comments is a recipe for a potential social media crisis. Instagram brand accounts should emphasize human interactions and avoid anything that looks spammy.
• Potentially miss out on important customer interactions: The more you automate on Instagram, the fewer opportunities you have to interact with followers and customers. You can’t provide personalized service with purely automated interactions. Instead, only automate aspects of your Instagram account that encourage you to spend more time with your followers.

Is Instagram automation allowed?

As we’ve discussed, there are pros and cons, but those are subjective. Let’s talk about legalities—or at least, what abides by Instagram’s Community Guidelines—so your account doesn’t get penalized.

The short answer is yes, Instagram automation is allowed. The long answer is that certain types of automation cheapen the experience and make your business look bad online. And some types of automation can even get your account banned.

First, let’s talk about the good kinds of automation—the kinds of automation that can support your social team and improve your strategy.

What can be automated on Instagram?

If you’re interested in using automation to your advantage, here are a few tasks on Instagram that you can get some robot help with.

• Likes: Set up a bot with a group of hashtags so the bot can like posts you say are relevant to your brand.
• Comments: Similarly, you can use bots to automate some aspects of your social media comments. You can set up auto-responses for comments on your own posts. Additionally, set up bots to leave authentic comments on relevant posts from other accounts. Make use of Sprout Social’s Saved Replies feature and pair it with automated chatbots to streamline your engagements.
• Follows and unfollows: Follow and unfollow relevant and irrelevant accounts, respectively. Take care not to overdo this, so your account doesn’t get flagged for spam.
• Direct messages: Send and respond to DMs with the help of a bot. You can even set bots up to send messages to people who comment on your posts with a trigger word.
• Scheduling and publishing: Schedule your Instagram posts to automatically go out at a predetermined time. This is one of the most impactful forms of Instagram automation, allowing you to reach your audience at the best times.
• Reporting: Automation tools also help you monitor your Instagram analytics. You can use them to automatically collect insights and reports showcasing your performance.

What types of automation to avoid on Instagram

Instagram doesn’t explicitly state what you can or can’t automate. But here are some things to watch out for:

• Spammy and mass action activities such as liking, commenting, following or unfollowing in bulk. When you’re engaging too much too quickly—faster than a human typically could—Instagram could put a limit on your account.
• Avoid buying likes and followers, so Instagram doesn’t penalize your account. This also distorts your engagement rates and makes your account seem less legitimate.
• Steer clear of chatbots that pretend to be humans.
• Don’t use tools that collect private information from users or ask them for credentials.
• Avoid using bots and tools that don’t have access to Instagram’s API as they’re not considered legitimate Instagram partners.

9 Instagram automation tools to streamline your work

Want to get started with basic—and allowed—Instagram automation? Get a head start with these nine Instagram automation tools.

1. Sprout Social

Sprout Social is an all-in-one social media management tool with robust automation capabilities. You can use it to automate Instagram tasks like publishing and response management. Sprout lets you schedule your posts to go out automatically, find the best times to post and track relevant hashtags.

The Smart Inbox lets you monitor all your comments, DMs, tags, brand mentions and Story replies in one place. You can then use AI-powered summaries to find out which messages to prioritize and manage your responses effectively. The Enhance by AI Assist feature provides automated suggestions on how to improve your responses to make them more impactful.

Sprout also offers a number of productivity tools and analytics to automate your Instagram management. So you can streamline your work without missing customer interactions.

Instagram automations available:

• Scheduling and publishing
• Auto-responders and suggested replies in DMs
• Hashtag discovery
• Sourcing UGC
• AI-powered message enhancements
• AI-powered sentiment analysis

2. SocialPilot

SocialPilot is an Instagram automation tool that helps brands streamline their Instagram strategies. Access features that help you publish content, engage with your Instagram target audience and more. This software allows you to schedule up to 500 posts at once, whether on Instagram or another platform. And the option to save evergreen content and responses for frequent reuse helps social teams respond faster.

Instagram automations available:

• Scheduling and publishing
• AI caption generation
• Reporting
• Watermarking

3. Kicksta

Kicksta is an AI-based tool dedicated to helping Instagram users grow their followers. Its AI tool focuses on leaving authentic comments and driving Instagram engagements to grow your following. In other words, you’re not actually buying followers. You provide the guidelines for who to engage with based on a list of competitors, brands and influencers with similar audiences. Then Kicksta does the hard work.

Instagram automations available:

• Comments
• Likes
• Welcome DMs
• Follow and unfollow

4. Tailwind

Tailwind is an Instagram automation tool that focuses more on scheduling and publishing—but takes a unique approach. This tool is only available for Instagram and Pinterest, ensuring its services are catered to specific needs in the market. You can use it to generate post ideas and schedule your Instagram posts to automatically go out at the desired time.

Tailwind also has AI capabilities to automate your content creation. The Ghostwriter AI feature instantly creates Instagram copy in your unique brand voice.

Instagram automations available:

• Post idea generation
• Copy generation
• Graphic and design generation
• Hashtag discovery
• Publishing and scheduling

5. NapoleonCat

NapoleonCat is an Instagram automation tool that streamlines customer engagement and support. You can use its auto-moderation features to automatically hide spammy and offensive comments. NapoleonCat also helps you automate responses and cut down on response times.

Instagram automations available:

• Scheduling and publishing
• Comment moderation
• Auto-responses for both comments and DMs
• Reporting

6. Inflact

Inflact provides an entire suite of tools that can be used for Instagram automation. This includes AI targeting to effectively reach the right audience. You can also set up chatbots to automate conversations when your team isn’t available.

Instagram automations available:

• Send bulk DMs
• Follow and unfollow
• Likes
• Hashtag discovery
• Scheduling and publishing

7. Iconosquare

Iconosquare offers a range of features dedicated to Instagram automation. Use this tool for scheduling, monitoring, analytics, social listening and more. Its AI Inspiration tool helps you save time coming up with content ideas to keep your Instagram Feed fresh and engaging.

Instagram automations available:

• Scheduling and publishing
• Reporting
• Unread comment/mention discovery
• Idea generation

8. OnlySocial

OnlySocial is another useful option for Instagram automation and management. It lets you create Instagram messenger chatbots to speed up and streamline your social media customer service.

Instagram automations available:

• Scheduling and publishing
• RSS feed auto-publishing
• Instagram messaging chatbot
• Reporting

9. Pictory AI

Pictory AI is a tool that lets you simplify your Instagram video creation. It comes with intuitive AI-powered tools to easily generate videos using text prompts. You can also automate the process of adding voice overs, captions and subtitles to your videos.

Instagram automations available:

• Video generation
• Video editing
• Automatic subtitles and captions
• Voice generation

What to consider when choosing an Instagram automation tool

Instagram’s rules on automation are fairly ambiguous. But it’s risky to use tools that may put you in violation of the platform’s community guidelines. In general, make sure to avoid any automation tool that engages in the following:

• Spam and mass actions
• Mimicking human behavior
• Asking for Instagram user credentials
• Collecting private information from accounts

The safest bet is to look for tools that have direct Instagram integrations, as these are legitimate platform partners. This also means that their automation capabilities are within the platform’s permitted uses. So it’s less likely that you’ll get into trouble for performing automation tasks with these tools.

Automate and grow your Instagram

Automating your Instagram is the fastest way to save time while staying on top of all your tasks. But too much automation can land your account in trouble, with the risk of spamming and suspension.

Sprout helps you streamline your Instagram management without losing the human touch. Sign up for a free 30-day trial to see how the platform lets you automate safely and grow your account.

The post Instagram automation: Maximizing efficiency without losing the human touch appeared first on Sprout Social.

The good news is you can add Instagram hashtags to Reels the same way you add hashtags to posts to boost visibility, reach and engagement.

In this post, you’ll find a curated list of the top Instagram Reel hashtags for travel, fitness, food, fashion and other categories. We’ll also talk about the value of using Reel hashtags for Instagram and share tips for finding the best hashtags for your brand.

Why use hashtags with your Instagram Reels

Using hashtags can do more than just get more eyes on your content. Hashtags are also excellent targeting and analytics tools. Here are three benefits of using Instagram Reel hashtags for your business:

Make your content easier to find

Hashtags can put your content in front of a larger audience, including users who don’t follow you on Instagram. Adding them to Reels offers the same benefits as adding hashtags to posts. It helps people interested in your topics or themes easily find your videos.

This, in turn, gets your content more engagement in the form of likes, comments and shares—the holy grail of social media success. Take it a step further and engage with users who interact with your hashtags to strengthen your brand’s relationship with its audience.

Finally, by monitoring trending hashtags and incorporating them into your posts, you can help your content ride the wave of current events, conversations and Instagram trends. This not only gets you more exposure, but also positions your brand as relevant and up-to-date.

Target your niche demographics and audiences

Your videos might go viral, but not everyone on Instagram is a potential customer. Adding hashtags to Reels lets you target niche communities and specific demographics with your content—people who are most likely to be interested in your products or services.

As a result, you’ll attract more qualified leads and boost visibility among your target audience, ultimately translating into higher ROI for your business.

Use hashtag analytics to refine your Instagram content strategy

Analyzing the performance of different hashtags can provide valuable insights into what resonates most with your audience.

By tracking Instagram metrics like reach and engagement for Reels with specific hashtags, you can refine your strategy and better understand consumer preferences and behavior.

Sprout Social’s Hashtag Tracking tools can help you pinpoint exactly which hashtags work best for your Instagram strategy. Track your most-used and top hashtags or manually add hashtags that are important to your brand to keep tabs on performance.

Tips for finding the right Instagram Reel hashtags for your brand

You know the value of using Reel hashtags on Instagram—but how do you find the right ones? Follow the best practices below to add hashtags that are relevant to your brand and resonate deeply with your audience.

Know your buyer personas

Before you start writing down hashtags, you need to truly understand your target audience. What does your ideal buyer look like? Which accounts do they follow on Instagram? What type of content do they like to engage with?

Dig into original research and analytics to find out key characteristics of your potential customers. Note the hashtags used in Reels these people are interacting with the most.

Then, use these insights to guide your own hashtag strategy. Incorporate relevant hashtags in your Reels that align with the niches and interests of your target audience.

Remember—you are a business creating content to achieve certain goals, whether that’s brand awareness, lead generation or sales. Targeting everyone and anyone is not going to get you results. Focusing on users who match your buyer personas will.

Analyze your competitors

Keeping an eye on your competitors’ content can give you ideas for hashtags you can use in your own Reels. Watch for videos that get the most engagement or views. What hashtags are they using? How many hashtags are they adding to their videos? Are they going after niche keywords or broader hashtags?

Streamline this process with Instagram competitor reports.

Sprout’s competitive analysis features can help you with that. Our tool allows you to track competitor posts, engagement rates, the hashtags they’re using and more. Better yet, compare their metrics with your own to benchmark performance and set realistic goals.

Use competitor analysis to inspire your own content and hashtags. But don’t always copy hashtags off other accounts and Reels—keep experimenting. You might stumble upon some highly engaging hashtags your competitors might be neglecting.

Use branded hashtags on Reels and other content

Capitalizing on existing hashtags is great—but what about creating your own hashtag?

Using branded hashtags in Reels and posts can help you build brand awareness and instill a sense of community in your followers. Branded hashtags are also one of the best ways to encourage user-generated content.

For example, Canva launched a branded hashtag challenge to encourage creators to use the software and share their designs:

Best Instagram Reel hashtags for 2024

Looking for inspiration? Below is a list of 250+ top hashtags for various industries like fashion, travel, fitness and food. We’ve also added popular hashtags for viral and funny Reels—all relevant to brands and marketers.

Remember, rends can change quickly, so always be on the lookout for new and emerging hashtags.

• Top 30 trending Instagram Reel hashtags
• Top 45 fitness hashtags for Instagram Reels
• Top 45 travel hashtags for Instagram Reels
• Top 45 food hashtags for Instagram Reels
• Top 45 fashion hashtags for Instagram Reels
• Top 45 funny hashtags for Instagram Reels

Top 30 trending Instagram Reel hashtags

1. #reels
2. #reelsinstagram
3. #instagramreels
4. #reelsvideo
5. #instareels
6. #reelitfeelit
7. #viral
8. #viralvideos
9. #explore
10. #explorepage
11. #foryou
12. #foryoupage
13. #trending
14. #trend
15. #instagood
16. #love
17. #like
18. #follow
19. #photography
20. #trendy
21. #reel
22. #viralreel
23. #viralreels
24. #trendingsound
25. #fyp
26. #reeloftheday
27. #trendingreels
28. #trendingnow
29. #feature
30. #repost

Top 45 fitness hashtags for Instagram Reels

1. #fitness
2. #fitnessmotivation
3. #workout
4. #gym
5. #fitfam
6. #gymlife
7. #training
8. #health
9. #fitnessjourney
10. #fit
11. #healthylifestyle
12. #motivation
13. #bodybuilding
14. #lifestyle
15. #weightloss
16. #exercise
17. #personaltrainer
18. #healthy
19. #fitlife
20. #gymmotivation
21. #strong
22. #fitspo
23. #healthandfitness
24. #muscle
25. #crossfit
26. #nutrition
27. #homeworkout
28. #wellness
29. #yoga
30. #cardio
31. #fitnesscommunity
32. #pilates
33. #zumba
34. #running
35. #cycling
36. #swimming
37. #legday
38. #armday
39. #absworkout
40. #glutes
41. #strengthtraining
42. #bodybuilding
43. #fitnessgoals
44. #getfit
45. #instafit

Top 45 travel hashtags for Instagram Reels

1. #travel
2. #travelgram
3. #travelphotography
4. #instatravel
5. #wanderlust
6. #traveltheworld
7. #travelblogger
8. #traveladdict
9. #travelgoals
10. #travelinspiration
11. #travellife
12. #traveldiaries
13. #globetrotter
14. #adventure
15. #vacation
16. #explore
17. #nature
18. #landscape
19. #photography
20. #beautifuldestinations
21. #travelreels
22. #travelvideo
23. #travelvlogger
24. #roadtrip
25. #cityscape
26. #solotravel
27. #travelcouple
28. #hiddengems
29. #travelling
30. #trip
31. #holiday
32. #travelholic
33. #worldtraveler
34. #tourist
35. #travelbug
36. #passportready
37. #exploremore
38. #seetheworld
39. #mytravelgram
40. #travelguide
41. #traveltips
42. #backpacking
43. #travelcommunity
44. #neverstopexploring
45. #staycation

Top 45 food hashtags for Instagram Reels

1. #food
2. #foodie
3. #foodporn
4. #foodphotography
5. #instafood
6. #foodlover
7. #foodblogger
8. #delicious
9. #foodgasm
10. #yummy
11. #foodstagram
12. #cooking
13. #recipe
14. #homemade
15. #healthyfood
16. #vegan
17. #vegetarian
18. #baking
19. #dessert
20. #breakfast
21. #lunch
22. #dinner
23. #brunch
24. #drinks
25. #cocktails
26. #coffee
27. #wine
28. #foodiegram
29. #foodreels
30. #eat
31. #foodpics
32. #glutenfree
33. #foodielife
34. #foodheaven
35. #foodgram
36. #fooddiary
37. #instaeat
38. #recipeoftheday
39. #plantbasedfood
40. #vegetarianrecipes
41. #eatyourveggies
42. #mealprepping
43. #mealprep
44. #recipeshare
45. #healthyeating

Top 45 fashion hashtags for Instagram Reels

1. #fashion
2. #fashionstyle
3. #style
4. #ootd (Outfit of the Day)
5. #fashionblogger
6. #fashionista
7. #instafashion
8. #fashionphotography
9. #fashionweek
10. #streetstyle
11. #fashiondiaries
12. #fashionlover
13. #fashioninspo
14. #outfitinspiration
15. #styleoftheday
16. #trendy
17. #fashionmodel
18. #menswear
19. #womenswear
20. #vintage
21. #sustainablefashion
22. #fashionreels
23. #fashiontrends
24. #slowfashion
25. #highfashion
26. #prelovedfashion
27. #secondhandfashion
28. #handmadeclothing
29. #vintagestyle
30. #vintagefashion
31. #vintageclothing
32. #unisexfashion
33. #unisexclothing
34. #styleinspiration
35. #lookoftheday
36. #thriftedfashion
37. #thriftedstyle
38. #inclusivefashion
39. #streetwear
40. #streetweardaily
41. #streetfashion
42. #howtostyle
43. #grwm
44. #getreadywithme
45. #capsulewardrobe

Top 45 funny hashtags for Instagram Reels

1. #funny
2. #funnyvideos
3. #funnyvideosdaily
4. #funnymemes
5. #funnymemesdaily
6. #memestagram
7. #funnyreels
8. #funnyisfunny
9. #funnymoments
10. #comedy
11. #comedyvideos
12. #comedyreels
13. #sketchcomedy
14. #dailyfluff
15. #dailylaugh
16. #dailydose
17. #standupcomedy
18. #relatablereels
19. #jokes
20. #hilarious
21. #funnyclips
22. #funnyvids
23. #justforlaughs
24. #humor
25. #humour
26. #laughoutloud
27. #laughing
28. #smile
29. #memes
30. #haha
31. #lol
32. #lmao
33. #comedian
34. #instafunny
35. #funnyposts
36. #satire
37. #parody
38. #comedymemes
39. #cantstoplaughing
40. #funnyanimals
41. #fails
42. #pranks
43. #funnydogs
44. #funnycats
45. #laugh

Use Instagram Reel hashtags to grow your brand

Adding hashtags to your Instagram Reels should be a no-brainer. Hashtags are the easiest way to categorize your content, drive visibility and boost engagement on your videos.

But what’s more important is using the right hashtags. You need keywords that align with your brand and match the needs and interests of your target audience. Only then can you expect to see business growth and results from your social media efforts.

This is where hashtag analytics can help. Track your most-used and top hashtags, competitor hashtags and trending keywords your audience is loving. Use the data to guide your Instagram strategy and watch views and engagement on your content skyrocket.

The post 250+ Instagram Reel hashtags to boost engagement for your brand appeared first on Sprout Social.

Even when looking at potential influencer partnerships, you’ll want to check if they’re driving good social media engagement. But what is a good engagement rate on Instagram? And how do you calculate it?

Let’s find out below.

What is an Instagram engagement rate?

An Instagram engagement rate is a metric that tells you how people are interacting with your content on the platform. It considers details such as your follower count along with interactions such as Likes, comments, saves and shares. This metric helps you gauge how well your content resonates with your target audience.

Why a good engagement rate matters on Instagram

A good engagement rate indicates that people are enjoying your content. This is a huge achievement as it shows that your Instagram marketing efforts are paying off. Besides this, there are other reasons to boost your Instagram engagement rate.

Improve platform visibility

The Instagram algorithm uses several factors to rank and display content. While relevance is one crucial element, engagement is another major consideration. Even among relevant content, posts that see tons of engagement are more likely to show up in a user’s Explore. So having a good engagement rate is essential to improve your visibility on Instagram.

Attract a new audience

With higher visibility comes an increased chance of attracting a new audience. Instagram will typically show your content to people who are most likely to be interested in it. If these users like your content enough, they may want to check out your profile and even follow you. In other words, a good engagement rate may help you grow your Instagram following.

Boost credibility

To the average Instagram user, a post that has tons of engagement means other people are enjoying it. As such, good engagement serves as social proof and reflects positively on your brand authenticity. People may feel more comfortable trusting your brand because so many others are engaging with it.

How to calculate your Instagram engagement rate

To calculate Instagram engagement rate, you need two details:

• Total interactions
• Total followers

The total follower count is easy to see on your Instagram profile. Follow the steps below to access your total interactions:

1. Go to your Instagram Insights.
2. Choose the date range you want to track.
3. Tap on “Interactions” from the overview section.
4. Scroll down to the “By interaction” section and add up the total interactions for your posts. You can also add the interactions in your Stories if you want to include them in your calculation.

Once you have these two numbers, here’s how to check engagement rate on Instagram:

Engagement rate = (Total interactions/Total followers) x 100

Alternatively, you can automatically calculate your Instagram engagement using an Instagram analytics tool.

What is the average engagement rate on Instagram?

RivalIQ puts the median engagement rate on Instagram at 0.43% across all industries.

The average engagement rate for Instagram varies depending on factors such as post type and industry. Industries like higher education and sports teams see a higher average engagement at 2.43% and 1.57% respectively.

Additionally, the latest Instagram stats show that Reels are the most engaging post type with an average engagement of 1.23%.

Instagram carousels have an average engagement rate of 0.99%, while image posts see 0.70% engagement on average.

What is a good engagement rate on Instagram?

The RivalIQ study found that the median Instagram engagement rate for the top 25% of brands is 1.02%. So anything around this number should be safe. That said, you’d ideally want to shoot for a higher engagement rate than the platform average.

Plus, you should consider the benchmarks in your industry to see what’s a good engagement rate for you. If you’re seeing a 2% engagement rate in higher education, this is slightly lower than the industry average of 2.43%.

This makes it crucial to look at the average Instagram engagement rate of your top competitors to see if you’re getting good engagement. Run an Instagram competitors report to get a better idea of typical engagement rates in your industry.

What is a good influencer engagement rate on Instagram?

Statista reports that the average influencer engagement rate on Instagram is 1.85%. So anything higher than this is a good engagement rate.

However, the average Instagram influencer engagement rate will vary by follower size and industry. Nano-influencers (having 1k to 10k followers) see the highest average engagement at 2.19%. Other influencer categories generally see an engagement rate between 0.80% and 1%. Here’s a detailed breakdown:

• Micro-influencers (10k to 50k followers) – 0.99%
• Macro-influencers (50k to 500k followers) – 0.86%
• Mega-influencers (500k to 1 million followers) – 0.87%
• Celebrity influencers (over 1 million followers) – 0.94%

It’s also good to note that some industries see a higher influencer engagement rate. So you need to consider the industry benchmarks to see if an influencer is seeing enough engagement. Travel influencers, for instance, saw an average post engagement rate of 1.22% as of May 2024. And beauty influencers had a 1.26% average engagement rate during this same period.

Meanwhile, influencer engagement in the fashion industry is slightly lower at 0.99%. Food influencers saw an average engagement of 0.63%, while engagement rates for health influencers dropped to 0.4%.

Check out the Sprout Social Influencer Directory to find influencer engagement rates in your industry.

Once you get this info, use Sprout’s influencer marketing platform to conduct your influencer search. Tagger by Sprout comes with 50+ search filters to help you narrow down the ideal influencers for your brand. You can easily check their engagement rates to see which influencers are best at engaging their Instagram followers.

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13 tips to improve your Instagram engagement rate

Now let’s get to the fun part. Here are some actionable tips to improve your engagement rate on Instagram.

1. Actually engage with your audience

We’re starting this list off easy. To drive more engagement from your followers, you need to interact with them. Social media isn’t a one-way street. If you want to build an engaged audience, you need to acknowledge your followers. Remember, every comment you get means someone took the time to stop, look at your post and share their thoughts. After all that, why wouldn’t you respond?

If you want to build up engagement, know that it takes time and you need to start conversations on posts other than your own. Asking questions, responding to comments and replying to Stories are some of the few ways to engage more with your audience.

With comment threading, it’s even easier to know which ones you’ve missed on your posts. Not to mention, Sprout Social’s Smart Inbox lets you easily check off comments you’ve already responded to.

As your account starts to grow and you get more comments, you might not be able to respond to everyone. But that doesn’t mean you should give up entirely. You can still Like comments or just try to reply to as many as possible.

For instance, GoPro has over 20 million followers on Instagram. The brand deals with hundreds of comments on its posts, so it’s not always viable to reply to every single comment. However, it takes time to respond to comments that ask questions or bring up an important feature.

Source: GoPro on Instagram

2. Replicate your top-performing posts

An excellent post idea may not drive the desired impact in the real world. It’s important to see what types of posts work with your audience and use this to inspire your Instagram content strategy.

Which posts are your followers engaging with the most? Review your Instagram analytics to see your past months’ best-performing posts. Is there a common theme among your top performers?

For example, you might find that photos with bright and bold colors get a ton of Likes. Or maybe people are engaging more with Reels that have music in the background. You might even find that people are saving your posts when they contain practical tips.

Use our Instagram dashboard to find your top-performing posts. Then look for commonalities between the posts and try to incorporate more of them in the future.

3. Make use of interactive features

Instagram is constantly improving to introduce new features that enhance user engagement. For instance, you can add interactive stickers to your Stories to conduct polls and quizzes. Question stickers and emoji sliders are also a great way to get people to interact with your Instagram Stories.

Glow Recipe shared a series of Stories with interactive stickers to engage its followers in a discussion about retinol. It started off with a poll asking people if they’ve tried retinol. The next two Stories included question stickers asking people to share their experience using it or why they haven’t tried it.

The next Story continued with a pop quiz and a poll where people could cast their votes. It encouraged followers to tap to the next Story to see the right answer. This all culminated to a Story explaining how retinol can be intimidating so the brand formulated it to be gentle and hydrating. This creative use of interactive Story stickers can give you an idea of how to use them to drive engagement for your brand.

One of the latest Instagram trends involves using the “Add Yours” sticker. Use this sticker to start a challenge and get people to engage with your brand. Share a prompt and encourage people to participate in your challenge by adding their own content. Alternatively, participate in trending “Add Yours” challenges to boost visibility.

4. Take advantage of your Instagram Stories

Speaking of Stories, make sure to use them to promote your latest posts. This is a great way to ensure better visibility for your Feed posts as Stories show up prominently at the top of the user’s Feed. So even if they don’t see your post initially, they might discover it through your Stories and engage with it.

Penguin Books regularly shares its latest Feed post in Stories to ensure that people don’t miss it.

5. Promote across networks

It goes without saying that the audience for your Facebook Page might not be the same as the audience on your Instagram account. Chances are that some of your Facebook audience is on Instagram, but they just don’t know that you exist there yet. Don’t be afraid to sprinkle some cross-network promotional posts to encourage more followers.

6. Create more short-form video content

Guess what we found in the 2024 Content Benchmarks Report? Consumers want to see more short-form videos from brands. And the shorter the better, with 42% of respondents preferring videos shorter than 15 seconds. Short-form videos between 15-30 seconds are the second most preferred content format.

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That means your Instagram content strategy needs to change direction. And the focus should shift to creating more short-form videos.

In other words, Reels are your best friend for boosting your Instagram engagement. Who knows? It might even be just the thing you need to go viral on Instagram.

Create Reels showing how-to tips and tricks or behind-the-scenes processes, for instance. Reels can be informational as well, providing a quick list of things people might want to know. And if you ever run out of ideas, you can always turn to your community for inspiration.

Grove Collaborative relies heavily on user-generated Reels to keep its Feed fresh and engaging. These short videos feature relatable humor and household hacks from its community.

Source: Grove Collaborative on Instagram

7. Create Collab posts with influential accounts

Instagram now has a feature enabling users to create Collab posts with other users. A Collab post shows up in the Feeds of both of your followers, meaning a chance to garner higher engagement. So make the most of this feature to collaborate with influencers, industry leaders and brand partners.

The Honest Kitchen regularly creates Collab posts with pet influencers to promote its human-grade pet food. This allows the brand to get its products in front of a massive and relevant audience i.e., the pet influencer’s followers. As expected, these posts have managed to garner hundreds of thousands of Likes and comments.

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8. Give sneak peeks and hints to drive curiosity

Followers love it when you let them in on a secret. Even if they’re public posts, giving sneak peeks and hints of new releases makes the audience think they’re part of a special group. It entices them to guess what’s going on and encourages them to revisit the profile to see if there’s been an announcement.

Check out how Fabletics Scrubs shares a teaser for an upcoming color drop without giving too much away. The Reel features turquoise waves and a text overlay that reads “May.” In the caption, the brand explains that the May color drop is arriving soon and encourages followers to “give us your best guess.”

Source: Fabletics Scrubs on Instagram

9. Write captions that drive engagement

On a related note, your Instagram captions give you the perfect opportunity to include a call for action. In this case, the action would involve some type of engagement. For example, asking a question in your caption would encourage your followers to share their answers in the comments. Or you could share a prompt that would make them want to share their experience or thoughts by commenting.

For example, Spoonflower shares a Reel showing different wallpaper styles. In the caption, it asks followers which style matches their vibe. The Reel generated tons of comments from enthusiastic followers choosing their favorite collection.

Source: Spoonflower on Instagram

10. Post your content at the best times

Timing plays a role in how much engagement you get on your posts.

You want to post when most of your followers are online and engaging on the app. Even with the best photo and wittiest caption, you could still miss out on engagement if you’re posting at the wrong hour.

We did some research into the best times to post on Instagram, and here’s what we found.

But keep in mind that the specific timing may be different for your account. Instagram business accounts offer analytics that tells you when your followers are most active. Use this information to schedule your posts and free up your time to engage with comments.

Alternatively, Instagram automation can help you save time and improve the scheduling process.

Use Sprout’s ViralPost feature to automatically schedule your posts at the optimal time. This feature ensures that your Instagram posts go out at a time when you receive the most engagement.

11. Encourage customer and employee posts

Use branded Instagram hashtags to help you organize user-generated content.

If you engage in these hashtags and incorporate a UGC strategy, more people will take notice and begin using the hashtags, too.

Your employees can be your strongest advocates as well. Their accounts give a more personal, unfiltered perspective of the company. Remember, people like feeling as if they’re in a secret club. If you reshare from your employees, you’re offering perspectives that your brand normally wouldn’t offer.

12 Host a fun giveaway contest

Who wouldn’t want to win free stuff? That’s exactly why social media giveaways are so great for boosting your Instagram engagement. They get people to engage with your brand in a way you’ve never seen before.

Whether the contest involves commenting, sharing or contributing a story—you get to drive engagement either way.

That said, your giveaway contest must be strategic and intentional. Make sure to design the rules keeping your goal in mind i.e., boosting engagement. Moreover, the prize should be attractive; it should be valuable enough to get people to participate.

For example, ColourPop Cosmetics hosted a giveaway to promote its Disney’s “Haunted Mansion” collection. To enter the sweepstakes, all you had to do was like the post and comment your favorite candy and who to take on your spooky Target runs. Winners would receive the entire collection.

Source: ColourPop on Instagram

13. Improve your Instagram hashtags

It’s a well-known fact that using the right hashtags helps you grow your reach. But with that increased reach comes a greater chance of boosting engagement. The more people see your content, the higher the chance that they’ll engage with it.

Use relevant and niche hashtags that will let you tap into the right audience. The goal is to get Instagram to show your content to users who have shown an interest in topics related to that hashtag. So when these users see your content, they’re likely to check it out and engage.

Start growing your Instagram engagement

Having a good engagement rate on Instagram requires adopting a data-driven strategy. You need analytics insights to see what resonates with your audience and adapt accordingly.

Use Sprout’s Instagram analytics features to get comprehensive insights into your performance. Find out how your competitors are doing and benchmark your performance against theirs. See your top-performing posts and hashtags, and identify engagement trends. Use these insights to inform your strategy and boost your Instagram engagement.

The post Instagram engagement rate: How to calculate yours in 2024 appeared first on Sprout Social.

Manual publishing also has its challenges. What if an image gets cropped weirdly? Or the sticker link you included doesn’t work? Now, instead of focusing on other tasks, you’re stuck troubleshooting tech issues. However, scheduling Instagram Stories can help avoid these scenarios.

We’ve created this in-depth guide to show you how to schedule Instagram Stories. You’ll learn the benefits of scheduling and step-by-step instructions for using Sprout Social and Facebook Business Suite’s scheduling features.

Why should you schedule Instagram Stories?

Short answer: scheduling Instagram Stories makes a social media marketer’s life a lot easier. But here are a few of the most impactful benefits.

Save time

According to Harvard Business Review, workers spend under four hours a week reorienting themselves after toggling between apps and websites, or 9% of their overall annual work time. Scheduling Stories allows marketers to focus on one task at a time instead of interrupting what they do throughout the day to post, saving them time, effort and focus.

Create scheduling consistencies

Stories appear right at the top of the Instagram feed, so they’re often the first thing people see when they open the app. Scheduling your content helps you appear consistently at set times throughout the day or week. It also allows you to take advantage of the best times to post on Instagram to maximize visibility.

More opportunities for strategic content planning

Publishing different types of Stories (e.g., promotions, behind-the-scenes, user-generated content) will help engage your audience and keep them interested in your brand. Maintaining a balanced content mix is much easier when scheduling Stories in advance. It allows you to zoom out to cover all your bases—rather than just posting to post without a strategic plan.

Maintain cohesive branding with templates

With their temporary nature, many brands’ Instagram Stories are less strict and polished than their Feed posts. Marketers can still take the less-polished approach when scheduling Stories, but having a set schedule gives you the opportunity to prepare the content in advance and maintain a more cohesive look and feel with design tools like Instagram templates.

Plan for large campaigns

Planning for a wide-scale marketing campaign? You’ll likely have a variety of deliverables to create and push out before, during and after the event. Getting proactive by setting up as much content as possible ahead of time, including scheduling Stories, will help you stay organized and give you more capacity to devote to real-time engagement when the campaign is live.

Coordinate with other marketing efforts

Let’s say you’re launching a new product. You’re running Meta ads, have an email blast scheduled for your subscribers‌ and have posts lined up on your Instagram and TikTok feeds. Scheduling your Instagram Stories to go live simultaneously ensures that your entire digital audience sees the same message across all channels. When someone sees the ad, checks their email‌ or scrolls through Instagram, these efforts reinforce your message and strengthen your product launch.

How to schedule Instagram Stories with Sprout Social

Want to save time, maintain consistency and stay active on Stories when your audience is? Use Sprout Social’s Instagram Story Scheduling workflow to streamline content creation and scheduling.

Here’s how to schedule Instagram posts, specifically Stories, with Sprout Social on desktop and mobile.

How to schedule Instagram Stories on desktop with Sprout

• Step 1. Select the Compose box and select the profile you wish to post on.
• Step 2. Toggle This is a story on.

• Step 3. Select and add media to the Compose box from your desktop, Bynder, Canva, Dropbox or Google Drive, according to the following specifications:
  • Video:
    • File type: .mp4, .mov
    • Max file size: 650 MB
    • Max length: 2 minutes 30 seconds
  • Image:
    • File type: .jpg, .png
    • Max file size: 20 MB
• Step 4. Optional: add an Approval Workflow in the Publishing Workflows section for extra accountability.
• Step 5. Schedule the Story. You have four options:
  • Select your desired publishing date and time
  • Create a Draft to save to your social media calendar and schedule it later
  • Queue the Story to automatically post at a pre-set time
  • Send it right away to publish the Story immediately

• Step 6: Click Schedule or Submit. Your Story is now scheduled and will appear on the Publishing Calendar.

How to schedule Instagram Stories on the Sprout iOS app

• Step 1. Select the Compose box and select the profile you wish to post on.
• Step 2. Toggle This is a story on.

• Step 3. Select and add media from your iOS device or Asset Library to the Compose box. Choose up to 10 photos or videos according to the specifications in the desktop scheduling workflow.
• Step 4. Tap Done and add Mobile Publisher Notes or a Link Sticker URL for each Story frame. You also have the option to add story notes and texts to copy to your clipboard when you’re ready to post.

• Step 5. Tap Notify and then choose a publishing date and time for your Story. You also have the option to create a Draft, add it to your Queue or Send it right away.
• Step 6: Tap Save. Your Story is now scheduled and will appear on the Publishing Calendar.

How to schedule Instagram Stories with Meta Business Suite

• Step 1. Navigate to your Meta Business Suite and select Create story.

• Step 2. Choose where your post will appear: Facebook, Instagram or both.
• Step 3. Select and add visual content to the Media section. Choose up to 10 images and videos to preview before you schedule your post.

• Step 4. Select a scheduling option for your post. Click Share now to publish your post immediately, Schedule to manually select a future date and time to publish your post or Active times to share your Story at a recommended time when your followers are most active.

• Step 5. Click Schedule (the blue button in the bottom right-hand corner of your screen) to confirm your scheduling option and publish or schedule your post.

Start scheduling your Instagram Stories

Since its launch in 2016, Instagram Stories has been a popular feature for social media marketers. Because they only last 24 hours, brands are often more authentic and creative with their Stories’ content than their Feed. Thanks to their poll, question and quiz features, they’re also great for real-time engagement.

Adding scheduling tools like Sprout Social or Meta Business Suite to your Instagram Stories content production process allows you to reap all the benefits of this fun feature on your own schedule. It also helps ensure you post the most impactful content at the right time for your audience.

But if you want to use Stories strategically, you can’t always post on the fly. Scheduling your content in advance will help you show up at the best times with the most impactful message. While this guide will help you do just that, Instagram Stories are just one piece of the Instagram puzzle. You need to think bigger if you want to own this platform. Check out our Instagram for Brands guide to step up your Instagram game and future-proof your strategy.

The post How to schedule Instagram Stories [2024 Guide] appeared first on Sprout Social.