Annoyed about how much time you spend on your phone creating Instagram posts? Prepare for your mind (and old Instagram workflow habits) to be blown as we walk you through Facebook Creator Studio.
In this week’s episode of The Whin Big Podcast, you’ll find lots of tips on the brand new features and learn how to use them to make your business marketing so much easier to handle.
Today's episode is sponsored by the Instagram MOT. This 20-point checklist and free training are freshly updated, so get stuck in to find out if your profile is fit for purpose or needs some attention! Click on the big yellow button below to get started right away.
Connect your Instagram and Facebook
Did you know that Facebook updated its creator tools around a year ago to support Instagram accounts? Before you go any further, double check your Instagram account is connected to Facebook. If you need help, we have a handy guide on how to connect your Instagram and Facebook accounts.
All set?
Initially the Instagram tools included were basic, but Facebook have added more and more features in the past few months. We’ve narrowed down our favourites and share them with you here.
Why use Instagram Creator Studio?
If we’ve been able to use Instagram all these years some of you may wonder why bother using a different set up. The answer is – it makes life easier. It’s whole purpose is to cut out steps in the process. It would help you:
- If you’re designing posts in tools like Canva, or any other design software you have to download the posts and re-upload them onto Instagram to type in the captions
- If you’re a create type, you might take beautiful images on digital cameras. Then you have to save the images to the cloud so you can access it from your phone and upload to Instagram. There are so many steps!
- Typing on a keyboard makes posting faster. No more are you relying on your thumbs, or copying hashtag lists from notes on your phone, or at the mercy of your phone’s autocorrect. This makes posting faster, with less mistakes.
5 best tools in Facebook Creator Studio for Instagram
1. Upload a feed post direct from the computer
Upload single pictures or videos, or a carousel of images and/or videos up to 10. This is helpful because most of us work on our computers when editing or designing so it makes sense to post directly from your desktop.
2. Schedule your Instagram posts
You can’t do this on the Instagram app. You can create a whole bunch of Insta posts on Monday morning and schedule them to post. This gives you more control over how often you’re on Instagram – which as we all know is a major distraction when we’re trying to get work done.
3. Look at your statistics on feed posts, Stories or Instagram TV
You can see all the same insight information in Facebook Creator Studio for Instagram as you can when checking insights on the Instagram app.
4. Hashtag count
This isn’t available in the Instagram app. If you want to use up all 30 hashtags you can see how much allowance you have left. This is handy so you don’t waste time adding more hashtags into the post only for them to be left out.
5. Alternative Text (alt-text)
Now you can upload your photos and type in the alt-text straight into your post so your Instagram posts are accessible again.
Features not-yet available in Creator Studio
We’d love to see some of these features coming to the Creator Studio. They’re not available yet but we’ll let you know if and when they are.
Instagram feed post leaderboard – In the app, this feature shows you which posts have the most reach, likes or engagement. You can compare them with other posts to see which performs best. The stats aren’t available in this way on the creator studio.
Upload Instagram Stories – If you edit your Stories content on Canva or other design software you’ll still have to send it to the cloud to upload onto Stories from your phone. There is a complicated workaround that’s available with the mobile version of the Instagram website. If you’d like help in this, check out The Whin’s guide here.
More support with hashtags – When you type a hashtag into a post from your mobile, it will complete the hashtag for you and tells if you’ve used it recently as well as giving you the follower size. If you’re using the Whin hashtag system we talked about in episode 38, then this won’t be an issue. If you’re not, then it might be frustrating.
Responding to comments – This is often seen as a benefit in Facebook Creator Studio as it cuts out distractions. But, you have to keep in mind that you can’t keep up with the important interactions that go hand in hand with the social side of social media. We’ve discussed the importance of interacting with other people in episode 36 of The Whin Big Podcast. The good news is that you can view other people’s content and interact with them straight from the Instagram website on your desktop.
Instagram TV (IGTV) and Facebook Creator Studio
IGTV are very often videos you’ve edited on your computer to include transitions, titles and graphics. They’re longer videos so if you’re using this function on Instagram, it’s likely you’re editing them using a desktop tool.
IGTV is now available to use in Facebook Creator Studio for Instagram and on the website. It’s another great function to cut out a few steps in the posting process. This isn’t the same direct on the Instagram website – you can post from your desktop if you have uploaded an IGTV video to the grid. If you haven’t done this yet, the function won’t be available to you yet. The easiest way to get round that is to film something for IGTV, upload it to your account using the mobile app and then you’ll have access from the desktop to post more IGTV when you need to.
The final verdict on using Facebook Creator Studio for Instagram?
Don’t delete the mobile app just yet. Creator Studio is incredibly useful if you’re uploading video to your computer, if you prefer to use a keyboard to type your captions or, if you’re like Katie – too easily distracted to be trusted with the scrolling functionality of the mobile app!
Do you use the Facebook Creator Studio for Instagram?
We always love hearing how listeners of The Whin Big Podcast use the latest apps and technology. If you’re using the Creator Studio for your own marketing, please let us know how it’s working out for you and if you have any advice to share that we’ve not featured in this podcast.
Or if you have any questions you’d like to see featured in a Whin Big Podcast, please get in touch. You can email Katie or send her a DM over on The Whin’s Instagram account.
Resources talked about in this week’s podcast
Episode 38 – Hashtag research and downloadable spreadsheet
Blog post – how to connect Facebook & Instagram accounts
