Instagram has been wildly successful in building an alternative and deeply connected community of users. And I say “community” for a reason. Far more than the one-to-one-to-one connection that has made Facebook so popular and adoptable, Instagram’s connection architecture provides an easy way to connect people with similar interests and passions. And it does so whether that passion lasts only an instant or a year.
And while some brands have been able to build vibrant communities around their Instagram accounts, it’s often a hit and miss affair. It’s hard to keep track of the growth of a community base, almost impossible to gather key metrics, and even the simplest publishing functionality is notably missing.
Until now.
Hootsuite has announced that Instagram will now be integrated into their social media dashboard. This means that Hootsuite users will be able to:
- Schedule and publish Instagram content
- Monitor and engage with conversations on Instagram
- Create team based workflows.
With content marketing becoming an ever-more important component of marketing strategy, this new integration provides marketers with a simple and easy way to bring that content marketing strategy to life.
To get started:
- Ensure you have the latest version of Hootsuite installed on your smartphone
- Turn on Instagram notifications in the Hootsuite Settings
- Start publishing.
Now, for the bad news.
While you can schedule Instagram posts, you still need to manually post to Instagram from your device. The Hootsuite integration just notifies you at the appropriate time that the post is ready to go. So, unfortunately, those wanting to seriously engage with Instagram as a brand and marketing channel will need to struggle with the lack of API integration.
This means Instagram will remain a promising but ultimately immature channel for most serious brand marketing activities. At least for now.