Scheduling Instagram posts, reels, stories, and notifications on the mobile app

When you're using Buffer to publish to Instagram, you can either publish automatically to Instagram or set a notification to finish the post in the Instagram app yourself. This applies to reels and stories, too. Learn more about how to use notification based publishing here.

In this article:

1. Automatic vs. notification publishing
2. Creating your Instagram post, reel, or story
3. Adding a location
4. Tagging users in images
5. Using hashtag manager and adding first comments
6. Adding Shop Grid links

Automatic vs. notification publishing - which is right for my post?

Certain features (like scheduling a first comment) are available when publishing automatically to Instagram Professional accounts, while others (like adding music to a reel or stickers to a story) can only be added if you are scheduling to an Instagram Personal account or you set a notification and finish the post yourself on Instagram. Learn more about how Buffer works on Instagram Personal accounts vs. Professional accounts here.

Creating your Instagram post, reel, or story

1. To get started, tap the round avatar icon at the top left of your screen and tap on your Instagram account (if it's not already selected).
2. Tap the blue + icon at the bottom middle of your screen. This will open up the composer. On Android, you'll need to tap the blue pencil icon at the bottom of your screen to open the composer.
3. Tap to choose your post type: Story, Reel, or Post.

4. Upload the image(s) or video you'd like to include in your post.

5. Type in or copy and paste the caption you'd like to use. (Note: to include a caption for a story, or music to a reel, you’ll need to use the Notify Me option—see next step for details).
6. Tap Change to choose whether to use Automatic publishing or Notify Me to send a notification to finish posting later.
   • Note: If you choose Add Sticker and select a feature that is not supported for automatic posting, such as Music, Tag Product, Text, Link, or Topics we'll switch your post to Notify Me so you'll get a notification and you can finish posting in Instagram. We'll also generate a text box for each Sticker so you can leave yourself a note about what music, text, story links, products or topics you want to add in the Instagram app when you finish publishing your post, reel, or story.

7. Schedule your post using one of our scheduling options and you're done!

Adding a location

If you'd like to add a location to your post or reel, start typing any location name or type the name of a Facebook Page you'd like to point to the location of.

Tagging users in images

1. After uploading an image to your post, click the Tag button on the image.
2. Click the location on the image you’d like to add a tag, enter the @ handle and then click Add Tag.

3. You can add up to 20 tags on an image for a single image post.

• For carousel posts, the tagged accounts in the image are carried over for each image in the carousel. When this happens, each image tag is added together for a total. If your draft has more than 20 tags, you may see an error and will need to edit the tags down for the carousel post to successfully publish.
• All tags in the first image automatically carry over to all other images in the carousel, counting towards the limit.
• If you need to remove a tag, click the x icon to the left of it on the right hand side. Once you’ve finished adding your tags, click Save and then continue scheduling your post as normal.

Using hashtag manager and adding first comments

Hashtags are a great way to make your posts more discoverable on Instagram. Our hashtag manager makes it easy to create and save groups of hashtags so that you can build a library of options, experiment with different variations, and easily reuse your top-performing hashtags. Learn more about how hashtags work in Buffer here.

Adding a first comment is helpful if you want to incorporate any information not ideally shown in your caption. Use hashtag manager to share your favorite hashtag group or add your own comment!

1. Tap Add to include a first comment with your post.

2. Type your first comment into the extra box displayed. Alternatively, tap the hashtag symbol in the bottom left corner to open the hashtag manager.

3. You'll see all of your hashtag groups listed here in the hashtag manager. You can use one of your existing hashtag groups or create a new one. 

   To select a group of hashtags to add into your post's first comment, tap the + icon to the right of the group you'd like to add. You are able to insert multiple groups, but keep an eye on the hashtag counter to make sure you don't exceed Instagram's limit of 30 hashtags per post.

Adding Shop Grid links

If you're using Shop Grid, add the link you'd like to direct users to within the URL field.