Connecting your Instagram account to Buffer

Buffer can connect to both Personal accounts as well as Professional accounts. The publishing, analytics, and engagement features vary depending on which type of Instagram account you have connected to Buffer:

	Personal Accounts	Professional (Business or Creator Accounts)
Publishing Style	Notification-based publishing (you’ll get a mobile notification when it’s time to post)	Notification-based publishing: receive a mobile notification when it’s time to post Automatic posting: schedule your content in Buffer and we’ll publish for you (Creator accounts cannot publish Stories automatically)
Analytics	N/A	Basic post metrics (Free & paid plans) Advanced analytics and reporting (paid plans only, must have Facebook page connected to Instagram)
Engagement	N/A	Reply to comments on your Instagram posts (paid plans, must have Facebook page connected to Instagram)

Not sure what kind of account you have? Check out our guide here.
If you see that your social channel is marked as "Unavailable" (like this), checkout our article: Why channels are appearing as "Unavailable" when attempting to connect them to Buffer

In this article:

Connecting your Instagram Personal account
Connecting your Instagram Business or Creator account
Converting your Instagram account to get advanced analytics & engagement or add locations to your posts

Connecting your Instagram Personal account

⚠️ Due to API limitations, we are not able to:

post automatically to Instagram Personal accounts
access analytics or comments within Engage for Instagram Personal accounts.

If you prefer to post automatically or wish to use Analyze and Engage with Instagram, you’ll need to switch your account type to an Instagram Business or Creator account and authorize with Facebook.
📝 Scheduling to Instagram Personal accounts is only available on our new plans. On a Legacy plan? Get in touch with us at hello@buffer.com to discuss your options!

In Buffer, head to the Channels page by clicking this link or click on your profile avatar at the top right of your dashboard and then click Account from the drop down menu and choose Channels on the left menu.
Click Instagram (If you already have channels connected, click Connect New Channel and then find Instagram and click Connect).

Select Connect a Personal account.
Next, enter your Instagram Personal account username and click Continue.

Set up your Instagram personal account modal

Set up mobile notifications if you haven’t already.
Then you’ll be good to go!

Connecting your Instagram Professional account (Business or Creator accounts)

If you’d like to add locations to Instagram posts, access advanced analytics and our engagement features, you’ll need to connect your Facebook page to Instagram first using these steps. We recommend connecting a Instagram business account to Buffer, as Instagram Creator accounts cannot publish Stories automatically once you convert.

In Buffer, head to the Channels page by clicking this link or click on your profile avatar at the top right of your dashboard and then click Account from the drop down menu and choose Channels on the left menu.
Click Instagram (If you already have channels connected, click Connect New Channel and then find Instagram and click Connect).

Under “Professional,” select Connect to Instagram.

Next, you’ll be prompted to log into Instagram.
Follow the prompts to finish connecting your Instagram professional account to Buffer.

Note: if you run into this error message in the connection process {"error_type": "OAuthException", "code": 400, "error_message": "Your activity off Meta technologies is currently turned off."}, you will need to take the following steps to troubleshoot:

Log into Facebook
Visit https://accountscenter.instagram.com/info_and_permissions/off_facebook_activity/?entry_point=ACCOUNTS_CENTER
A new page will appear, and you will select "Manage Future Activity." (screenshot)
In order for things to work properly, the option for "Connect Future Activity" would need to be selected (screenshot).
Once you've gone through this steps, please try connecting Instagram to Buffer again.

Converting Instagram account to get advanced analytics & engagement or add locations to posts

In order to add locations to your Instagram posts, or access advanced analytics and engagement features on our paid plans, you will need to link your Instagram account to a Facebook page with these steps.

On your desktop browser, log into Facebook.com.
Click your avatar in the top right-hand corner then click “See all profiles”. Here’s what that looks like.
Click on the Page you want to work with. If you don’t see your Page, please see this guide to check if you have a Page.
While on your Page, click here to view your linked accounts and click the Connect Account button.
If your Instagram account is a Personal account, you’ll need to continue the prompts to convert it to a Business account in order to complete linking Instagram to your Page. Otherwise, you are all set.
Next, in Buffer, head to the Channels page.
Click the three dots on the right of the Instagram channel and select Link Account to Facebook to complete the process.

Link Account to Facebook option for Instagram channels

If you choose to convert an Instagram Personal account to a Professional account, we will retain your scheduled and sent posts within Buffer. However, you will not see any data associated with your sent posts that were published while you were on a Personal account.

❓ Can our Customer Advocacy team answer any questions for you? Feel free to reach out via hello@buffer.com.