How to Use the Instagram Story Post Composer in Social Planner

Modified on Wed, 3 Jan at 9:54 AM

Leverage the capabilities of the Instagram Story Post Composer within Social Planner. This all-in-one tool empowers you to skillfully create and schedule your Instagram stories. Make use of it to streamline your digital marketing efforts, boost audience engagement, and seamlessly and effectively promote your brand.

What is the Instagram Story Post Composer?

The Instagram Story Post Composer is an integral feature seamlessly integrated into Social Planner. Its primary purpose is to provide users with a streamlined method of managing their Instagram stories within the broader context of their digital marketing strategy.

This feature is tailored specifically for Instagram Professional accounts, granting them the capability to create and schedule content directly through Social Planner. Whether you require immediate posting or wish to meticulously plan your story posts in advance, this tool offers the flexibility to suit your needs.

The Post Composer supports media uploads, allowing for the inclusion of up to 10 images or videos per story. This empowers you to enrich your narratives and captivate your audience with varied and dynamic content. It's important to take note of the technical specifications: image files must not exceed 8 MB in size, and videos should have a duration of less than 60 seconds.

Furthermore, the Instagram Story Post Composer features a convenient 'draft' function. In scenarios where you're in the midst of crafting a story but need to pause your work, you can effortlessly save it as a draft and revisit it at a later time. This functionality proves especially valuable for businesses keen on managing their content pipeline and maintaining a consistent posting schedule.

What are some practical applications for this feature?

Here are several practical use cases exemplifying how the Instagram Story Post Composer within Social Planner can be effectively employed:

Product Launch: Let's say you're a clothing brand gearing up for the release of a new collection. You can curate a sequence of Instagram stories unveiling the latest designs, schedule them via the Post Composer, and ensure they are published in sync with your launch date.

Event Promotion: If you're organizing an event, you can craft and schedule a series of stories that count down to the event, disseminate crucial event-related information, and cultivate anticipation among your followers. This strategy keeps your audience engaged and well-informed leading up to the event.

Content Consistency: Maintaining a regular posting cadence is fundamental to audience engagement. During busier periods when daily content creation may be challenging, the Post Composer allows you to proactively plan and schedule your stories in advance, preserving your accustomed posting frequency.

Time Zone Management: When your audience spans various time zones, you can strategically schedule your stories to be posted when your followers are most active, even during your non-business hours.

Flash Sales: For time-sensitive promotions or flash sales, you can schedule stories to announce the commencement and conclusion of the sale, ensuring your followers are promptly informed about the limited-time opportunity.

Saving Drafts: In situations where you have an idea for a story but it's not fully developed or the timing isn't ideal for posting, you can save it as a draft in the Post Composer. This safeguards your concept, allowing you to revisit and refine it when the moment is right.

How to use this feature?

Before you begin

Make sure you’ve already done the following:

Added an Instagram Professional account [Publishing story to personal and creator account is not supported]
Uploading the images and videos to the Media Library.

Create your Instagram Story

Click "Marketing"

Go to the Marketing section.

Go to Social Planner

Access the Social Planner.

Click "New Post"

Create a new post.

Click "Create New Post"

Click on the "Create New Post" button.

Under Post to, Click "Select a social account"

Choose a social account.

Mark your Instagram Professional Account(s)

Please Note:

If you select other social accounts, the story will not be visible. You must select one or multiple Instagram Professional accounts to publish to Instagram.

Under Content Type, Click "story"

Choose the "story" option.

Click on Upload image or video to add your media

Select Upload media to attach up to 10 images or videos to your story.

Please Note:

Adding Captions or text to your Content is not supported for Instagram Story through third-party API. The maximum image file size is 8 MB, and the maximum video length is 60 seconds.

Click on the arrow next to Post to choose when you want to post or send the post for approval.

Schedule the post.

You can click on Save for Later to save your post as a draft for later

Click on the designated area.