Instagram Automation: What Is it? Tips to Boost Engagement [2024]

Smoother than Morgan Freeman’s narration voice…

That’s how slick your campaigns will run if you leverage Instagram automation.

Automation allows you to save time by avoiding repetitive tasks, giving you the bandwidth for more meaningful, high-level tasks.

In this guide, we’ll show you Vista Social in action—one of the best IG tools for automation.

But first, let’s make sure everyone is on the same page.

What you’ll learn:

• What is Instagram automation?
• Instagram automation tips
  1. Automate your posts on Instagram
  2. Use the Smart Publisher
  3. Create automated first comments
  4. Generate automated reports
• Instagram automations tips: FAQs
  1. Is Instagram automation allowed?
  2. Can I send Instagram automated messages?
  3. Why does Instagram automatically follow accounts? Is this automation?
  4. What are the best Instagram automation tools?
• Leverage Instagram automation

What is Instagram automation?

Automation, in its basic form, refers to building processes that execute automatically—or, at least, with minimal human input. It helps get things up to speed, maximize efficiency, and take human error out of the equation.

For digital agencies, Instagram automation can do exactly just that.

It’s about incorporating the power of automation into your Instagram marketing workflow. And, to make it possible, you’ll need the help of the right Instagram automation tools. 

Suggested Article: Most Viewed Instagram Videos that SMM Agencies Can Learn From

Ready to give your content workflow and posts a major upgrade? Try AI Assistant powered by ChatGPT today! 🤖💙

Instagram automation tips

Below are the best ways to use Instagram automation with Vista Social:

1. Automate your posts on Instagram

When posting on social media, the golden rule is to schedule your post when your audience is most active.

Vista Social will make sure you never miss your posting schedule ever again. It’s one of the best all-in-one Instagram automation tools money can buy. 

Other than Instagram, remember that you can also use Vista Social to automate your posts on other social media platforms.

First, make sure your Instagram account is linked to your Vista Social entity. Once it’s connected, select ‘Settings’ from the main dashboard and click ‘Publishing Settings.’

Feel free to connect multiple Instagram accounts to Vista Social. There are no limits to how many profiles you can use Instagram automation on.

After connecting your Instagram account, you can now build your automated publishing schedule. 

In the ‘Publishing Queues’ section, select the entity linked to your Instagram profile from the drop-down menu. 

Next, select the Instagram profile you want to use. This will pull up the automated posting calendar where you can add publishing time slots or delete existing ones.

Other Instagram automation tools should feature a scheduling calendar similar to Vista Social’s.

That’s it — your automated posting schedule is set!

Your Instagram automation tool is now ready. 

You can now start automating posts through Vista Social’s publishing tool. After creating your post, simply select ‘Add to queue’ instead of ‘Publish now.’

The next step is to select whether you want your post to be added to the top or bottom of your queue.

Select ‘Queue next’ if you want your post to be published on the very next time slot. Otherwise, select ‘Queue last’ if you want it to be published last.

When done, click ‘Schedule’ to automatically publish your post at the scheduled time.

Remember that you can use Vista Social to automate posts for multiple social media accounts. And yes—you can also use it to handle multiple Instagram accounts.

2. Use the Smart Publisher

Another time-consuming task you can automate with Vista Social is content curation. 

Don’t know what that is?

Put simply; curated content is content created by others, which you’ll share over your own channels. 

Content curation is a great way to provide your audience with relevant content without having to create them yourself.

Best of all, it will help you build mutually beneficial relationships with influential creators and publications.

Suggested Article: Content Pillars for Instagram: Examples, Tips, And Steps

However, content curation can be tedious. 

After all, you still need to spend time scanning the web for shareworthy content and scheduling them to be shared. 

That is, if you don’t use Instagram automation.

With the Vista Social Smart Publisher, content curation is a “set and forget” type of deal. That’s one of the reasons why it’s considered among the best Instagram automation tools in the business.

Start by firing up the tool from the ‘Publish’ sub-menu.

In the “Smart publishing” window, click ‘Add Smart Publisher.’

When creating a Smart Publisher, you can choose to source content from trending news or from specific blogs. 

You can also choose a specific country and content category using the drop-down menus below.

You can also specify the automated publishing time for curated posts. Your options include publishing posts right away or adding them to your Instagram automation queue:

If you’ve set up an automated posting schedule, consider scheduling posts next in your queue. 

Adding them to the bottom of the queue may cause you to post about trends when the hype’s already gone.

There are a few more things you can tweak when configuring Smart Publisher for Instagram automation:

• Maximum posts a day — Set the maximum number of curated posts published per day. 
• Filtering keywords — Automatically filter out posts that contain keywords that your audience may find offensive. 
• Assign for review — Specify if a post needs to be reviewed by the designated approver(s) before publishing. 
• Prepend and append text — Customize curated content by adding text or hashtags at the beginning or end of each post. 

Suggested Article: 431+ Best One-Word Instagram Captions to COPY & PASTE! [2024]

At this point, your Smart Publisher is almost ready to go live. 

But before you hit ‘Create,’ don’t forget to select Instagram as the profile you want to publish on.

3. Create automated first comments

Using hashtags is a must if you want your Instagram posts to be more discoverable. The problem is, they don’t always look pretty. 

Instagram marketers figured out a workaround by injecting hashtags into the first comment of each post. 

Suggested Article: 487+ Best, Most Popular, Viral Hashtags for Instagram this 2024

This is another thing you can spice up with Instagram automation through Vista Social.

All you have to do is enter your hashtags in the “Leave the first comment” field. This is visible in the Vista Social publishing tool and Smart Publisher.

Using Instagram automation tools for first comments is also a great way to encourage your target audience to engage with your posts.

4. Generate automated reports

Reports can give you a bird’s-eye view of ongoing Instagram marketing campaigns. This allows you to track Instagram growth and attract more followers through data-driven optimizations. 

Suggested Article: How to Get Followers on Instagram Without Following

Rather than manually generating reports each time they’re requested, Vista Social can create them automatically at specified intervals.

To generate reports a la Instagram automation, go to the ‘Reports’ page.

Click ‘Run report’ and select ‘Schedule report.’

In the “Schedule Report” window, you can set your reports to be automatically generated weekly or monthly. You also get to set the date for the first report’s generation along with the number of reporting times. 

As one of the most comprehensive Instagram automation tools, you can also automatically send reports to key recipients — eliminating the need for you to send them yourself.

Congratulations — your reporting process is now fully automated. 

Instagram Automation: Frequently Asked Questions

Have more questions about Instagram automation?  Looking for the best Instagram automation tools available?

See if they’re already answered below:

1. Is Instagram automation allowed?

Yes — using tools to automate certain aspects of your Instagram marketing is totally allowed, you could even use an Instagram bot to communicate with your target audience. The only thing you have to worry about is automating an obnoxious amount of posts, causing you to lose followers. 

Suggested Article: 142+ Instagram Poll Questions to Ask Your Followers

2. Can I send Instagram automated messages?

There are a handful of tools you can use to configure an Instagram bot and automate Instagram DMs. Some examples are ManyChat and Inflact.

3. Why does Instagram automatically follow accounts? Is this automation?

If your Instagram account is automatically following other users, this may be due to a linked third-party app — not Instagram automation. Check your Instagram app permissions and linked apps to resolve this issue. Remember, there are no Instagram automation tools that should force YOU—or any other user—to follow another account. 

4. What are the best Instagram automation tools?

Some of the best Instagram automation tools are Vista Social, Instamber, and Later because they can also be used with other social media accounts. There are also Instagram bot like KENJI that automate Instagram interactions with your target audience, growing your following on autopilot.

5. What are the benefits of Instagram automation?

You benefit big time from using IG automation tools.

Since you can upload your posts and schedule/automate when they’ll go live, you can save time and be more consistent with your content publishing.

Another benefit is you can handle more IG profiles. If you’re a social media manager who handles several client IG accounts, you can streamline your IG marketing campaigns and avoid doing menial, repetitive tasks.

Suggested Article: Best Questions to Ask on Instagram Story for Brands

Additional resources for your Instagram campaigns

• 120+ Photo Dump Captions for IG: Best Captions for 2024
• Instagram Following List Order Algorithm Explained [2024]
• How to Temporarily Deactivate Instagram (Or Delete It): 2024
• How to Use the Instagram Appeal Form for Banned Profiles
• How to Find Instagram URL for Profile, Photos, Videos, etc.

Leverage Instagram automation

Instagram automation doesn’t have to be difficult.

In fact, it’s supposed to make your Instagram marketing workflows easier—not more complicated. 

Vista Social makes automating posts, generating reports, and curating content an absolute breeze.

Below are some of the advanced features Vista Social users love about the platform:

• AI writing assistant
• Vista Social can create microsites or landing pages
• Organized media library
• And Vista Social allows you to find and collect relevant UGCs
• Etc.

Vista Social is one of the most complete yet affordable Instagram automation tools for brands, influencers, and agencies.

You can also integrate your other social profiles with Vista Social. The platform integrates with Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Reddit, Yelp, etc.

If you want to learn more about its features, you can explore the platform yourself by creating a free account.  Good luck and have fun with Instagram automation!