How To Schedule and Auto-Publish Instagram Stories

Instagram Stories have quickly become one of the most popular elements of the app, even more so than regular feed posts and rivaling Reels. As a result, brands must be consistent with Story posting and posting at various times throughout the day – regardless of how inconvenient some of those times are.

By having the ability to schedule and auto-publish Instagram Stories, no time is inconvenient, and brands can show up for their followers whenever they need them most, day or night.

3 Reasons Why Brands Should Use an Instagram Story Scheduler

While scheduling Instagram Stories allows brands to reach their followers at any time of day, that’s not the only benefit. Here are three of the most important reasons brands should invest in an Instagram Story scheduler as a part of their strategy.

1. Save Time and Refine Your Strategy

Unsurprisingly, having a tool that schedules your Instagram Stories is a time saver. The ability to essentially ‘set and forget’ your upcoming Stories affords brands plenty of extra time to create engaging content, dive into Instagram Story insights and develop future strategies.

2. Improved Editing Capability

Making Instagram Stories on the go can be stressful and chaotic, meaning the quality can sometimes suffer. By planning and scheduling Instagram posts in advance, you can spend more time editing your Stories, using templated designs, writing more creative copy and even tweaking your hi-fi or lo-fi video, which can all be difficult to nail in the moment. 

3. At-A-Glance Review of Visual Content 

One lacking feature of Instagram Stories is that it is hard to visualize all of the content and how it works together. With a scheduler, you can easily look at all your upcoming content to truly understand the best time to post on Instagram, how your Stories flow and identify any content gaps.

How To Schedule Instagram Stories With Dash Hudson

So, can you schedule Stories on Instagram? Currently, Instagram does not provide the capability to schedule Stories, so an external scheduling tool is necessary. Dash Hudson makes it easy for brands to schedule and auto-publish Instagram Stories up to 60 seconds in length, with a daily limit of 50 Stories total – there’s plenty of time and space to share your most important content. 

Scheduling Instagram Stories is just as easy as scheduling posts for your feed or Reels. Here’s how to do it:

• Step 1: Open the Scheduler tool within Dash Hudson and navigate to Instagram.
• Step 2: Click 'Add Instagram Post' and select the 'Story' option. 
• Step 3: Upload your photo or video assets.
• Step 4: Add links for link stickers, add notes and choose where this content is going to be stored after publishing.
• Step 5: Choose the date and time you want your Instagram Story published. You can then receive a notification when it’s time to publish or schedule for auto-publish. 
• Step 6:  Rinse and repeat this process for up to 50 Stories per day. 

How To Plan Your Instagram Stories Schedule

The great thing about having a scheduler tool for your Stories is that this allows you to schedule posts days or weeks in advance. While it may initially seem overwhelming, creating a schedule that seamlessly integrates into your routine and is easy to maintain is simpler than you think. Let's explore how to get started and establish an efficient scheduling process for your Stories.

Integrate Your Story Strategy Into Your Instagram Strategy

Most brands have a rolling strategy for their Instagram marketing. Still, the casualness and timeliness of Stories can sometimes mean it’s hard to strategize and truly integrate into your process as a whole. But it doesn’t have to be that way. 

With the right social analytics and monitoring tool, brands can get information surrounding specific engagement times and their target audience on their Stories. This means it can become far easier to understand what users want to see and you can plan and schedule accordingly.

Create a Content Calendar

Creating and maintaining a content calendar for all social channels is mandatory these days. Because of this, it should be effortless to add your Instagram Stories to the existing mix if they aren’t already. A well-created content calendar gives you a holistic view of what’s coming and what you need to be preparing content for weeks or even months in advance. 

Plan Compelling Story Content

With your newfound Story abilities, it’s now time for the fun part: creating the content in advance and building a compelling narrative that users want to be a part of. Users love brand consistency; if your Instagram Stories feel all over the place, that won’t go unnoticed. Use your scheduling abilities as a chance to really set the scene or create a series that keeps users coming back for more. 

Optimizing Your Content for Scheduled Stories

As mentioned, the extra time afforded by scheduling your Instagram Stories allows brands to put more time into editing and content creation, but that’s not all! This bonus time also allows you to fully optimize your Stories in a way that isn’t always possible when posting organically. Let’s dive into some of the best ways you can do this. 

Use Visuals That Grab Attention and Fit the Story Format

When it comes to Instagram Stories, the window for keeping users' attention is very small. Ensure you’re leading with your most enticing visuals made specifically to fit the format Stories require or are being repurposed from channels that use similar framing like TikTok or YouTube Shorts. 

Compliment Visuals With Captions That Engage Your Audience

As we all know, a good caption can take time. By scheduling Stories, you can put more thought into how you are talking about your content via your captions, and how that will engage your audience. This is also a great time to play around with the interactive elements Instagram has created to add to your Stories, like trending music, Instagram polls and Q&A boxes. 

Strategically Use Mentions, Hashtags and Location Tags When Possible

Mentions, trending hashtags and location tags are the most important elements of your Instagram Story (besides the content, of course). Why is this? Because these elements are what help people find you. Without these, your Stories are just being shown to people who follow you, but with them, your content is available to a much wider audience who may search for mentions of a specific product or brand, look through specific hashtags or even search for physical locations in the app.

If there is anything you’re going to spend time on when posting your Instagram Story, let it be these elements. 

How Dash Hudson Can Support Your Full Instagram Story Strategy

Dash Hudson doesn’t just allow you to schedule and auto-publish your Instagram Stories; brands also have access to a full suite of tools that enable you to get the full picture of your performance across Instagram. 

Segment your content into Story Boards to get a granular or holistic view, adjust time frames to truly understand how the content you were sharing was perceived, and measure performance to know instantly what is working and what is not. Keeping track of your performance and maintaining audience engagement has never been easier.

FAQs

Can you schedule Instagram Stories?

While there is currently no capability to schedule Instagram Stories within the native app, many social media marketing tools like Dash Hudson provide features that allow you to easily schedule your Stories alongside your feed posts and content for other social channels. 

How to schedule Story posts on Instagram?

As mentioned, it is currently not possible to schedule Instagram Stories within Instagram, but it is pretty simple if you’re using an external social media marketing tool. After preparing the content, you want to schedule, head into your tool of choice and follow the steps to scheduling your Story.