New Instagram Scheduling Feature Does Not Support Video
By Stanley Meytin
Good News: you can finally schedule posts on Instagram
Bad News: you can only schedule photos.
We might be biased, but we don’t love the new Instagram update. Scheduling posts is a long overdue feature, and while it’s fantastic Insta finally got around to it, we expected a fully-fleshed out API. Instead, we only got half the picture (get it?) and are stuck waiting for another update that will include video scheduling.
Had scheduling been rolled out in 2014, we would have understood the lack of video support. But today video is the undisputed king of content. In 2016 Instagram acknowledge this fact by extending video length to 60 seconds. That update was released after they reported video consumption had increased 40%. Fast forward to 2018 and video consumption on Instagram is up 80%!
Perhaps the decision makers at Instagram left out video scheduling because videos receive fewer Likes than pictures. But we feel that’s an unfair measure of engagement. Instagram displays a view count for videos instead of likes, so if you’re like us then watching a video is equivalent to like. Liking a video is more like a super-like. How many times have you watched a video, loved the content, moved your thumb in position to smash the Like button, then last minute realized none of your friends Liked the video and moved on? A video that receives a ton of Likes really has to wow.
Perhaps big brother Facebook wants to steer video content creators to their platform. Facebook is an objectively better platform for video and might have chosen to play to their strengths. Not only can you post longer videos on Facebook, but their Facebook Live platform is the ideal choice for professional video broadcasters.
Whatever the reason for Instagram’s lack of video scheduling support – it was a poor decision. In their press release, Instagram included this quote made by the CEO of Hootsuite Ryan Holmes:
“The scheduling and publishing of Instagram content has been the number one request for our 16 million customers. Now, they can manage large volumes of content, multiple team members and multiple Instagram accounts with ease and security. Hootsuite is excited to partner with Instagram to make this happen.”
They knew business users were clamoring for this feature. We’ve been clamoring for it! But we were expecting a fully functional API. Better something than nothing, right?
Stay tuned to our blog for the latest news and information about Instagram Updates!
Reading Time: 2 minutes
By Stanley Meytin
Good News: you can finally schedule posts on Instagram
Bad News: you can only schedule photos.
We might be biased, but we don’t love the new Instagram update. Scheduling posts is a long overdue feature, and while it’s fantastic Insta finally got around to it, we expected a fully-fleshed out API. Instead, we only got half the picture (get it?) and are stuck waiting for another update that will include video scheduling.
Had scheduling been rolled out in 2014, we would have understood the lack of video support. But today video is the undisputed king of content. In 2016 Instagram acknowledge this fact by extending video length to 60 seconds. That update was released after they reported video consumption had increased 40%. Fast forward to 2018 and video consumption on Instagram is up 80%!
Perhaps the decision makers at Instagram left out video scheduling because videos receive fewer Likes than pictures. But we feel that’s an unfair measure of engagement. Instagram displays a view count for videos instead of likes, so if you’re like us then watching a video is equivalent to like. Liking a video is more like a super-like. How many times have you watched a video, loved the content, moved your thumb in position to smash the Like button, then last minute realized none of your friends Liked the video and moved on? A video that receives a ton of Likes really has to wow.
Perhaps big brother Facebook wants to steer video content creators to their platform. Facebook is an objectively better platform for video and might have chosen to play to their strengths. Not only can you post longer videos on Facebook, but their Facebook Live platform is the ideal choice for professional video broadcasters.
Whatever the reason for Instagram’s lack of video scheduling support – it was a poor decision. In their press release, Instagram included this quote made by the CEO of Hootsuite Ryan Holmes:
“The scheduling and publishing of Instagram content has been the number one request for our 16 million customers. Now, they can manage large volumes of content, multiple team members and multiple Instagram accounts with ease and security. Hootsuite is excited to partner with Instagram to make this happen.”
They knew business users were clamoring for this feature. We’ve been clamoring for it! But we were expecting a fully functional API. Better something than nothing, right?
Stay tuned to our blog for the latest news and information about Instagram Updates!
What story would you like to share?
Whether you want to launch an idea, spark a movement or simply get people talking about what you do, you have one shot
at delivering your message in a way that matters. Let’s make sure you do it right.
Leave a Reply