Social media is an integral aspect of any business model. But there’s more to it than just occasionally posting to an Instagram or Facebook account; in order to get the most out of social media, you need to understand what’s working best and, even more importantly, why it’s working for your business/organization/etc.
The New Facebook Creator Studio
Enter the new and improved Facebook Creator Studio. The Facebook Creator Studio originally allowed you to post, manage, track content analytics, and do even more across all of your Facebook Pages. Now, with the inclusion of Instagram into the Creator Studio, the same can be done for all of your Instagram accounts. Keep reading to learn more about the Creator Studio for Instagram, and how it can apply to your business accounts.
Who Can Use It?
The first thing to know is which accounts are actually eligible to use the Creator Studio for Instagram. First, it’s important that you have both an Instagram Account and a Facebook page; also, your Instagram must be connected to your Facebook page. Secondly, make sure that your Instagram account is either a Business or Creator Account; Personal Accounts won’t work in the Creator Studio.
What Is It Used For?
There are three major uses of the Creator Studio for Instagram: accessing the content library, looking at insights, and publishing/scheduling content.
Content library
Accessing your content library is as straightforward as you may think: through the Creator Studio, you’re able to see all of your Instagram posts (including video, photo, carousel, Stories and IGTV) as well as information about your posts (including publish date/time, likes, comments and reach). You can also search for specific posts by using captions and keywords.
What’s special about this is that you can view and search through all of your Instagram posts across all of your Instagram accounts.
Insights
There are a couple of different types of insights that are shown in the Creator Studio for Instagram. One type is strictly activity-based: you can view the number of actions your audience has taken on your account over the past week. This includes profile visits, website clicks, emails, and more. Additionally, you can view the number of unique accounts reached by any of your posts over the last week, as well as the total estimated number of times all of your posts from the last week have been viewed.
The other type of insight shown in audience-based. You can view the number of follows and unfollows over the past week. On days you notice a large increase in followers, head over to your content library to see what type of content leads to growth for your account. You can also view a breakdown of the age, gender and location of your followers, as well as popular times your followers are on Instagram.
Publishing
The Creator Studio allows you to publish and schedule out content for your Facebook and Instagram. This is especially helpful as Instagram doesn’t allow you to post from a computer normally. All you have to do is create a caption, add optional location, upload media (whether it’s a video, photo, or carousel), and either publish the post now or schedule it up to six months in advance.
One great thing about the publishing feature is that you can cross-post to both Facebook and Instagram, which allows you to reach an even greater portion of your audience.
You can also post IGTVs through the Creator Studio in much the same way you would a normal post: simply upload the video, choose a cover image, and either schedule or publish. Much like a normal post, you can cross-post your IGTV to Facebook.
How To Use It?
Using the Creator Studio is fairly straightforward. First, go the Creator Studio page and click the Instagram icon at the top of the screen. If you have a Facebook page that’s already connected to your Instagram account, click to connect to the page. If you don’t already have the two accounts connected, click “Connect to Instagram” to do so and follow the given instructions.
While the Creator Studio for Instagram is overall intuitively designed, it’s important to keep a few things in mind:
- As of now, you can’t access Instagram in the Facebook Creator Studio if you don’t have a Facebook
- As of now, you can’t edit or unschedule a post once it’s been scheduled
- As of now, you can’t view the Instagram Feed Preview for IGTV in the Creator Studio before posting
- As of now, you can’t schedule or publish Instagram Stories through the Creator Studio
Utilizing the Facebook Creator Studio for Instagram will not only keep your social media usage more organized, but also more targeted and more successful. Happy creating!