Welcome to your go-to guide on creating Instagram stories and Instagram carousel posts with Meltwater Engage within the web and Mobile app! With the Instagram Story and Carousel content creator, you can manage your entire social calendar in one place. Create your stories and carousels in advance, and see them alongside your other social content on the calendar.
Important notes (Carousels):
To publish Instagram carousels, you can either use our web app solution with our mobile app, or you can use our web app solution exclusively.
When using our web app or mobile app solutions, you can post multimedia posts, i.e., carousel posts with images and videos. Go here to learn more about posting carousel posts.
Important notes (Stories):
To post stories, you can either use our web app solution with our mobile app, or you can use our web app solution exclusively.
When using our web app solution only, please note you are unable to add additional story features such as stickers, filters, and tags. Learn more about posting via web app exclusively here.
When using our web app solution and mobile app together. If using together you'll also use the Instagram app to finish the posting process.
In all of the above cases, creating and scheduling posts first takes place in Meltwater's web app solution.
By finishing your story or carousel on the Instagram app, you will have full access to all additional story features on Instagram, like stickers, filters, and tags.
Note: This publishing workflow for Stories is an Instagram requirement for all third-party publishing tools, including Meltwater.
Create an Instagram carousel post (exclusively using the web app)
In March-April of 2022, Instagram updated its APIs, allowing providers like Meltwater to offer carousel post support without needing to use a mobile app. The trade-off, if you will, is that when exclusively posting carousel posts through the web app, we cannot currently support multi-media posts (images and videos in a single post). We do support multi-media posts when using the web and mobile app together.
Posting carousel posts to Instagram in our web app is easy. Go here to learn more.
Before you begin (when posting stories or carousels using the mobile app)
Make sure you have completed the following:
Added your Instagram business account to Meltwater - Learn More
Downloaded the Meltwater Engage mobile app to your mobile device - Learn More
If you already have the Meltwater Engage mobile app, please update your app to the latest version 1.7 or higher
Turn mobile notifications on - Learn More
Downloaded Instagram to your mobile device
Create an Instagram story or Instagram carousel post (using the web and mobile app together)
The workflow to create and schedule your Instagram Stories and Carousel posts directly from the Publish Calendar in Engage is the same. See below for steps.
Click Create and select IG Story on Mobile.
Select which Instagram handle you would like to create your story or post for, select next.
Choose your Post type: Story or Carousel.
Click Compose, then select your media and enter your message text
Media requirements: Image - PNG, JPG, GIF, 6MB max. Video - MP4, MOV, 60s max. Learn more.
5. To alter image dimensions, apply effects, filters, etc., hover over your image and select Edit.
6. Click save.
7. In your image preview, you can click your image to display the gallery.
8. Click Next to advance to step three.
9. Select when you would like your notification
a. Now
b. A future date and time
c. Save as draft
10. Optionally you can assign a reviewer via the normal approval workflow
11. Save your notification!
Publish an Instagram story or carousel via the Engage Mobile App
When it's time to publish your story or carousel, either at the scheduled time or right away, you will receive a push notification for your post via the Meltwater Engage mobile app on your mobile device. You can also access the story from the 'My Tasks' tab within the mobile app. Please note only the user who created the story or carousel will receive the push notification and task.
You can review the details of your story or carousel within the mobile app and then choose Post to Instagram. This will redirect you to the Instagram mobile app, where you will complete the process and publish the story or carousel live.
You will receive a push notification 10 minutes prior to your selected scheduled time.
You can open your Engage mobile app, or open it directly from the notifications tray
You will be directed to My Tasks where all of your Stories and Carousels will appear.
Protip: My Tasks will display all scheduled Stories for that day, so you can access any story for the day, regardless of when it is scheduled to publish. This also means you do not have to wait for the notification, if you want to publish earlier (or later) than originally planned.
Click your post to preview the scheduled message.
Click Show details to view the text include with the post. This text is automatically copied to your clipboard.
Click Continue to Instagram
You will receive a pop-up reminder alerting you to be sure you are logged in to the correct Instagram account on your phone before continuing. Click Got It to continue. You also have the option to not show this reminder again.
Instagram will automatically open to your feed. From here, click the + symbol in the top right-hand corner to create either your carousel post or story.
You are free to make any edits as you see fit within Instagram. The text from your post is automatically copied to your clipboard, so you can paste it directly into Instagram.
Follow your typical workflow for sharing or posting to your Instagram handle.
Viewing Stories and Carousels in Publish
On the Publish calendar, stories and carousels will be identified by a mobile post icon, text reading Story or Carousel, and Instagram logo.
Stories and carousels will stay in scheduled status (green and white hashed line) even after publishing.
In the Feed view, stories and carousels will appear on both the Scheduled and Draft tabs. They will not appear in the Sent tab. They will also indicate they are a mobile post via an icon in the bottom left corner.
Since posting requires notifications via the mobile app, you can continue to make edits and updates to your Story or Carousel before or after the scheduled notification time.
Note: Important! Meltwater does not detect which Instagram profile is signed in to the Instagram app on your mobile device. If you publish to more than one Instagram account, ensure that you are signed in to the Instagram app with the same profile you selected in Meltwater so that you publish the story or carousel to the appropriate account. It is best practice to do this prior to clicking Continue on Instagram via the Engage mobile app.
💡 Tip
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