Direct publishing to Instagram business profiles

Hootsuite customers can publish single photos or videos directly to Instagram business profiles from the Hootsuite web dashboard and mobile apps!

Instagram has made direct publishing available to business profiles only. If you don’t have a business profile yet, but want to take advantage of publishing directly from Hootsuite, you can easily convert your personal profile to a business profile for free.

See Add an Instagram profile to learn more about the differences between personal and business profiles.

Setup requirements

Direct publishing requires three things:

1. An Instagram business profile
2. A Facebook Page associated with that business profile (each business profile can only be associated with a single Facebook Page and vice versa)
3. Admin or Editor page role permissions for that Facebook Page

Why do I need to connect to a Facebook Page?

Since Facebook owns Instagram, they’ve made it easy to manage your business’ social presence by streamlining workflows between the two social networks. Full Instagram functionality like direct publishing, stream engagement and analytics is available to third parties (e.g. Hootsuite) through a Facebook Application Programming Interface, also known as an API. Connecting to a Facebook Page is a Facebook requirement for all third parties, and is required within Facebook's own native tools as well, which is why you need to have a Facebook Page associated with your Instagram business profile.

More benefits of associating a Facebook Page with an Instagram business profile.

Convert a personal profile into a business profile and associate it with a Facebook Page

Convert your personal profile, and connect it to a Facebook Page, from the Facebook Page itself. An Admin of the Page must complete these steps.

1. In Facebook, navigate to the Facebook Page you want to connect to Instagram. Note that only one Instagram profile can be connected to a Page.
2. Click Settings in the top-right corner of the Page.
3. Click Instagram in the list on the left.
4. Click Connect Account.
   
5. Enter your Instagram username and password, and then click Log In. Your Instagram account is now connected to the Facebook Page.
6. If your Instagram account is still a personal profile: Click Get Started.
   
7. Follow the prompts in the pop-up to complete the conversion to an Instagram business profile.

Add a business profile to Hootsuite and enable full functionality

Adding a business profile to Hootsuite is a two-step process that must be completed by an Admin of the associated Facebook Page:

1. Connect with Instagram
2. Authorize the associated Facebook Page to enable full functionality

 Log out of both Instagram and Facebook natively in your browser before adding each new Instagram profile with the following steps.

1. Click your profile picture ( by default) in the top-right corner of the dashboard, and then select Manage Social Networks.
   
2. Click + Private Network in the bottom-left corner of the dashboard to add Instagram for your own use. Or click Manage beside an organization name and then click Add a Social Network or Add a Shared Network to add this profile to an organization.
3. Select Instagram from the list, and then click Connect with Instagram.
   
4. Enter your Instagram username and password, click Log In, and then Authorize/Continue.
5. Now complete the setup by clicking Connect to Facebook.
   If your Instagram account is still a personal profile, convert it to business using the steps above, or see this article.
6. Enter your Facebook username and password, and then click Log In.
   The Facebook user signing in must be an admin of the Page associated with the Instagram business profile.
   Getting an error? See this troubleshooting article
7. You may be prompted to authorize access to your Instagram business profile. Click OK.
8. Click Done.

Check if you have full functionality enabled

Click here to see whether your profile is personal or business, and if direct publishing still needs to be set up. The setup that enables direct publishing also enables analytics and stream engagement.

Alternatively, click New Post in the top-right corner of the dashboard to open the Composer, and find your Instagram profile in the social network picker. Business profiles say 'Business' next to the name, and indicate below them if direct publishing, and therefore full Instagram functionality, is enabled.

Enable direct publishing for an already connected profile

For business profiles, and recently converted personal profiles, that are already connected to Hootsuite.

 Log out of both Instagram and Facebook natively in your browser before enabling each new Instagram profile with the following steps.

1. Click your profile picture ( by default) in the top-right corner of the dashboard, and then select Manage Social Networks.
   
2. Click the Instagram profile, and then click the Profile Settings tab. (Enterprise organizations: Click Social Networks under the organization name first, and then select the profile from the list on the left).
3. Click Connect with Instagram.
   
4. Enter your Instagram username and password, click Log In, and then Authorize/Continue.
5. Now complete the setup by clicking Connect to Facebook.
   If your Instagram account is still a personal profile, convert it to business using the steps above, or see this article.
6. Enter your Facebook username and password, and then click Log In.
   The Facebook user signing in must be an admin of the Page associated with the Instagram business profile.
   Getting an error? See this troubleshooting article
7. You may be prompted to authorize access to your Instagram business profile. Click OK.
8. Click Done.

Publish directly to Instagram

Now that your business profile is enabled for direct publishing, you can schedule and publish single photos or videos directly to Instagram, just like you would for your other social networks.

See these articles to learn how:

• Create and publish posts
• Attach and edit images
• Publish a video

Note that Instagram stories and multi-image carousel posts are not supported with direct publishing.