Publishing Instagram Posts in Lead Gen & CRM

Create and schedule a social media post for your Instagram account

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Connecting your social profile

Before you can create Instagram posts from your Lead Gen & CRM account, you'll need to connect your Instagram account to Lead Gen & CRM in Settings.

Instagram Business accounts can be connected to Lead Gen & CRM, but these types of Instagram accounts must first be connected to a Facebook Page.

So to summarize, the process is as follows:

1. Connect your Instagram Business account to a Facebook page (if you haven't already). 
2. Connect your Instagram Business account to your Lead Gen & CRM instance. 
3. Proceed to create and post to your Instagram account directly from Lead Gen using the Social Posting tools.

Read this to learn more about connecting your Instagram account to Lead Gen & CRM. 

Creating and scheduling Instagram posts

Instagram posts are limited to a maximum of 2200 characters and 30 separate hashtags. Instagram posts must contain an image or video in a supported square, portrait, or landscape size (ratio 4:5–1.91:1).

To create and publish Instagram posts to your connected Instagram account through Lead Gen & CRM, do the following:

1. Click Content Calendar in the left toolbar.
2. Click + Create > Social Post.
   
   
   
   
3. From the Add profiles dropdown, select 1 or many connected social profiles. You can select Instagram, Facebook, and/or LinkedIn profiles as needed. Read more about posting across multiple platforms.
   
   
4. Choose the Images and Videos tab as needed and upload the    Media you want in your post.
   
   Note: Switching from one tab to another will remove any media you have already uploaded in the other tab. For Instagram, you must use JPG images in a supported square, portrait, or landscape size (ratio 4:5–1.91:1). 
   
   
5. Optionally, click File Manager to pull media files from your Lead Gen File Manager.
   
    
6. Drag and drop images to re-order them. 
   
   Important: Instagram posts cannot be published without an image.
   
   
7. Enter message content into the Add caption text box. Click the emoji icon to insert emojis as desired. 
   
   Important: Media Center asset links and Campaign tracking will not work with Instagram posts. They will work with other social profiles. 
   
   
8. Review your post in the live preview and when ready, click Continue. 
   
    
   
9. Choose a Post time: 
   
   • Post now - Schedules the social media post for immediate release.
   • Schedule for later - Schedules the social media post at a chosen date and time. 
10. Optionally, select the toggle to notify a Lead Gen user for approval.
11. Choose the Lead Gen user from the drop-down.
12. Click Post Now or Schedule. 
    
    

    

To edit, reschedule, copy, or delete a scheduled social post, return to the Content Calendar and click on the social post. Read this to learn more about modifying or deleting scheduled posts. 

Instagram Post Limitations

When posting to Instagram, be aware of the following limitations:

• Instagram does not support hyperlinks. Campaign UTM codes will not be appended to Instagram posts. Media Center asset links will not be included in Instagram posts. 
• Lead interaction information is different. Unlike other social media interactions, Instagram post interactions do not appear on the Life of the Lead timeline.
• Images. For images, you must use JPG images in a supported square, portrait, or landscape size (ratio 4:5–1.91:1). 

Posting to multiple platforms at once

If needed, you can duplicate your post across social platforms by selecting as many connected profiles as you'd like. 

Make each post the same, complete with the same set of images and the same caption, or check the box to edit each platform individually. This helps if you want, for example, one set of images and one caption for your Instagram profile(s), a different set of images/caption for your Facebook page(s), and a different set of images/caption for your LinkedIn profile(s). 

To edit, reschedule, copy, or delete a scheduled social post, return to the Content Calendar and click on the social post. Read this to learn more about modifying or deleting scheduled posts. 

Supported file types

Lead Gen & CRM has a set list of supported file types for uploading to the Media Center. However, Instagram only allows you to post JPEG and JPG files through Lead Gen & CRM.

When posting JPEG and JPG files, be aware of the following:

• The maximum file size is 8 megabytes
• The aspect ratio must be within a 4:5 to 1.91:1 range
• The minimum file resolution is 150 x 150 pixels
• The maximum file resolution is 1920 x 1080 pixels
• Resolutions lower than the minimum will be scaled up to the minimum, and resolutions higher than the maximum will be scaled down to the maximum

When posting to Instagram, if you try to upload an unsupported file type, the post may fail outright. Unsupported file types display as a black square in their respective posts on Instagram.

Questions?