What is it?
Posting multiple images to Instagram is currently not available via the API, but that shouldn’t stop you from creating the content your audience loves. Within Khoros Marketing, customers now have the ability to create and schedule posts with up to 10 images to Instagram via the mobile handoff workflow.
That sounds great! How does it work?
Create an Instagram post in the Publishing window, and add up to 10 images to the post.
Note that once you add more than one image, you will be guided to the mobile handoff workflow.
Schedule the post in the same manner you schedule any Instagram post that requires the mobile handoff workflow.
When it is time to publish your post, you will receive an email and app notification. Click on the link to publish the post. This will prompt you to open the Khoros Marketing app, where you can see your scheduled post. Click on it to open it, and click the Instagram icon in the bottom right-hand corner to go to Instagram.
You will see instructions for choosing the images that were scheduled in your post. Click OK.
When the app asks to access your images, click OK. If you do not allow this, then the app cannot download the images to your camera roll for you to publish.
Your images will be downloaded, including the Select Icons.
The app will ask you to open Instagram.
Create your post like you would a typical image post. Select the images between the “Select Icons.” Do not choose the Select Icons; these are only in place to show you where your chosen images begin and end so you don’t accidentally include something that was not previously approved.
Be sure to select your photos in the order you would like them displayed. The order in which they are selected is the order in which they will appear.
Once you have selected your images, continue on to add filters, locations, and tag users, as desired. Make sure the post matches the scheduled post.
Things to Know:
Scheduling: This feature does not work directly from the mobile app. You must schedule it through the Khoros Marketing web app. If you attempt to create a multi-photo post from the mobile app first, it will only publish the first image.
Auto-Importing: In order for your auto-imported post to match with your scheduled post, it's very important that you do not change the published post from what you have scheduled. Our auto-import service looks at the following entities:
- Does the text match?
- Are the images the same? Are they in the same order? Are the number of images the same?
- Was the post published close to the same time as the scheduled date and time?
Please note that there may be a slight delay in matching. You may see an auto-imported post before it matches; however, if a match is determined, it will merge shortly.
Mobile App Updates: You must update your mobile app to have access to this feature.
Measuring your multi-photo content
The Instagram API pulls in the following metrics:
- Carousel Album Impressions
- Carousel Album Reach
- Carousel Album Engagement
- Carousel Album Saved
- Carousel Album Video Views
Instagram currently has a bug where it is counting the corresponding photo metric as the Instagram Carousel metric as well.
For example, if the Post Engagement metric is 10, then the Carousel Album Engagement metric will also show 10. It is doubled, which would make it look like the post has 20 engagements, instead of the 10.
We have chosen not to represent these metrics in Marketing Analytics until this is fixed by Instagram. Until then, know that Instagram Impressions are the same as Carousel Album Impressions.
Does everyone have access to this feature?
Yes! This feature is available to anyone who posts to an Instagram account.
Sign up with our Product Coaching Team to learn more about Instagram Carousels!
