📹 How To Schedule Carousel Posts To Instagram

Posting multiple images (Carousel posts) to Instagram is simple. Direct publishing is available for connected Creator and Business Profiles, while Personal Profiles, added as Universal Profiles, use our quick notification workflow (🔔) via the SmarterQueue Mobile App on iOS or Android✨.

Follow our guide below for all of the tips and tricks 💪

Note: Easily convert your Personal Profile into a Creator or Business one to directly publish your Instagram Carousel Posts, as well as many others, such as Single Image Posts or Video/Reels.

Video Walkthrough

How To Create Your Carousel Post In SmarterQueue

1. Click "Create a Post" to open the Post Editor.

2. Next, choose a Category.

Note: Be sure to select a Category you've enabled for your Instagram Profile!

3. Then select the Instagram Profile(s) you'd like to create a post for.

Note: Instagram Profiles that will publish via the notification workflow (Personal Profiles, or Business/Creator ones that don't have "Direct Publishing Enabled") will be marked with a bell glyph (🔔). Go to the Profiles section to enable direct publishing for eligible profiles. Read more about the benefits of switching to and using a Creator or Business profile.

You will notice a new option come up in the "Post Editor" when an Instagram profile is selected - the "Instagram Post Type".

This lets you decide if the post is meant to be published as an Instagram Feed/Reel Post, or as a Story.

Check out additional information here on How To Schedule Story Posts To Instagram.

4. Write your caption in the text box.

Note: The caption has a 2200-character limit, with up to 30 hashtags and 20 mentions.

5. Then add your images! You can add up to 10 images, either by selecting the camera icon under "Media" and choosing the images from the computer or by dragging and dropping in the Post Editor area. You'll be able to select multiple images at the same time.

Note: Notice that the "Feed/Reel" button for the Instagram Post Type automatically switched to "Feed" once we added images to the post instead of a video.

Note: If any of the images you add are too wide or too tall for direct publishing, we will add padding to them to ensure you meet Instagram's guidelines. Find out what size images you should use.

Note: We recommend that all images included in your carousel post have the same size ratio. If you mix & match images with different sizes in your carousel post, then all of your images will be cropped to the size of your first photo.

Note: You can schedule several different types of posts to Instagram including single-image posts, multi-image carousel posts, video/reels, and stories!

6. Preview your carousel post in the right-hand pane. You can use the arrows to tab through and view each photo you've added to your post

7. Next, under "Instagram Publishing Method", select how you'd like your content to publish - directly or via a notification workflow.

By default, all posts will use “Attempt Direct Publishing”. Leaving this on will ensure that SmarterQueue will try to directly publish your post where possible. No worries, if that's not possible due to the type of Instagram Profile or media, we'll fall back to the notification workflow.

You can also select “🔔 Get a Reminder” to publish manually, even where direct publishing is possible, just in case you'd like to add stickers, tags, locations, or filters to the post, manually check how your Instagram posts look before being published, or just to ensure you crop media exactly how you want it.

Note: Based on your selection, types of Instagram Profiles you've selected, as well as the type of post you're creating, you'll notice helpful messages explaining how your content will publish.

8. Then save your Post to your Queue - it will auto-schedule for you based on the Posting Plan 💪

How To Directly Publish Your Carousel Post To Creator/Business Profiles

Here's what you need to do to ensure that your Carousel Post directly publishes:

1. Make sure your Instagram Profile type is eligible.

Publishing directly only works with Instagram Creator or Business Profiles. If you have a Personal one, we recommend converting it to a Creator/Business one instead.

2. Enable direct publishing in the Profiles section.

3. Set your posts to attempt direct publishing in the Post Editor.

By default, all posts will be set to “Attempt Direct Publishing” under "Instagram Publishing Method" in the Post Editor. Leaving this on will ensure that SmarterQueue will try to directly publish your post where possible.

Note: Keep in mind that images should be between 4:5 (tall) and 1.91:1 (wide) to ensure that you will be able to directly publish without any changes. If not this size, SmarterQueue will add padding to the image to make sure that the post can still be directly published.

Note: Keep in mind that if you mix & match images with different sizes in your carousel post, then all of your images will be cropped to the size of your first photo (once adjusted as per above).

How To Publish Your Carousel Post Via The SmarterQueue iOS App

If your post is set to go out via our quick notification workflow (🔔) you'll need to use the SmarterQueue Mobile App. If you're an iOS user, this is easily done by following these steps:

1. Download the latest version of the SmarterQueue Mobile App for iOS, make sure you log into your SmarterQueue account and that notifications are enabled.

2. When it's time to post, you’ll receive a push notification on your mobile device.

3. Please make sure you’re logged into the correct Instagram profile on the Instagram App, then open the notification on your iPhone 💪

Alternatively, if you ever miss a notification, you can open the SmarterQueue app and select the post from the top of the notification list:

4. You'll see a preview of your post with a carousel of images you can swipe through along with your caption. Tap "Post To Instagram" to continue:

Note: You'll notice a message come up saying that "Your caption has been copied to the clipboard".

5. You'll be redirected to the Instagram App and see your first image automatically open. Rest assured you'll be able to select the rest of your images later! Select Feed to continue:

6. To finish selecting the other images for your post, click the carousel icon in the bottom right-hand corner of your first image.

You'll see a number appear in the top right of the thumbnail for your first image.
You can then tap on all other images you'd like to add to your post (all the images that were initially added when creating the post will be available here).

In this example, we've added 4 images, so we'll see them here:

Note: For some iOS devices carousel publishing works differently. If you can't see the the carousel icon in the bottom right-hand corner, you can activate the multi-select option by pressing and holding down on an image in your camera roll.

7. Tap "Next" in the upper right-hand corner once you've selected your images.

8. Apply any edits or filters to your images, then tap "Next" in the upper right-hand corner once again.

9. Your caption is already copied to your clipboard so simply long tap into the caption field of Instagram, select paste and your caption will appear!

If you’d like, add a location or any other information and tags to your post.

10. Once you're happy with your post, tap "Share" in the upper right-hand corner and it will load to Instagram.

11. Congratulations, your finished carousel post is now live on Instagram!

How To Publish Your Carousel Post Via The SmarterQueue Android App

If your post is set to go out via our quick notification workflow (🔔) you'll need to use the SmarterQueue Mobile App. If you're an Android user, this is easily done by following these steps:

1. Download the latest version of the SmarterQueue Mobile App for Android and make sure you log into your SmarterQueue account (notifications should be enabled by default).

2. When it's time to post, you’ll receive a push notification on your mobile device.

3. Please make sure you’re logged into the correct Instagram profile on the Instagram App, then open the notification on your phone 💪

Alternatively, if you ever miss a notification, you can open the SmarterQueue app and select the post from the top of the notification list.

4. You'll see a preview of your post with the carousel of images you can swipe through, along with your caption. Tap "Post To Instagram" to continue:

Note: You'll notice a message come up saying that "Your caption has been copied to the clipboard".

5. You'll be redirected to the Instagram App. Here you'll need to press on the 'plus' icon to create a new post.

6. The first image in your carousel will be automatically selected. To finish selecting the other images for your post, click the carousel icon in the bottom-right of your first image:

You'll see a number appear in the top right of the thumbnail for your first image.
You can then tap on all other images you'd like to add to your post (all the images that were initially added when creating the post will be available here).

In this example, we've added 4 images, so we'll see them here:

7. Once you've selected the images, press the arrow in the upper-right corner of the screen to move forward with your post.

8. Apply any edits or filters to your images, then tap the arrow in the upper right-hand corner once again.

9. Your caption is already copied to your clipboard so simply long tap into the caption field of Instagram. Depending on your device, you will either see a text bubble within your keyboard or a "paste" option. Either way, you'll be able to paste your caption in!