How to schedule Instagram and TikTok posts

Posting by hand every evening does not last past the first busy week. Scheduling lets you write in one sitting, have someone check the post, and publish at the hour your audience is online, in one language or several. This guide covers Instagram and TikTok; the same steps work for the other channels OmniBrand publishes to.

What each platform accepts

• Instagram needs a professional account (Business or Creator); a personal account cannot be connected. You can publish images, videos and carousels of up to 10 items, with a caption of up to 2,200 characters. Instagram does not accept text-only posts. Comments, mentions and direct messages arrive in OmniBrand's inbox (Instagram).
• TikTok takes one video per post (MP4, MOV or WebM, up to 10 minutes) with a caption of up to 2,200 characters. For every post you choose who can view it, whether people may comment, duet or stitch, and whether the video promotes a product, because TikTok asks for these choices each time. TikTok comments are answered in the TikTok app; they do not reach the inbox (TikTok).

Write once, adapt for each account

In Create you write the main text once and pick the accounts it goes to. The ✦ Arabic version (or English version) button translates the text, and each account has its own tab where you can change the text for that account alone, for example a shorter caption for TikTok. The preview shows the post as each account will publish it, and Pre-flight checks every platform's rules before you can schedule (Create).

• Write each language as its own text, not a word-for-word translation: your customers notice.
• Keep brand and product names the way your customers search for them.
• Join the words of a hashtag with capitals or underscores (#SpringMenu, #قائمة_الربيع): a space ends a hashtag.
• Ready-made posts in English and Arabic, by business type and goal, are one click away with Start from a template (Templates).

When to post: trust your own results

Lists of "the best time to post" are averages of other people's accounts. Under When, OmniBrand's Best time suggests the next slot in which your own accounts got the most engagement, and says Suggested time while there is not enough history yet. Your audience's calendar matters too: weekends fall on different days in different countries, and seasons such as Ramadan or the end-of-year holidays change when people are online, so look at your results again when one starts.

Queues: decide the times once

A posting queue is a set of weekly time slots for one account, for example Monday to Friday at 09:00 and 17:00 on your Instagram. Slots are read in the workspace's time zone. Queue it puts a post into the next free slot, and Optimize draft schedule spreads your drafts over your best times without publishing anything (Posting queues).

Approvals before anything goes out

If a manager, the owner or a client should see posts first, set up an approval chain of up to five named steps. Posts then go out at their scheduled time only after the last approval, and every decision is recorded.

Step by step

1. Connect your Instagram professional account and your TikTok account in Accounts.
2. Open Create, pick the accounts under Post to, and write the text (or type one line in Brief and press Write it).
3. Attach the image, carousel or video; TikTok needs exactly one video.
4. Check each account's preview and fix anything Pre-flight lists.
5. For TikTok, complete the TikTok settings panel: who can view, comments, duet and stitch, and disclosure.
6. Under When choose Schedule for later and set Date & time, or press Use it next to Best time.
7. Press Schedule (Schedule & request approval when your workspace has an approval chain). The post appears on the Calendar, where you can drag it to another day (The calendar).

Plan around holidays and occasions

Templates includes a calendar of occasions for the next 12 months, such as national days, religious holidays and seasonal sales, each with ready-made posts. The Upcoming occasions card on Today tells you when to start preparing, and Prepare a post opens Create with a ready-made post for the day. For an occasion it does not list, schedule your own post on the Calendar.