Creating Content for Instagram

Gain supports publishing for business and creator accounts. If you need guidance on converting your personal profile to a business or creator account, see this Instagram help article. To add new Instagram profiles to your workspace, follow the steps outlined here.

In this article 

• Set a default publishing mode
• Supported formats
• Post types
• Tag people and make collaborations in your posts
• Plan your Instagram feed
• Schedule a First Comment
• Set up Push Notifications via Gain Notify
• Post to Instagram using Gain Notify
• Publishing via Buffer

Before you get started 

• To counteract spam and misuse on its platform, Instagram can restrict the frequency of certain actions like following/unfollowing, liking, and publishing. While these restrictions are often lifted within 48 hours, the actual duration is determined by Instagram's strict Community Guidelines.
• You can post up to 25 times in 24 hours via third-party apps. To publish more content, use Instagram directly. This limit doesn't apply to stories and posts published through the Gain Notify app. 
• Instagram Business accounts with large audiences might need to confirm their identity for added security.
  • Here's what you'll have to do: 
    1. Enable 2-step verification to protect the account from unauthorized access. 
    2. Confirm your primary location by turning on your mobile device's location services.

Set a default publishing mode

Gain supports automatic publishing for photo posts (including carousels), videos, stories, and reels. Alternatively, you can opt for manual publishing and assign a team member to publish posts through the Instagram app. 

1. Go to Workspace Settings > Social Channel and find your Instagram account.
2. Click Manage. 
3. Choose your preferred publishing mode and click Set as Default Publishing Mode.

You can always switch the publishing mode on a per-post basis under Publishing in the post editor. 

Supported formats

• MP4, MOV, JPG, PNG, GIF.
• Max image size: 8MB (Optimal resolution: around 1200px).
• Video posts: Up to 100MB (3-90 seconds, 4:5 to 16:9 aspect ratio). Videos outside the supported limits can be published through the Gain Notify app. 
• Photo Stories: Up to 5MB.
• Video Stories: Up to 600MB, 60 seconds max. The video duration has a hard limit (up to 60 seconds), so you can’t upload videos with a fraction of a second over the time limit.  HDR videos are not publishing correctly due to an Instagram bug. We recommend SDR.
• Reels: Up to 100MB, 90 seconds max. 1920 pixel max width and 9:16 aspect ratio (tall). Videos outside the supported limits can be published through the Gain Notify app. 
• The character limit for post copy is 2200.

Note: Instagram compresses your photos when uploading. Follow these guidelines for the best possible quality:

• Square (1:1): 1080px by 1080px
• Horizontal (16:9): Make the height at least 1080px
• Vertical (4:5): 1080px by 1350px

Post types

You can create and schedule photo posts, carousels (up to 10 images), reels, animated GIFs (automatic publishing not supported yet), and stories. 

Editing photos

You'll see all the photos or creative assets you upload for your post in the Images Tray, but only images you intend to publish will be prominently displayed at the top section and in your post preview to the left. 

• If you want to remove a photo, click the [X] in the top-right corner. This action will remove the image from the preview. To add another photo, select one from the Image Tray. 
• Gain's photo editor allows you to crop, resize, add text, and apply effects to your images. To edit your photo, hover over the image and click on the three dots in the left corner. 

Select and upload a thumbnail cover for videos

Once you upload your video, you can select a frame of the video or upload an image as a thumbnail cover. 

Select the cover from an existing frame in the video

1. In the Thumbnail Cover section, click "Select frame."  

2. You can drag the slider to the position in the video that you want to use as your cover and then click Save. 

   

Upload a custom cover

In the Thumbnail Cover section, you can upload a cover from your computer, choose a file from your Folder, or Import from another source.   

Stories

You can upload both photo and video stories to Gain. 

• When it comes to photo stories, you can drag and drop up to 10 slides. However, elements like polls, tags, stickers, or music are only available on the Instagram app and can't be added to your stories from the Gain post composer. 
• Video stories can be up to 600MB and 60 seconds max. We recommend SDR, as HDR videos are not publishing correctly due to an Instagram bug. 

Tag people and make collaborations in your posts

You can now collaborate with other Instagram accounts and also tag an Instagram profile in your image, for both cases, follow these steps:

1. Click the three dots on the top left corner of the image you want to tag and select Tag People.

2. To add a tag for other profiles on the image: Click the location on the image where you want to place the tag. Type the profile handle and click Add Tag.
3. To collaborate with other Instagram accounts, click on the search bar on "Collaborators" and add their Instagram handle:

4. Once you're finished, click on the X to leave the screen and go back to the post editor.

Plan your Instagram feed

The grid shows up to 20 live posts, even if posted outside of Gain. You can rearrange them on the grid by publish date and sort by their status.

1. To access your grid, find the Instagram logo on the top left of your navigation bar.
2. Click on the publish date, select a new date/time, and then click Preview. Your post will change positions on the grid when you change the publish date. 

Changing the dates rearranges the content on the grid only for preview purposes. When you're happy with your changes, click Save Changes to apply all the new dates to your content.

To leave the grid without saving any changes, click Close Grid, then Close Without Saving. 

Schedule a First Comment

Scheduling a first comment is an easy way to boost engagement and increase reach on Instagram. First comment is available for both manual and direct publishing. 

You can add your first comment in the First Comment field under Caption. 

Set Up Push Notifications via Gain Notify

When posts are set to manual publishing, you can download the Gain Notify mobile app to receive reminders when it's time to post. The Gain Notify app transfers the post(s) to your phone for easy publishing. 

Remember that only people with the Publisher or Admin role can be set as manual publishers for an Instagram channel. You can designate a manual publisher in the Workspace Settings menu under Social Channels. 

1. Click Manage next to the Instagram channel
2. In the section Manual Publishing, pick a user from the dropdown list.

This person will now receive push notifications through the Gain Notify app. The Gain Notify app is available for download on both Android and iOS. Be sure to allow push notifications from Gain Notify on your mobile device. 

Post to Instagram with Gain Notify

Posts will show chronologically by publish date and social profile name in the Pending tab within the Gain Notify app. You'll only see posts precisely at the time or after they're due to be published, and not before.

• Any posts pending manual publishing on your calendar will be set to "MPUB" status until you publish them on Instagram.
• Gain Notify stores images and videos on your mobile device.
• Post captions are automatically copied to your clipboard. Tap and hold to paste them into the caption field. 
• In the Gain Notify app, the Posted section displays all the content you've manually published. You can find the post you've previously published and remove it by tapping I Already Published This. This action will update your post's status from "MPUB" to "Live" on your calendar.

Publishing via Buffer

To publish single-image posts via Buffer, your Instagram profiles should already be connected and set up for direct publishing on Buffer. For Instagram profiles connected to Buffer, any content beyond single images (such as multi-photo posts, videos, and reels) will be published directly via Gain using the Instagram API.

You can go to Workspace Settings > Social Channels to get started.

1. Click Manage next to the Instagram account.
2. Click Connect via Buffer and follow the steps to connect.