3 Ways to Better Manage Facebook and Instagram

Back before Facebook bought Instagram, everyone managed their Facebook Page and company Instagram accounts separately. If you are still trying to manage those accounts directly, you’re not taking advantage of the benefits of connecting your accounts. Here are three ways to improve how you’re managing your Facebook and Instagram accounts.

1. Link your accounts.

Facebook has launched an Accounts Center to manage your separate Facebook and Instagram accounts in one place. Make sure you have an Instagram business account before you begin. Also make sure you are an admin on the Facebook Page you’re linking. Using the Instagram iOS or Android app, go to Edit Profile and scroll down to Page. Choose a Page from the ones you manage and add it.

Why should you connect your accounts?

For starters, Facebook has built a powerful business suite of tools to create, manage, monitor, and measure your posts. If you link your Instagram account with your Facebook Page, you can take advantage of these tools.

By linking both accounts, you’re also expanding the audiences on both platforms, bringing a younger audience to your Facebook Page and more mature ones to your Instagram account.

2. Use the Meta Business Suite.

You can use the Meta Business Suite to access your Page Notifications, Inbox, Planner, Publishing tools, and Business apps.

If your accounts are connected, your Business Suite should reflect both Instagram and Facebook notifications including likes and comments as well as direct messages from both platforms.

You can view all Posts and Stories for both platforms in a single view. The Planner does the same but in a calendar view so you can check the timing and placement of your messaging. You can create and schedule both posts and Stories for both platforms as well.

You also get a combined view of ads and insights that increases your ability to measure how well posts on one platform performs over the other.

3. Cross-post from Instagram to Facebook.

Instagram posts tend to be more stylized and interactive than Facebook posts and by linking the accounts, you can easily cross post some of your popular Instagram posts and Stories to your Facebook Page. Using your mobile device, once your Facebook Page is connected to your Instagram account, you’ll have the ability to decide which posts and Stories will be published solely on Instagram or also posted on Facebook.

Cross-posting Stories is a great way to save time and reach different audiences. The most common way to cross post is to create the Story on or for Instagram then simultaneously share it to your Facebook Stories.

Because hashtags are a critical component of Instagram posts but could be more of a detriment on a Facebook post that might negatively affect your post visibility and readability, you are better off creating a post on Instagram but schedule it or posting it directly on Facebook without the extra hashtags.

Always keep in mind when you are cross posting that the audiences on Instagram will skew younger than on Facebook so make sure that what you create is appropriate for both audiences. Otherwise, cross post some things, as appropriate, but also create some more targeted audience-specific posts.

Linking your Facebook and Instagram accounts saves you time and gives you a broader view of who you are reaching and how well your posts are engaging your audience. Being able to track what is happening across both platforms from one dashboard is both convenient and informative.