Connect an Instagram Business Profile, manage and supervise profiles and content, create and publish content to Instagram, and create campaigns for Instagram content.
For more information, click on your desired section.
Connecting Instagram Professional Accounts to Yext
Converting Instagram Profiles to Professional Accounts
Switching Across Instagram Profiles
Creating Content for Instagram
Adding Instagram-Only Posts to Campaigns
Enable Instagram
To begin, you need to enable Instagram for use for your advisors/agents. Please contact your Customer Success Manager to do so.
Set Up Profile Fields
After enabling Instagram, you have to enable its profile fields.
1. From the Administration view, select Settings > Organization Settings > Networks tab.
3. Scroll down to Social Profiles and click on Instagram Business Profile. You’ll have four fields: Bio, Name, Username, and Website. Enable whichever fields you’d like.
Connecting Instagram Professional Accounts to Yext
Instagram’s API only allows for posting to Instagram Business Profiles. Before you can connect your Instagram to Yext, you must first convert it to a Professional Profile.
You can change an Instagram Personal Profile into a Business one in two ways: on the desktop via your Facebook page or on the mobile app via Instagram. We highly recommend converting through Facebook over Instagram because we’ve seen more success doing it that way.
Note: Hiding your Facebook Business page now deactivates your page. In the old Facebook experience, that didn't happen. However, this is part of the functionality for the new Facebook Business Page experience. Hiding will now disconnect your Instagram page from Yext so you have to keep your Facebook Business page in a "live" stage.
Converting Instagram Profiles to Professional Accounts
Please note: You don't have to get rid of your own personal account; you can have both. You can easily toggle between the two.
By far the most successful way to convert your Instagram profile is through your Facebook page. This will also automatically connect your Instagram Business Profile to your Facebook Page, circumventing the possibility of accidentally making a new Facebook Page.
To connect your Facebook Page and Instagram account:
1. Click Settings at the top of your Facebook Page.
2. Click Instagram in the left column.
3. Click Log in.
4. Enter your username and password and click Log In.
If you follow the instructions on your screen, Facebook will then take you to through the process of converting your profile. You will be required to input your email, phone number, and business address to complete the process.
Converting via Instagram App
To convert via Instagram, you can follow the steps here. Make sure you select your existing Facebook Page to connect, otherwise Instagram will create a new Facebook Page that will link. If you accidentally create a new page or connect it to the wrong page, you can change your linked account by following the steps here.
Once you've converted, then you can go add your Instagram Business Profile under Settings > Accounts > Connect Instagram and connecting via your Facebook Profile. The workflow is similar to connecting a Facebook Page, but on the next screen you'll be selecting your Instagram Business Profile instead of a Facebook Page.
Switching Across Instagram Profiles
You can quickly and easily manage multiple Instagram profiles, including your business profile, in the Instagram app.
To switch from one account to the other:
1. Hold down on your profile image on the bottom right corner until your other accounts pop up.
2. Select the account you want to switch to by tapping on it. You will then go to the Account page for that profile.
Creating Content for Instagram
As an admin, you can suggest posts to Instagram just like you would with other social networks. We recommend you create new content for Instagram and keep the posts separate from other social networks. Instagram is an image first social network and requires images in specific aspect ratios. To created suggested content:
1. Select Create > Suggested Posts and click the New Post button in the top right.
2. Upload an Instagram compatible photo and optionally add a message. Feel free to use hashtags and mentions.
3. Add your regions, tags and other metadata information and then click on Suggest. That's it! Advisors will now be able to publish to Instagram from the Content Library.
Because Instagram is an image-first platform with photo restrictions, Social has been optimized for use with its API. This means creating image content for Instagram is a slightly different process than if you were creating content for Facebook and LinkedIn.
Please note these restrictions:
Text
• The amount of characters accepted in a single post is 2,200.
• If a user exceeds these limits, they will be presented with an error message which reads, "Your message is too long. Instagram messages can be up to 2200 characters long. Please shorten your message and retry."
Image
• Only single photos can be published to Instagram.
• Photos should be under 8MB size and between 150x150 and 1920x1080 pixels.
• Photo aspect ratio should be between 4:5 and 1.91:1 range. For best viewing quality, we recommend you choose between 3 options
1. Square - 1:1 ratio
2. Portrait - 4:5 ratio
3. Landscape - 1:91:1
Adding Instagram-Only Posts to Campaigns
Admins can add Instagram posts to Dynamic and Relative Social Campaigns. We recommend admins to create Instagram specific campaigns to ensure non Instagram posts do not get posted to Instagram.
1. To create an Instagram-only post, uncheck every other social network when creating your content. Refer to the previous section to learn more.
2. Under Campaign Only, check mark Make available to Campaigns Only.
Adding an Instagram post to a Dynamic or Relative Campaign follows the same workflow as with any other social network.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I connect and publish to personal Instagram profiles?
No. The APIs only support Instagram business profile
Can you have a private Instagram business profile?
No. Only personal accounts can be private.
Can you get data from 3rd party private personal profile (e.g. 3rd party tags HSS User)?
No, you cannot get posts or user information on private personal profiles.
I noticed that we cannot publish stories, videos and albums from Yext? Is that an API limitation or a Yext limitation?
It is an API limitation. Currently, API only supports uploading a single image. Allowed types are JPEG, PNG, BMP, and non-animated GIFs.
Can you proactively block agents/advisors from publishing stories?
No. We recommend that organizations update their social media policy to ensure their field is aware of what they can/can’t publish.
Can we use Instagram filters to modify images?
No. This is not possible via API.
Can we tag users or location when publishing from Yext?
No. We cannot tag users in photo or location in Yext.