Winging social media is practically prehistoric. You need great data and editing to stand out on Instagram today. The native tools Instagram offers may not have enough features for your social media team to build and collaborate on campaigns, so we've gathered the best Instagram tools to help get your content out there.
If you need hashtag help, we've got it. If you need a scheduler because your audience spans the globe, we've listed it. And if you need a comprehensive suite designed for analytics, creation, and cooperation from your entire team, it's included. Let's explore what's available.
What are Instagram tools and why do you need them?
Individual users don't need thousands of hours of historical data to make decisions, and they aren't trying to keep up with multiple accounts. Companies operate under different assumptions. The platform does include some native tools for business and creator accounts, but with limited functionality, they won't give businesses enough data or features to keep up with posting.
Instagram tools have more advanced planning and posting capabilities. A good third-party tool will probably have a calendar so you can plan posts as part of a larger collection and share them with other team members. Drag-and-drop feed planners let you see how multiple new posts will look on your Instagram feed, while research tools can find relevant, trending hashtags, challenges, or themes.
Additionally, these tools give you a secret weapon in executing an Instagram strategy — in-depth analytics. A detailed analytics tool will tell you when your audience is most likely to be online, as well as what they do and don't want to see. Instagram analytics tools help you spy on your competitors and might reveal any gaps in their strategy where you can increase your presence.
Since social media marketing is complex, these tools also automate key parts of the process. You can schedule Instagram posts, Reels, and Stories on Instagram so your team doesn't have to be online 24/7 and generate reports on a variety of metrics. This puts your team's Instagram efforts back where it belongs: building relationships, creative thinking, and problem-solving.
Unless you're very, very new to the social media world, you're going to need more than the built-in tools the Instagram app offers.
Instagram tools for marketing
Marketing tools give you better features for researching and planning content, analyzing performance, and managing day to day operations of your Instagram account.
1. Brandwatch
Brandwatch offers a comprehensive system for research, planning, and analysis. It features a unified calendar with a shared content library and a built-in tool to turn your best-performing posts into Instagram ads. You can manage influencer marketing and relationships and connect with users using the Engage function. Brandwatch makes it easier to ensure no direct message, comment, or question goes unanswered.
2. Hootsuite
Hootsuite's Instagram editing tools include a create function with built-in stock images and a hashtag generator, so quick posts are easier for your teams to handle. An AI caption generator takes some of the work out of writing engaging captions, and your team can use templates to build your Instagram posts. From there, you can schedule, track, and benchmark posts to find what's working.
3. Sprout Social
Sprout Social lets you manage multiple Instagram accounts from one dashboard. You get an integrated calendar with approvals and organized campaign tags. You can schedule posts, Stories, and Reels ahead of time and measure their performance. It gives you a built-in website link for your bio and allows you to manage a range of customer relationships.
4. Sprinklr
Sprinklr offers content creation tools and automation for publishing, but it's really known for its social listening capabilities. It includes AI-powered detection and analysis of visual data as well as publicly available unstructured data to analyze for a variety of outcomes. This gives you both customer and competitor insights to help build your strategy across multiple channels.
Instagram analytics tools
Analytics forms the backbone of all the decisions you'll make for your Instagram account. Quality, in-depth data tells you when to post, what to post, and how to proceed. Instagram business accounts have access to Instagram's native analytics tool, but companies may need more functionality.
1. Brandwatch
Brandwatch's analytics tool gives you access to data from the past year of both owned and non-owned public business accounts. You can track all types of content, plus comments and likes, and relevant hashtags to expand data collection. You'll see your top-performing posts, audience growth, and ad campaigns from one dashboard.
Additionally, strong social listening tools give you a better understanding of how audiences perceive your brand on the platform. This feature helps you fine-tune your Instagram presence. You can also measure multiple metrics from paid, boosted, and organic content and benchmark them against competitors.
2. Instagram Insights
The native app offers a free Instagram analytics tool, giving business and creator accounts access to performance data, such as views, interactions, and accounts engaged. You also have access to data from paid content. The customizable time frames of up to 90 days give you the flexibility to see the metrics that matter most to you, but there will be some limitations to how much data you can access.
3. Hootsuite Analytics
Hootsuite's Instagram analytics feature allows you to monitor the performance of your Instagram posts alongside your other social media platforms. You can track the metrics that matter to you, from engagement rate to page unlikes. Easy-to-use dashboards make it clear what posts are working well and how you're performing compared to your competitors. This includes performance for both organic engagement and paid posts.
4. Iconosquare
Iconosquare features a single dashboard view of all your important analytics. You can measure your own account growth and performance or analyze your community for a greater understanding of who is following and interacting with you. You can customize the dashboard to include what's most important from over 100 different metrics.
Instagram hashtag tools
Hashtags remain one of the primary ways new and returning users find you. Along with a good keyword strategy and strong brand visuals, the right hashtags can help improve your reach.
1. Brandwatch
Brandwatch tracks hashtags as part of its overall analytics and research suite rather than as a standalone hashtag tool. You'll have access to metrics for hashtags in addition to other analytics from campaign intelligence features, allowing you to develop and refine messaging that appeals to your existing followers and potential new followers.
2. Meltwater
Meltwater's social media suite allows you to continuously monitor up to 30 hashtags through their analytics dashboard, as well as up to 50 Instagram handles. This gives you a long-term view of how competitors and certain topics are performing on the site. You'll have the chance to find any gaps you could step into and benchmark the performance of your chosen branded or niche hashtags.
3. Keyhole
Keyhole allows you to track an unlimited number of hashtags as part of their overall Instagram analytics suite. You can analyze trends and competitors, create a branded dashboard, and deliver reports using both historical data and share of voice metrics. This is part of their overall content planning and metrics platform that integrates into your Instagram account.
4. Sprout Social
Sprout Social offers a hashtag tracking tool that gives you easy access to the most used, trending hashtags on the platform. You can also track which hashtags are most mentioned in relation to your brand and track specific hashtags for engagement opportunities. It includes reports on how audiences are using hashtags across a variety of content types, including messaging.
Instagram tools for video editing
Part of your Instagram creation suite should be editing tools to ensure brand consistency and high-quality content in your Instagram videos.
1. CapCut
CapCut offers an Instagram video and photo editing suite with basic features like trimming and splitting clips. It supports single-layer editing only, but it will allow overlay options for additional effects. The app includes premade templates and can generate captions to make a workflow easier.
Users have the ability to directly export to their platform of choice, including Instagram. There's a free plan for those on a budget and a paid version that includes cloud storage and other advanced features.
2. Splice
Splice is a mobile-first editing app available on the App Store. It has an intuitive user experience similar to the video editors available natively within social media platforms like TikTok, and it includes a library of sounds. It also has an advanced editor workflow that allows multiple editing projects before finishing and uploading.
3. InShot
InShot helps users turn existing content into entertaining videos. It features multiple video effects, including AI enhancements, cutouts, fun transitions, and editing tools. It includes a music library to improve trending audio and stickers and text you can add as you create your video content. It regularly releases new features to help improve the look and feel of videos. Plus, auto-captions speed up finalizing videos for uploading.
4. Adobe Premiere Rush
Adobe Premier Rush is a full editing suite available on both mobile devices and the desktop. It allows you to shoot and edit Instagram videos, tailor your transitions, and adjust the speed. It comes with built-in templates with customizable titles, and you can import audio or include voiceovers. It also allows you to export to Instagram using the correct aspect ratio for the platform's guidelines.
Instagram Reels and Stories tools
Instagram Stories and Reels may not be quite as curated as photos on your feed, but they still need to follow Instagram's best practices and adhere to your brand voice.
1. Canva
Canva is a free tool with Instagram Reels templates built right into the editor. You can choose the Instagram Reel option right from the platform, and it includes all the settings Instagram recommends for quality uploads. You can customize the templates or build your own while the platform saves the correct Instagram settings.
2. Boomerang
This choice is a focused editing app dedicated to one specific type of video: the boomerang. It lets you control the speed, switch the reverse, and trim longer videos to capture exactly the right moment. The finished product is a mesmerizing take.
3. Unfold
Unfold is a minimalist-style app designed with a full range of editing tools. It includes a feed planner so you can visualize posts ahead of time and includes a Pro edition for those with a mature Instagram strategy. You can use one of the premade templates or filters or build your own.
The Pro version allows you to store settings such as brand colors, custom fonts, and customized stickers and logos. It also includes a Stories link to make them uniquely sharable via the web.
4. Pictory
Pictory allows you to type a series of commands or a caption, and it generates a video just from your text. It matches your text to visuals and authentic AI voiceovers or turns a URL into a video. You can choose something from your homepage or other content and have a video ready in minutes.
It also cuts long-form videos down to bite-sized, sharable videos suitable for Stories or Reels. The collaboration tools give teams the ability to assign roles and tasks and work together in real time.
Instagram scheduling tools
Scheduling videos ahead of time allows you to batch-create content and then share it when your audience is most likely to be online, whether that aligns with your work hours or not.
1. Brandwatch
Brandwatch includes scheduling in our full-service suite. In-depth analytics tells you when your audience is likely to engage and what content has historically performed the best so you can create and upload content that works.
Scheduling tools keep your social media workflow sane, and our unified workflow streamlines collaboration among your team. You can see exactly what's performing, create ads from your most popular content, and automate your entire Instagram workflow where it matters.
2. Later
The Later scheduling tool is part of their overall content creation platform. You can create Stories and Reels, edit them to match your brand guidelines and schedule them using the same tool. It also features a preview you can use to edit and curate your feed before anything goes live. It has multiple account options, with both free plans and paid plans.
3. Buffer
Buffer offers an editor and scheduling option that either auto-publishes content or sends a notification for manual publishing at a specific time. This gives you the chance to add trending audio, captions, or hashtags closer to the publishing date of the content. It also includes an AI assistant to make research and creation easier.
4. Sprout Social
Sprout Socials' "Optimal Send Times" analyzes data from up to 16 weeks of platform activity to tell you the best time to publish. You can choose a specific time or click on the "Optimal times" drop-down menu to see a series of suggested times with a star ranking. More stars equal a better choice.
Frequently asked questions
We'll wrap up by answering a few last questions.
How do Instagram tools help track my competitors' performance?
Many of the tools we listed have hashtag and keyword tracking, as well as access to historical data records, so you can look at how your competitors are doing over time. This lets you benchmark your Instagram campaigns against other brands in your niche and compare engagement rates.
Are Instagram tools helpful in growing my account?
Using Instagram tools helps you automate repetitive tasks so your team can put their energy into higher-order tasks. It makes it easier to pull reports to find out what your audiences like, and several enable you to manage comments and direct messages.
While nothing is guaranteed, using a tool to help you develop a comprehensive strategy can help build engagement, which, in turn, builds an audience.
How do Instagram tools assist with content planning and strategy?
Instagram tools often provide content calendars, feed mock-ups, and control centers for communication and approvals. They may also provide analytics and even AI suggestions to help streamline the planning process.
Can Instagram tools help improve my Reels performance?Tools are not guaranteed to improve your Reels performance. However, with access to robust analytics and creation tools, you have a good chance of building a content strategy people love and staying consistent with it.
How do Instagram hashtag tools improve post reach?
Hashtag tools allow you to sort through thousands of options to find the most appropriate ones for your company. Hashtags are still a very important part of the search process, but they're part of an overall strategy the algorithm uses to sort and suggest posts.
Relevance is more important than how many hashtags you use. Most companies now use a mixture of popular hashtags, niche choices, and branded options.
Build a strong Instagram presence
Instagram business tools can never replace the ingenuity of your human team. What they do provide is a little bit of inspiration to help nudge content closer to completion and help execute all those tedious tasks that can stress out your marketing department. Ideally, using them consistently should help you see an improvement in your audience involvement.
Brandwatch is a close partner with a variety of social media platforms. Our social media management tool facilitates your Instagram marketing as part of a holistic social media strategy.
