Meta announced earlier this week that they were opening up access to the Instagram API for Reels. 

This means that 3rd party social scheduling tools will, for the first time, be able to post reels to Instagram.

Some of the top social scheduling tools include: (in no particular order!)

• Later
• Hootsuite
• Planable
• Buffer
• SocialPilot
• AgoraPulse
• SproutSocial
• MeetEdgar
• Statusbrew
• CoSchedule

But the question is. Should you use 3rd party tools to post on social media?

There are long-standing rumors/beliefs that content, (especially on Instagram), posted from 3rd party scheduling tools is throttled or shadowbanned.

This all stems back to an issue in 2011. Facebook users found that content pushed through 3rd party apps was getting lower reach.

So roll on 2022. Do we have anything to worry about using 3rd party scheduling apps?

Well, I could tell you my experience, or tell you what I heard from some randomer in a Facebook Group, but I prefer cold hard data. So I went searching…

• Does Instagram Punish 3rd Party Publishing Tools? Or Just Myth?
• Why Do Social Media Scheduling Tools Not Affect Reach or Engagement
• Do 3rd-Party Social Media Tools Negatively Affect Reach and Engagement? Our 200+ Post Experiment and Results

Just from reading the headlines, you can probably see what way the argument is going.

It turns out that there is no negative downside to using a 3rd party social scheduling tools.

Granted the research conducted in 2 of the 3 articles above was done by social media scheduling tool companies…….

….. so kinda like a cow writing about the benefits of vegetarianism.

But still, the research is solid so I am going to call it!

Yet another digital marketing myth busted!