By Adam 
At Social Media Explorer, we’re always on the hunt for tips and tools that streamline and support social media marketing and account management. The most recent software we’ve been trying is visual Instagram scheduler, Hopper HQ. I have written a full review of Hopper HQ below, including feature list, pros and cons, and pricing.
Overview
Once the only fully-automated scheduling tool for Instagram, Hopper HQ now supports Facebook and Twitter as well, but has stuck with its visual focused design. It’s a great tool, and personally the best I have seen for Instagram management in terms of UI and feature support. Hopper HQ was intuitive to use, and the design made scheduling feel like a creative process (almost like a Pinterest mood board) rather than a technical chore. Seemingly small features such as the ability to schedule first comments, and an inbuilt hashtag search, made scheduling week’s worth of content a quick and seamless task. The ability to preview what your Instagram feed will look like after your scheduled posts have been published was also a huge bonus for me. Customer support is very good, with an instant messenger on the site to speak to the team and troubleshoot any problems. I spoke with a very helpful member of the team who helped me get set up in no time.
Features
Scheduling Features:
Instagram, Facebook and Twitter
Manage and schedule content across multiple social networks
Multiple accounts
Manage multiple accounts from a single login
Fully automated posting
No annoying reminders or push notifications to your mobile — I think this is a great feature, as many other schedulers convince you you’re saving time and then you still find yourself on your phone at the weekend!
Scheduled & instant posts
Schedule posts for any day or time — there is no limit to the scheduling on Hopper HQ, and you can also ‘post now’ from your computer.
Schedule video
Hopper HQ supports automatic video posting across Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
Multiple image posts
Hopper HQ supports multiple image, or carousel posts, across Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
Time settings
If you post at the same time most days, you can add time presets in your account settings. This means all the content you upload will automatically set to those days and times, speeding up the process even more.
Reschedule content
Easily reuse high performing or evergreen posts without uploading the content again.
iOS app
They also have an iOS app which helps if you’re on the move — although this is by no means a replacement to the desktop site as it is limited in places.
Content Features:
Bulk upload
Upload up to 50 images and videos at once and edit them all at once. I found myself planning 2 week’s worth of content in under an hour — including image cropping, captions, hashtags and scheduling dates and times.
Upload from Dropbox & more
Like many businesses, we work with different photographers and creatives across multiple teams, which means all of our content is in the cloud. When bulk uploading you can choose from Dropbox, Google Drive, Google Photos, Box, or even a URL, so you don’t need to worry about downloading the photos and videos to your computer in advance.
Square, portrait & landscape
Once in bulk edit you’re able to crop to the right ratio for the social network you’re posting to with a built-in cropping tool. They also alert you if an image is the incorrect dimensions for the social network you’ve chosen.
Full image editing
We don’t tend to make any last minute image edits with our social content, but if there’s anything you want to change Hopper HQ comes with an image editor, including filters, light leaks, contrast, brightness, rotate, stickers, blur, saturation and more
Instagram first comments
You can schedule your first comment on Instagram alongside your caption, which is a great place to put your hashtags if you like keeping them separate from your caption.
Mentions and hashtags
You can tag other accounts in your captions, which is necessary if you post a lot of UGC or collaborate with other brands/influencers. There’s also a built-in hashtag tool, which gives you suggestions as you type and lets you know the amount of posts on Instagram using that hashtag.
Location tagging
Geotagging is available on Hopper HQ which is a huge bonus as posts with a location tag tend to receive higher engagement than those without!
Planning Features:
Calendar planner
As well as the Queue which is essentially your homepage, you can also view all your upcoming posts in a calendar view. This helps keep track of posting consistency and spotting any gaps!
Instagram Grid planner
I think this was my favourite feature in the creative/planning aspect of Hopper HQ. Their Instagram grid planner shows you a preview of what your feed will look like once all your scheduled posts have been published. All of the posts in this view are drag and droppable, so you can shuffle posts around to get the perfect theme. This was such a useful feature for ensuring feed cohesion and generally making your Instagram look awesome.
When you hover over the grid planner it also shows you which posts have been published or are in drafts, to avoid any confusion!
Invite your team
Using Hopper HQ’s ‘Teams’ feature, you can collaborate with your colleagues and/or clients on the platform. All plans come with unlimited team members and the ability to set different permissions for different people. Say for example you needed approval from a client, you could invite them to view your Hopper HQ account under ‘view only’ settings. This is a great feature for agencies or freelancers and saves a lot of time going back and forth over email.
Instagram Analytics
Hopper HQ also has built-in analytics to help you inform your content plan with data from Instagram. Track your follower growth, find the best time to post, and learn what type of content is performing best. Their analytics offers the same data from Instagram’s Insights, however it’s presented in a more user-friendly way, and saves you checking your mobile.
Pricing:
Hopper HQ offers a free 14-day free trial, where you can cancel at anytime to avoid being charged.
Subscriptions begin from $19 a month for 1 account, including 1 x Instagram, 1 x Facebook, and 1 x Twitter. Therefore the pricing is done by business/client rather than social network.
You can add/remove accounts at anytime to upgrade/downgrade your subscription. There is also a bulk pricing discount, with every account over 5 coming down to $15, and again over 10 becoming $10. Take a look at the pricing calculator on their website.
Top 5 Pros:
- Instagram grid planner
- Carousel posts
- Automated video scheduling
- Exceptional customer service
- No reminders/mobile notifications
Top 5 Cons:
- No image tagging (although I’ve been reliably informed this is coming very soon)
- You cannot select video thumbnail (again apparently coming soon, so may also be live at time of reading)
- No free plan
- Does not support LinkedIn or Pinterest scheduling
- Does not support Instagram Story scheduling (coming soon)
Summary
Hopper HQ is a great solution for any business or agency whose social media marketing strategy is focused on Instagram. It definitely saved me time planning the content for the weeks ahead, and was more enjoyable and creative a task than other social media management tools I’ve used. I would also recommend Hopper HQ for companies working across teams or with clients, as their Teams feature offers flexibility for collaborative working and speedy approval.
Sign up for a free 14 day trial and test Hopper HQ out for yourself now!
SME Paid Under
Sitetrail Research Team