--- title: Instagram + Kite description: Kite publishes posts, Reels, and carousels to your Instagram business account, reads how each one performs, replies to comments and mentions, and answers direct messages in conversations your customers start. slug: /integrations/instagram page_type: integration primary_question: What can Kite do with Instagram? entity: Kite category: AI marketing agent author: Devon Wells and Kite date_published: '2026-10-09' date_modified: '2026-10-09' integration: name: Instagram categories: - other - analytics connection_types: - OAuth customer_account_requirement: required capabilities_verified: '2026-10-09' vendor_url: https://www.instagram.com related_use_cases: - /use-cases/weekly-marketing-report.md --- # Instagram + Kite ## Key Takeaways - Kite writes captions, makes the images and vertical videos, and publishes photo posts, Reels, and carousels to your Instagram account, then sends you the live links. - Kite reads the results for every post, such as views, reach, likes, and comments, along with your account's profile views and follower count, and uses them to plan what to post next. - Kite reads and replies to comments and mentions, and it answers direct messages in conversations a customer has already started. - You connect your own Instagram Business or Creator account through OAuth. By default, Kite asks for your approval in Slack before anything posts. Capabilities verified October 9, 2026. ## What Instagram is and how Kite uses it Instagram is Meta's photo and video app, where a business account publishes posts, Reels, carousels, and Stories, talks with customers in comments and direct messages, and sees how its content performs. An AI marketing agent can use Instagram for the whole organic side of that work: decide what to post, make it, publish it, keep up with the replies, and learn from the numbers. That's what Kite does with Instagram. It plans posts from what it knows about your business, creates the images and Reels, publishes them once you approve, and reads how each one performs. It also keeps up with comments, mentions, and direct messages. You connect your own Instagram Business or Creator account through OAuth, and Kite works through that connection. ## Marketing jobs Kite can do with Instagram Kite's Instagram work follows the order a social media manager would: publish something worth seeing, answer the people who respond to it, and check what worked before planning the next post. The jobs below cover each step. ### Publish posts, Reels, and carousels Kite publishes three kinds of feed content to your Instagram account: single photo or video posts, Reels, and carousels of two to ten images or videos. It writes the caption in your brand voice and makes the visuals itself. Images are generated or edited in your brand's colors and fonts. Reels are vertical videos, fifteen to thirty-four seconds long unless you ask for something different, built from your own site's photos and footage before Kite generates anything new. Most of what Kite posts starts from work that already exists. Say you run a coffee roastery and just published a blog post on choosing a burr grinder. Kite can pull the six most useful points into a carousel, cut the best tip into a twenty-second Reel, and write a caption for each that opens with the point rather than a greeting. It brings both to Slack with suggested posting days. You approve them, Kite publishes each one on its day, and you get the link to the live post. Kite plans posts one idea at a time. A launch with three angles becomes three posts spread across a week, so your followers see a steady run of content rather than three posts in an hour. ### Read how each post performs and learn from it Kite reads the results Instagram records for each post, Reel, and carousel, including views, reach, likes, comments, saves, and shares. It also reads your account-level numbers, such as profile views, reach, and follower count, so it can see whether your posting is growing the account and not just earning likes on a single post. Kite uses those numbers to decide what to make next. It might notice that your carousels are saved far more often than your single photos, or that Reels showing the roasting process reach twice as many people as product shots. It records each finding as something to test again, then leans the next batch of posts toward what's working. If you want a regular read on it, Kite can include your Instagram results in a weekly report in Slack next to your website traffic and signups. ### Reply to comments and mentions Comments are where your followers ask the questions that decide whether they buy. Kite reads the comments on your posts and the replies inside each thread, then writes answers in your voice. It can post a reply to a specific comment, add a comment to one of your own posts, and remove a comment your account posted. Say your new seasonal blend goes live and thirty people comment, five of them asking whether you ship to Canada. Kite drafts an answer for each question, posts them once you approve, and points out that shipping is a common question your product page should answer. When another account tags you in its post or a comment, Kite can reply to that mention too, so a customer who shows off your product gets a thank-you from the brand. ### Answer direct messages and set up ice breakers Direct messages are where an interested follower becomes a customer, and they're easy to leave unanswered for days. Kite reads your Instagram conversations and the messages inside them. When someone asks about wholesale pricing or whether an order has shipped, Kite drafts a reply using what it knows about your products and policies, and it sends the reply as text or with an image once you approve it. Kite also manages your ice breakers, the suggested questions Instagram shows people who open a message with you for the first time. If the same three questions keep arriving in your inbox, Kite can turn them into ice breakers so new customers can tap one instead of typing it. ## What Kite reads and changes in Instagram Kite works with your Instagram account in both directions. It reads your content, results, and conversations, and it publishes and replies through the same connection. ### Information Kite can read - **Your profile.** Kite reads your account's profile details and statistics, so it knows which account it's working in and how large your audience is. - **Your posts, Reels, and carousels.** Kite lists everything your account has published and reads each post's details, including the individual images and videos inside a carousel. - **Your active Stories.** Kite reads the Stories currently live on your account. - **Post results.** Kite reads views, reach, likes, comments, and other engagement for each post, which tells it which formats and topics earn attention. - **Account results.** Kite reads profile views, reach, and follower count over time, which shows whether the account itself is growing. - **Comments and replies.** Kite reads the comments on your posts and the replies in each comment thread. - **Direct messages.** Kite reads your conversations, who is in each one, and the messages inside them. - **Ice breakers.** Kite reads the suggested questions currently set for your messages. ### Information Kite can create or change - **Posts, Reels, and carousels.** Kite publishes new feed content with its caption and media, then returns the live link. - **Comments.** Kite replies to comments, comments on your own posts, replies to posts and comments where your account is mentioned, and removes comments your account posted. - **Direct messages.** Kite sends text and image replies in existing conversations and marks messages as seen. - **Ice breakers.** Kite sets, updates, or removes the suggested questions people see when they first message you. ## How Kite connects to Instagram Kite is your AI marketer in Slack. It researches your business, builds a growth strategy, and ships the work that brings you new customers. Connect your Instagram account through OAuth from the integrations page in Kite. Kite then works with the posts, results, comments, and messages that connected account can reach. The account needs to be an Instagram Business or Creator account, because Instagram only shares results and messages with those account types. You don't need to write a content plan before you start. Ask Kite something like "Post about our new seasonal blend this week," and it proposes the posts, the visuals, and the days to publish them, using what it already knows about your products and voice. ## Review and approval Kite proposes work by default. A team approves it with a reply in the Slack thread or the Approve button on a proposed plan. Teams that want Kite to act first can turn that on. On Instagram, Kite brings each post to Slack with its caption, images or video, and planned day, and it publishes once you approve. The first time Kite posts to your Instagram account, it always brings the post to you first. Posts that mention pricing, named customers, or numbers you haven't made public also come to you for approval, whatever your settings are. ## Where Instagram fits in Kite's marketing work ### Repurpose one piece of content across channels (coming soon) Instagram is one of the places a single piece of work can go next. When Kite turns a blog post, launch, or report into shorter pieces, it can make the Instagram versions as carousels and Reels and publish them through your connected account alongside the posts for your other channels. ### [Get a weekly marketing report in Slack](/use-cases/weekly-marketing-report.md) Instagram supplies the organic social numbers for the weekly report. Kite adds your top posts, reach, and follower change to the same Slack message as your site traffic and signups, so you can see whether Instagram is sending people anywhere. ## Limits and product-specific details - **Business or Creator accounts only.** Instagram doesn't share results, comments, or messages for personal accounts with outside apps, so Kite works with professional accounts. - **Replies only in conversations customers start.** Kite answers direct messages in existing conversations. It doesn't open new conversations with people who haven't messaged you. - **Organic posts, not ads.** This page covers your account's own posts and conversations. Instagram ads run through Meta's ad tools and are covered on Meta Ads + Kite (coming soon). Your Facebook Page uses its own connection, described on [Facebook Pages + Kite](/integrations/facebook-pages.md). - **Stories as well as the feed.** Kite reads your active Stories and can publish new Stories through the same connection it uses for posts and Reels. - **Instagram's own posting limits apply.** A carousel holds two to ten items, and Instagram caps how many posts an account can publish through connected apps each day. Kite checks how much of that day's allowance is left before it publishes a batch. ## Common questions ### Can Kite schedule Instagram posts in advance? Kite plans a posting calendar for a batch and publishes each post on its planned day, so you can approve a week of posts at once and let them go out one at a time. You can also ask for a standing schedule, such as three posts a week built from your newest blog articles, and Kite brings each batch to Slack before it runs. ### Can Kite look at competitors' Instagram posts and Reels? Kite can study other brands' public Instagram videos without your account being connected. Give it a link to a public Reel and it reads the caption, the creator, the engagement numbers, and a transcript of what's said. Kite's built-in ad research also shows the ads competitors are running on Instagram, including the copy, images, video, and landing pages. Kite uses both to find the angles your market responds to before it plans your own posts.