SEND INFORMATION DIRECTLY TO YOUR TEAM

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from Instagram to Slack

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Created by @kpbiglife (Instagram) on Unsplash

Nowadays, social networks are becoming more and more a working tool. New jobs are appearing: YouTuber, influencer, social network manager for a brand or a company...

These professions use social networks as the foundation of their activity. Thus, the management of social networks such as Instagram is essential. It is important to share each activity or new publication with the rest of the team.

I then thought of developing an application that allows to share on the Slack work interface each new publication of an account on Instagram. This way, the other team members of an influencer, for example, can be easily and automatically kept up to date on the influencer's activity on Instagram.

Thanks to Zapier, I have linked these two interfaces, Slack and Instagram, so that both communicate through their respective APIs.

But first things first: What is an API?

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An API, or an application programming interface, is a standardized set of classes, methods, functions and constants that serves as a front end through which one software program provides services to other software programs.

Zapier is an automation tool that allows us to connect different services using their APIs, with a simple interface.

I used Zapier to connect two services: Instagram and Slack. I decided that Slack would post a message on the #general canal everytime a new picture is posted on my account.

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Now that we understand how it works, how do we use it? - How to set up your API ?

  1. Sign up or sign in to Zapier
  2. Click on "Make a Zap"
  3. Search for Instagram as your first app
  4. In your "Trigger Event", chose "New Media posted on my account"
  5. Click on "Continue", then select your own Instagram account
  6. Click on "Continue" and test your trigger
  7. If it is successful, then continue
  8. You're now in part 2. Select your second app, Slack.
  9. Select "Send channel message"
  10. Log in with your Slack account
  11. Then, pick the "designing-with-web" channel you have to create in Slack, so your message will be send to everyone on this specific slack channel
  12. Click on "Continue" and execute the test
  13. If it is successful, then you can turn your zap on and start to use it.

Here is the result: you can see my new Instagram post was sent to the "designing-with-web" channel on Slack.

Here is the link to my Zap. You are know able to develop this device by yourself, to turn it on and to use it on your social media !

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