Dear Instagram (aka Facebook),

I get it. You cater to users over brands. Monday you announced Instagrammers can hashtag emojis, which means people can search emojis. Yes, emojis. The idea is people will connect with others by searching specific emojis for conversations. I almost punched my computer screen in frustration. While hashtagging emojis might be fun, this PR pro would love to see some improved tools for social media managers, before any additional features that just are “fun.”

I do celebrate the companies that have already identified emojis that tie well to their brands:

U.S. Olympic Team:

Empire TV show:

Michael Kors:

The emojis are a cute and fun way to engage, but let’s talk about my Instagram functionality wish list. Let me preface this wish list by saying I know there are third-party apps like ScheduGram and Latergramme to help with posting and scheduling, Iconosquare, Simply Measured and Union Metrics to assist with stats, and many more that can help social media managers. However, instead of using one app for scheduling and another for its detailed analytics, it would be wonderful if Instagram provided almost everything in one app.

Multiple Account Management
I nearly scream in frustration each time I have to log out of one Instagram account and into another account. Why can’t the Instagram app function like the Twitter app or its parent company Facebook’s Pages app and allow me to manage several accounts without having to go through a third party?

Statistics
Instagram, we know you have meaningful content you could provide. Give me demographics and impressions. Give me an app that easily reports the number of new followers, is updated in real time, and allows me to download the content to easily review and present to my clients. Some third-party apps provide good stats, but I know Instagram has access to much more.

Desktop Publishing
I realize this is not the point of Instagram. We should be posting organically and in the moment on our mobile devices. But even if I do post “on-the-fly,” it would sometimes be easier to do so on my computer. So please, let me upload pictures from my desktop instead of texting myself the images and copy.

Perhaps Facebook and Twitter have spoiled me in terms of what I expect from a platform in terms of ease of posting, scheduling, account management and stats, but I still can’t help but be frustrated with the lack of management tools provided by Instagram.

What are your gripes with managing accounts on Instagram? What tools or third party apps do you use and like? Please share – or vent – on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. I mean, you can do it via emojis now.