An agency charges AED 4,000โ9,000 a month to post for you. Blotato plus an hour of setup does the same job โ you write once, it publishes everywhere on schedule. This guide walks through the whole tool screen by screen, using @eatcookjoyuae (Instagram + TikTok) as the running example so you can copy it for your own brand.
What's inside
1. What Blotato is โ and the three-tool stack
Blotato (my.blotato.com) is a content studio + scheduler. You feed it a source, it drafts posts for every platform in your brand voice, you attach a visual, and it publishes or queues across Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook, Threads, X/Twitter, Bluesky, YouTube and Pinterest from one screen.
For a lean brand the full stack is just three tools:
| Tool | Role | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Claude.ai / Claude Code | Writes posts in your brand voice, makes branded visuals | ~USD 20/mo |
| VS Code | Where Claude Code runs (optional but recommended) | Free |
| Blotato | Connect accounts, schedule, calendar, publish | Paid plan (see below) |
Why EatCookJoy UAE automates
EatCookJoy UAE (eatcookjoy-uae.com) is a private-chef-at-home service โ halal by default, across all seven emirates. It posts daily reels and recipe content to Instagram (@eatcookjoyuae) and TikTok. One founder, no agency. Blotato lets one person run a daily two-platform cadence in about 30 minutes a week.
2. Create your account & pick a plan
Go to my.blotato.com and create your account. This is the dashboard you'll live in. All drafts auto-save and sync across devices.
Plans differ mainly by how many accounts you can connect and how many posts per day each platform allows:
| Plan | Max connected accounts | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | 20 | One brand, a few platforms (EatCookJoy sits here) |
| Creator | 40 | Multi-brand creators |
| Agency | 100 | Agencies running many clients |
Facebook Pages and LinkedIn Company Pages don't count toward your account limit.
3. Connect Instagram & TikTok
This is the step people rush and regret. Do it carefully โ a wrong connection means scheduled posts silently fail.
Go to my.blotato.com/settings. Before you click, make sure your browser is logged into the exact Instagram account you want (for the case study: @eatcookjoyuae). Then click Login with Instagram and approve the permissions.
Limit: 50 posts per Instagram account per rolling 24-hour window โ far more than a daily-reel brand needs.
TikTok
In Settings, confirm you're logged into the right TikTok account, click Login with TikTok, then Grant Blotato permission to post.
| TikTok limit (Starter) | Value |
|---|---|
| Unique TikTok accounts / 24h | 3 |
| Posts per account / 24h | 10 max |
Connecting a second account (the incognito trick)
Click the platform's login button again. On the platform's login screen look for the โฏ (3 dots) to switch accounts. If your browser keeps signing into the first account, open an incognito window and connect from there.
4. Make your first 5 posts
This is the core daily loop. Five clean steps.
On the dashboard click + Add Context and give Blotato a source: a YouTube or TikTok link, a podcast, an audio file, a PDF, a website article โ or just paste text.
EatCookJoy's context
Aziz pastes the day's recipe note, e.g. "Tetas โ slow-cooked Emirati lamb. Halal, made at the guest's home. Family of 6, AED 449." Or drops the link to that day's reel so Blotato writes around the actual video.
Tick the platforms you're posting to (for the case study: Instagram + TikTok), then click Generate Posts. Blotato drafts a tailored caption per platform.
Use the Chat panel on the right to refine: strip emoji-heavy formatting, insert a quote, tighten the hook, or ask for a full regeneration. This is where you enforce brand voice.
Brand-voice guardrails in the chat
EatCookJoy asks the chat to keep every caption: halal-first, one Arabic line (ุจุฅุฐู ุงููู), a concrete benefit, the AED price, and a single CTA to eatcookjoy-uae.com/book. No alcohol, ever. No "coming soon" language.
5. Add & generate media
Click Add Media to upload your image or video โ or pick Generate Realistic Image for an AI visual. Use Regenerate or Edit Prompt to iterate.
Choose one: Publish Now, Schedule for Later (pick exact date/time), or Next Free Slot (drop into your calendar's next open slot). Select the target accounts. Done โ it auto-saves, and you start the next draft with + Add Post.
6. Instagram specifics that trip people up
| Setting | Rule |
|---|---|
| Post types | Single image, Carousel, Reel, Story |
| Image aspect ratio | Between 4:5 (portrait) and 1.91:1 (landscape). 1:1 square is safest. |
| Carousels | Instagram crops every slide to match the first image โ make all slides the same ratio |
| Format | Use JPEG, not PNG โ JPEG publishes more reliably, especially carousels |
| Min width | At least 320px wide |
| Reels audio | If your video already has audio it plays as posted; add music in Blotato's video editor before export |
#dubaifoodie #privatechefdubai #halalfood #mydubai #dubaihomechef) outperform a wall of them.Sample @eatcookjoyuae Instagram caption (post-chat)
7. TikTok specifics
| Media type | Specs |
|---|---|
| Image | JPG, up to 20 MB, max 1080px |
| Video | MP4 / MOV, up to 4 GB, max 10 minutes |
| Photo Slideshow | JPG, up to 1080px |
| Caption | 2,200-character limit (all types) |
Vertical 9:16 at 1080ร1920 is the native format for reels and TikTok video โ export once at that ratio and it serves both Instagram Reels and TikTok.
EatCookJoy's cross-post rule
One 9:16 chef-explainer video โ posted to TikTok and Instagram Reels from the same Blotato draft. Captions differ per platform (TikTok leans into the hook + trending sound; Instagram leans into the booking CTA), but the video is identical. Stay under the 10-posts-per-account daily cap โ a daily single post is comfortably safe.
8. The content calendar โ set it and forget it
The calendar is what turns Blotato from "manual scheduler" into "self-driving queue." You define recurring time slots once; Next Free Slot then drops each new post into the next open one.
Click Calendar in the left menu. First time, you'll see No upcoming posts scheduled.
Click Slot Schedule, then + Add Slot. For each slot pick the time, the days of the week, and the platforms (click the platform icons to enable Instagram, TikTok, etc. for that slot).
EatCookJoy's slots (UAE time)
- Weekday evenings โ strong for at-home dinner intent
- Weekend mornings โ families planning the day
- Both slots enabled for Instagram and TikTok
From the AI Agent / composer, click Schedule โ Next Free Slot. Blotato suggests the next open time (e.g. "Thursday 7:00 p.m. for Instagram"). Confirm.
Upcoming Posts shows everything queued. From the โฏ menu you can Edit (text inline; move to Drafts for media changes), Reschedule, or Delete (single or bulk). Check Published Posts for what went live and Failed Posts for any errors to fix.
9. The 30-minute weekly routine
| Day | Action |
|---|---|
| Mon | Claude Code drafts the week's posts from the brand brief + new photos/recipes |
| Wed | Generate/approve visuals, then schedule across Instagram + TikTok via Next Free Slot |
| Fri | Ask a happy guest for a Google review; check Published/Failed posts |
| Monthly | Refresh the brand brief, retire stale hashtags, review which slots performed |
That's it. Batch on Wednesday, let the calendar drip it out all week. One person, two platforms, daily presence.
10. Mistakes to avoid
- Connecting a cold TikTok account. Warm up 4 weeks first or posts get throttled.
- Disconnecting a live account. It silently fails every scheduled post on it.
- Mismatched carousel ratios. Instagram crops all slides to the first โ keep them uniform.
- PNG carousels. Use JPEG for reliable publishing.
- Hashtag stuffing on Instagram. Cap at ~5 tight tags.
- Connecting "all pages" on Facebook. Select each Page individually.
- Forgetting to check Failed Posts. A 30-second Friday glance catches token/permission lapses early.
Source: Blotato Help docs (help.blotato.com/start/posts and related pages), applied to a live two-platform brand. Numbers and limits reflect Blotato's published guidance as of June 2026 โ check the docs for current plan caps.
Want this set up for your brand?
EatCookJoy UAE runs its entire Instagram + TikTok presence this way โ halal-first, no agency, AED 20-a-month stack. The same playbook works for any business.
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