When it comes to social media, I can admit that I spend HOURS upon hours creating content, finding the right hashtags to place under the images, and making the time to post the content so the world can see my beautiful masterpieces. But one of the biggest things that takes up substantial time is posting! Before social media schedulers came out, I’m not sure how Social Media Marketers stayed sane!

With that being said, there are so many social media schedulers out there that it can get overwhelming. But I’m always happy to share the programs that I use and how you can use them for your business before making the jump to purchase it 😉

One of my favorite schedulers of 2018 is Later . Made popular by it’s focus on Instagram, Later allows you to post images and videos that you save on your account (in a cloud drive) that you can use as many times as you want. Although Instagram is it’s most mentioned feature, Later also supports scheduling for Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

 

Features:

Later has a few cool features that encouraged me to try the program. Again the platform is heavily Instagram focused, however because I use Instagram 90% of the time, this is what really drew me to Later (compared to other schedulers that treat Instagram like a leftover, stale cookie). Before going into the “Guide to Using Later to Schedule Posts” let’s look at some of my favorite features:

 

Media Library

The ability to import and save content on the platform is amazing. I’m able to reuse content, set up “tags” (used as filters) to easily search for pictures or videos, AND you have the option to do a quick edit so the photos can post properly

 

Layout Preview

For those of us that are OCD when it comes to the layout of our Instagram, Later allows you to preview what it would look like before anything gets posted. You’re also able to drag and drop to move around photos in the Layout Preview to reflect the design pattern you want.

 

Conversations

Instead of scrolling through ALL of my pictures on Instagram to leave comments, I can do so from the comfort of Later. Which saves time and allows you to spell-check just in case.

 

Analytics

There are not many tools that allow you to have detailed Analytics for your Instagram. Even the analytics Instagram shows you, you cannot manipulate to focus on a specific date or time period. However in Later, you can! In the Analytics display, Later also shows the top 5 post that had the most engagement.

 

How to Use Later for Scheduling Post:

Now the moment you’ve been waiting for 😉

I thought it would be easier to show you how the interface is via a screencapture video. I’ve included time stamps to help you skip to the parts you’re most interested in.

 

Video Timestamps:

Media Library: 01:00

Conversations: 01:10

Analytics: 02:45

Search + Repost: 03:20

Uploading content: 04:10

Scheduling content: 06:18

Layout preview: 12:25

 

Pricing:

All of these features are cool, but what about that cost? Like most popular schedulers, Later has a free account for you to try before committing to a paid account.

 

They have numerous paid accounts and, before purchasing, it’s best to determine what your actual NEEDS will be for your social media scheduler. Yeah you may have a team of 5 people, but if only 1 person manages the social media accounts, is it really necessary to have a team account?

 

Features, posting allowances, and analytics are another thing to consider. With paid accounts the number of posting per social media type is different, so again, make sure you’re looking at your social media management needs before whipping out your credit card.


Have you used Later before? Or do you have a favorite social media scheduler? Let me know in the comments!