5 Reasons Why I’m Obsessed With Later For Social Media Scheduling

You HAVE heard of Later, right?!

If you’ve been following me for a hot minute, I’m sure you have, as it’s one of my HOLY GRAIL business tools. 😍

Later is a social media scheduling tool that is top-notch for planning and scheduling out content, auto-publishing, and just generally getting on top of your shit when it comes to social media.

Having both the peace of mind when it comes to your social media AND top-tier efficiency as a business owner is KEY, and Later helps you do both.

Not only do I use Later for my own content, but I also use it for clients as well. Here are 5 (of many) reasons why Later is the hands-down the best for social media scheduling. 👇

1. You can schedule to lots of different platforms.

The first, and perhaps the most beneficial, feature that I LOVE within Later is the access to what they call a “social set”.

That social set includes Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIn, and TikTok.

Yes. ALL of them.

Access to this set means that you can plan and schedule content on every single one of these platforms, all inside one software.

All you need to do is upload your media, crop, and format it depending on the platform, and schedule it out. Bam. No manual publishing here!

Talk about saving time and energy, am I right?

2. There’s a community management tool.

Next up, there is a community management feature for Instagram.

What’s community management you ask? You know all of your lovely followers that comment, like, DM, and otherwise support the heck out of you? Community management is when you respond to all of those people in a timely and direct manner.

Having this aspect in Later means that there is a place directly inside of the software that you can respond and manage all of your comments without needing to go into the Instagram app or access it on desktop.

If you’re a social media manager, you may be already managing more than the 5 accounts the mobile app lets you have, so this is a SUPER useful feature that gives you access to ALL of your accounts for clients (or if you just have multiple brands!). 

The best part of this feature is that they show the newest posts and comments right at the top.

This means you will be able to go quickly down the line and respond to everyone that is actively engaging with you, without missing a beat.

Your audience will feel seen and heard - and will definitely keep that engagement going for you. 🧡 

3. Strong analytics

All right, number three is where I'm gonna get a little nerdy.

I know a lot of people aren’t huge fans of digging into the numbers, but Later’s analytics platform is amazing.

Damn, I just love a good analytics platform. Nerd Alert. 🤓

And Later’s is a top-notch one that checks off all of the boxes.

Most business owners can just get away with just looking at their analytics inside of Instagram. But if you want a broken down and detailed look at just what exactly is going on, Later’s analytics are for you!

Inside of Later’s analytics tool, you can:
- See top-performing stories
- Where people are coming in from around the world
- Top-performing posts
- Engagement rates
- Hashtag analytics
+ so much more.

You want to make sure that your content is performing the way that it needs to be performing and that it's working hard for you! 💪

One of my favorite things about this analytics tool is its reporting feature.

Now, of course, I am a social media manager - so this really tickles my fancy.

Within the platform, there is a link that you can click to get a very high-level overview report of the last 90 days of your profile. This will make reporting for clients a piece of cake. And if you’re an influencer, this report is great for brand collaborations! It shows follower growth, engagement rates, top posts, etc all in one beautiful auto-generated report.

You used to have to screenshot your analytics right off Instagram and painstakingly paste them into a nice Canva template… no more of that! (Thank god!)

It’s as easy as sharing a link. ✅

4. Calendar view

This feature is super important because it allows you to see the content in different timeframes. This means that you can see content on a day-by-day basis, week by week, or an entire month in one view. There’s nothing I love more than a good bird’s eye view of what’s going out across my socials!

You can also select the Instagram account that you would like to view, and you can preview what your grid will look like with the selected amount of content.

Bonus - you can generate a link from that grid view and send it to your clients so that they can get a visual of what your content will look like for the month. This way, they can approve or request to change anything that may look visually off (or just be super stoked at how awesome it looks! 😉 )

5. Scheduling Instagram Stories

Last, but certainly not least, is scheduling Instagram stories.

Now, most things can be auto-published through Later. This means you can just set it and forget it, no manual input or posting is needed.

Instagram stories are not one of them (as much as that would be AMAZING!). 😩

Within Later, you ARE able to schedule them though. You can create the content and schedule it out with everything else, and when the time comes to post, you will get a prompt on your phone and it will automatically open up the story, all ready to go for you.

This is still such an awesome way to pre-plan any content that you need for yourself or your clients.

It is also probably the most robust tool that I've seen that allows you to schedule stories. With Later you can:
- Upload multiple different slides into one story
- Add a caption so it’s copied to your clipboard when you go to post
- Pre-plan your swipe-up links for the week

For a more detailed walk-through, check out my post on how to schedule Instagram stories (as well as IGTVs and carousels!).

Scheduling stories removes the guesswork and potential anxiety of in-the-moment posting - it is already right there and ready to post!

Alright, so those are the top five reasons that I love using Later in my own business and for my social media clients.

If you want to give later a try, make sure you check out this link here for a 14-day free trial to get rocking and rolling on preplanning and pre-scheduling your social media content so that you're not having to do it every.single.day.

If you have any questions about Later or scheduling out your social media, leave a comment below. You can also reach me on Instagram @a_creativeco and send me a DM!

Xo,
Amber

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