Let’s learn all about Later — a scheduling tool for Pinterest and Instagram, as well many other social media platforms.
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As Pinterest expands and changes, the options for marketing on the platform need to grow with it. One of the greatest needs we have found is finding options for a reliable Pinterest-approved scheduler.
Just as you can’t have a one-size-fits-all approach to your Pinterest strategy, you can’t have a one-size-fits-all approach to scheduling tools.
Today we are talking with Jill Warren of Later.com to explore the features Later has to offer as an option for scheduling your pins to Pinterest and Instagram, while easily doing the same for other platforms where you find your audience!
Most of us use multiple social media platforms and it’s hard to keep up with where you’ve scheduled, what you’ve scheduled, and when you’ve scheduled. In this podcast episode, we talk about how Later has made it easier for you to schedule between Pinterest and Instagram.
Before we dive into that, I want to let you know that every month Simple Pin Media manages over 120 organic client accounts.
Our clients come to us because they want a customized strategy for their business. They are not looking for a cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all management strategy. They come because we bring history and experience to the table working with a lot of different brands and content creators.
We deep dive into every one of our accounts to create the best strategy for the results their business needs.
We accomplish this first by discovering whether your initial goal is to inspire your Pinterest audience, inform them, or move your person quickly to the Decide space on Pinterest.
If you have at all thought about outsourcing your Pinterest marketing we’d love to hear from you. You can find out more about all the services that we offer for organic management or paid Pinterest ads on our website.
We have a full team behind our management strategy and we are confident that we can help you grow your Pinterest audience while you focus on something else. If you want help with any of these services, the first step is to scroll down to the bottom of this page and complete the form to sign up for a free discovery call.
Using Later for Pinterest and Instagram Scheduling
Later was essentially the first to market an Instagram scheduler. Now they are a leading visual-first platform with over four million users globally. Later’s scheduling platform (originally branded as Latergramme) was born from a hackathon in Vancouver in 2014.
While it’s true that Later started as an Instagram scheduling tool, they added Pinterest scheduling to the platform in 2016-2017. They became an official Pinterest partner in 2018 and expanded to Twitter and Facebook around that same time. In the last year, they have also added Tik Tok.
Jill says the growth and expansion to new platforms was a logical step for Later.
As a social media manager, you are juggling so many different platforms that it just makes sense to have a singular place where content scheduling can all be handled from one dashboard. With Later you can have all your content in one place and easily drag and drop it to your different channels. ~Jill Warren
However, expansion hasn’t come without bumps in the road.
The continual introduction of new features by different platforms means it is never a completely smooth journey. For instance, it gets a little bit tricky when different platforms launch new features but don’t make all their features available through APIs (application programming interfaces).
How Does Later Work as a Pinterest Scheduler?
Jill says Pinterest scheduling is super intuitive on Later. Images and videos can be added to one centralized media library then dragged and dropped from there into a content calendar for scheduling to Pinterest. She describes the content calendar as similar to Google Calendar.
Features Within the Later Pinterest Scheduler
Some of the helpful features that exist within the Later Pinterest scheduler include:
- a Chrome extension for saving images from the web to the Later Media Library
- ability to add keyword-optimized title and pin descriptions
- ability to Crop your image for optimized dimensions for Pinterest and other platforms
- a tool for adding text overlays
- ability to select a board to schedule to
- ability to schedule to Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok simultaneously
- ability to set a date and time to go live
- monthly/yearly plans include Pinterest click tracking for analytics (available for other platforms as well)
Later has a nice intuitive end process with many other features to help you create your own branded experience.
One of the biggest questions we know our listeners have about various scheduling tools is whether they have the ability to “interval schedule” to multiple Pinterest boards at one time.
This is a limitation with Later. If you have content that fits with more than one of your Pinterest boards, you have to schedule it to one board at a time.
Despite this limitation, Jill reminded us of Later’s built-in efficiency to schedule your content to a Pinterest board and post it to Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram, all in one place.
One of the main advantages of Later, it’s so ‘on the channel.’ You can easily add all your different channels and by tapping these little bubbles at the top it will automatically schedule all your channels at the same time. It makes it super handy and way more efficient to schedule all of your social media posts.
Using Later to Schedule Pinterest Video Pins and Idea Pins
A relatively new feature for Later is the ability to schedule video pins to Pinterest. It works just like it would if you schedule natively on Pinterest. Video pins have to be submitted for review before they can go live.
One of the hurdles for video pins in different scheduling tools that many have expressed concerns about is having the wrong cover image pulled into the final published video pin. Having the correct cover image is especially important if the video doesn’t auto-play. Content creators want to make sure that their cover image is the first thing pinners see so they know right away what the pin is about.
Later does have the ability to choose your cover image. Jill says once you drag in your video, there is a button for selecting a frame for your cover and saving it.
Another more recent feature added by Pinterest is Idea pins and we wondered if Later could schedule these.
Unfortunately, Later doesn’t offer a way to schedule Idea pins at this time. Since they are an official Pinterest partner, Jill believes it’s a feature that will likely be offered in the future.
Later offers the advantage of being able to see all your channels on your scheduling calendar at one time to know where your content is going and when it will be published on each channel.
Later App for Pinterest and Instagram: What Sets Later Apart from Competitors?
There are many scheduling tool options out there people can choose from. Jill believes Later is set apart from the rest for several reasons.
Later.Com is a Visual-First Platform
Social media is all about images and videos. That’s where all the engagement is right now. Later is perfectly optimized for that. You can drag and drop, move things around, and easily view how your Instagram or Pinterest feed is going to look.
The Later App Later is Very Intuitive
Later has several efficiency hacks built into the tool to benefit the user. One is the ability to save your top searched keywords on Pinterest or your commonly used hashtags for Instagram and add them to your created content with just one tap of a button.
Later.com Makes Digesting AnaLytics Data Easy
Later has available Pinterest click tracking and advanced analytics for Instagram that are digestible and easy to understand.
You can just tap a button and it will rank things by different metrics. You don’t have to be a scientist to understand what’s going on with your account. — Jill Watson
Related: Why Pinterest Analytics Should be Defining Your Pinterest Strategy
If you are ready to try out Later and take the next step to explore, Jill says there is a comprehensive free package available. She suggests heading over to Later.com for the best entryway for exploring the different features.
There are additional plans available with more advanced features, depending on your business size and marketing needs. But you can check it out by first signing up for a free plan to see how it fits for you.
Many thanks to Jill for joining us here on the Simple Pin Podcast to educate our listeners on the options available on Later’s platform.
We would love to hear from you. Feel free to tag us on Instagram @simplepinmedia or Jill @latermedia so we can answer any follow-up questions you have.
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