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Are you thinking about using a social media scheduler to help plan your social media content? Heard people talking about Later, Planoly and Plann and not really sure what you should be using. In this post, I’m going to share why Later is the best free Instagram scheduler.
9th August 2023: This blog post was originally published on the 15th May 2019. Since then Later has changed its pricing. I still absolutely love Later as a social media scheduler and it is the social media scheduler I still use in my business. However, the free account is now limited to 5 posts per month.
This page includes affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, I may earn a commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you.
Later has a visual feed
When it comes to Instagram your feed is super important. Of course, there are other ways of creating content on Instagram (Stories and Instagram Lives) but having a feed that truly represents your business or brand is important. Now not so long ago social media schedulers weren’t designed with Instagram in mind. Schedulers like Hootsuite added Instagram as a platform, but you would have to upload content on post at a time and you would have no idea how your image would look next to your other images. Now if you want a cohesive Instagram feed that isn’t helpful, which is why some social media schedulers designed a feature exclusive with Instagram in mind. That feature is called a visual feed and it means as you are adding content you will see exactly how that new post will sit amongst the content you have already published.
Now this feature isn’t exclusive to Later. It is also available on Planoly and Plann, but I’m mentioning it first because no matter what social media scheduler you decide to use for Instagram please make sure it allows you to see how your feed will appear.
And if you don’t already have a visual style for your feed you need to check out this blog post – How to create a cohesive Instagram feed.
Later allows you to upload images and videos via your mobile phone or your desktop
At the time this blog post was written Instagram is still a mobile-only app. That means that you have to use a mobile phone to post. You can visit the Instagram website, but you can’t post. Now maybe you prefer working on your computer, maybe you edit your pictures on your computer or maybe you are taking pictures with a DSLR so your pictures are saved on your computer? Your reasons for using a computer don’t matter. The simple fact is having the ability to go straight from your computer to Later is extremely helpful.
You can build up a library of images within Later to use for future posts
A feature I love about Later is the media section. You can upload all of your images into Later so they are there waiting for you to schedule. There is a tagging function, which is extremely helpful if you have a lot of images or follow a theme. For example, my feed follows a black quote, photograph, yellow quote, photograph patter. I am able to tag images with these headers so they are easily accessible in the future.
Another thing I especially like is once you have created a post with an image a number is added onto the image in the library. That way you can clearly see what you have used, what you haven’t used and if you have used something you can see how many times you have used it.
You can save your hashtags groups in Later
Hashtags are another important aspect of Instagram. You should definitely be taking advantage of increasing the reach of your posts, by using hashtags. Later makes it super easy for you to save groups of hashtags that you can then quickly add onto a post. For example, whilst I have some core hashtags I use different hashtags for a #MotivationalMonday posts versus a #FridayReads book review. I can spend the time every now and then updating my hashtags list, give them appropriate names and then it is just a click of a button to add them onto a post.
Later will post your Instagram feed content directly for you.
Please note: This feature is only available for accounts that are business accounts.
If you are someone who wants to be able to batch your content creation in advance and have the posting happen automatically then the autoposting feature will be important to you. The autoposting feature means that you can technically set your posts and then forget all about them. Later will post your Instagram feed content to Instagram without you having to touch another button.
You can use Later to schedule up to 5 posts a month free of charge (15 if you use my referral link)
Who doesn’t love a company that follows a freemium model? Later has a free plan for beginners. The free plan allows you to schedule 5 posts per month, which is a far cry from the 30 posts you were allowed back in 2019 when this blog post was originally written. However, if you sign up for Later via my referral link >> CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR LATER VIA MY REFERRAL LINK << then you will receive an extra 10 free posts per month so you can schedule 15 posts a month. If you post once every day you’ll be able to schedule a fortnight at a time and if you post every other day that will enable you to schedule a whole month. This is a great way to get started and if you fall in love with it as much as me you can always upgrade to a paid version.
Later isn’t just for scheduling Instagram
When it comes to Instagram schedulers the two most similar to Later, and often recommended, are Planoly and Plann. Both of them offer the free beginner plan and both have a visual feed. However, what separates Later from Plann and Planoly is that Later can schedule more than just your Instagram.
You can use Later to also schedule to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and TikTok. This can be very useful if you are also scheduling content on these platforms. On the free plan, you can schedule 50 posts to Twitter and 30 posts to Facebook and Pinterest.
WILL YOU GIVE LATER AGO?
I have just shared 7 reasons why Later is the best free Instagram scheduler. Using an Instagram scheduler, like Later, is a great way to help you manage your content creation process effectively so I really hope this blog post has enabled you to see the benefits and give a scheduler a go.
If you would like to give Later a go for yourself, don’t forget if you sign up with my referral link you will receive an extra 10 free posts per month. You can sign up by referral link by clicking here.
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