Save Time Working With Clients and Team Members in Later

Social media management is rarely something you do alone. Even if you are a team of one, it’s likely that you collaborate with other people to achieve social success. That’s why Later has built-in tools to make collaboration with teammates and clients a breeze.

With this guide, you’ll learn how to save time while working with others to plan posts, create a content calendar, and analyze analytics.

Collaborating on content can lead to some amazing work. Working with others provides a fresh perspective and additional expertise. However, if you already work with a team, you know how important it is to communicate all the important project info so nothing gets misunderstood or lost in the process.

Here are Later's top four tips and tricks for communicating with collaborators when planning your posts.

Use Media Notes

Capture all the essential information for a media item within its Media Notes. You can attach a Media Note to any media item at any time. Simply select the item from the Media Library, hit Edit next to Notes, and enter your text.

This is a great place to store information your teammates or clients may need if they end up using the content, like context or image credit.

Learn more about Media Notes here.

Create Labels

Labels are another handy organizational tool that make collaboration easier. Labels are filterable, and when you set up labeling standards, your teammates and clients will be able to quickly filter and find the right media items.

Teams often use labels to note which media items are, or are not, approved for scheduling. To create approval labels in Later for Desktop:

1. Select Media then Manage Your Media from the side menu
2. Hover over any unapproved media item and select the checkmark in its top left corner
3. Select the Label button at the top of your screen
4. In the Add New Label text box, enter “For Review”
5. Select the +icon
6. Select Apply Labels

Now, follow the same steps to label the approved media items.

Now that your approval labels have been created, every time you add new media to your Media Library, simply choose the new items from your side library, hit Edit then Add next to Label, and select either the “For Review” or “Approved” label from the drop down menu.

With this workflow, whoever approves content can filter for the “For Review” label and know exactly what content is awaiting approval. On the flip side, whoever schedules can search “Approved” to have clarity on what is ready to post.

Add Calendar Notes

Leave comments, suggestions, and placeholders for your teammates with Calendar Notes. Calendar Notes appear on the Calendar page at a designated day and time.

Calendar Notes are an effective way to visually hold a place for an upcoming post. When your teammate or client views the note, they’ll know to take this placeholder into account with the overall content calendar.

Calendar Notes can also provide reminders and handoff information. Need to show someone when your audience is most likely to be online, or when not to schedule? Pop in a Calendar Note! They’re visible to all users.

To add a Calendar Note in Later for Desktop, press control and click, or left click on the Calendar.

Invite Contributors

Contributors is a content collection tool offered by Later that allows collaborators without a Later account or user privileges to send you images and videos by email or Later for Desktop.

With the Contributors feature, your creators can focus on the content while you and your team optimize posts for engagement and followers.

To get started on Later for Desktop, first select Media then Contributors from the side menu. There will be instructions here on how to set up your unique submission email.

Once the submission email is set up, invite collaborators to submit media items by adding their email addresses. Collaborators will be invited via their email to set up a Later account with a Contributor view. While a collaborator does not need a Later account to send you images, they will require a Later account with a Contributor view to send videos.

Any media items submitted by collaborators will be available to add or discard before they’re included in the Media Library. When a media item is added, a “contribution” label is automatically applied, making it easy to search for anything from your contributors.

Check out this guide to learn more about Contributors.

When you work with others, it's important to show the upcoming posts that are scheduled to be published. This way, your clients and colleagues can approve the plan and know what to expect in the next week or month.

Later has tools to help you collaborate with anyone, whether they’re users or not. Our top two suggestions are:

1. Sharing an Instagram calendar
2. Inviting users into an Access Group

Share Your Instagram Calendar

When you need to share your planned Instagram posts with someone who doesn’t have a Later account, try the Calendar Preview.

The Calendar Preview is a shareable URL that contains an overview of upcoming Instagram posts in Later. To keep all your content secure, the link automatically expires 48 hours after it is generated.

To access your Calendar Preview from the Calendar page:

1. Ensure only your Instagram account is toggled on within your Social Set
2. Select Preview from the top of your Calendar
3. Select Share Calendar beneath your Visual Instagram Planner
4. Select the Copy Link button to automatically copy the URL
5. To exit the widget, select Done

Once the URL is copied to your clipboard, send it to anyone by pasting it into a Slack message, email, or any other communication tool.

Invite Users to the Access Group

Want to share other scheduled content, like Facebook posts or your Linkin.bio page? Add new users to an Access Group and they’ll have access to all of Later’s scheduling and content management tools. Users cannot manage social profiles, users, or billing, so your account will always remain secure.

When the content calendar is ready for review, let those in your Access Group know. All they’ll need to do is login and head to the Calendar page. If you’re looking for reviews on your Linkin.bio page, direct them to click in from the side menu.

To learn more about Access Groups, check out this guide.

Keeping collaborators looped into outcomes is just as crucial as collaborating in the planning stages. It’s likely that your colleagues and clients are just as invested in post and content performance as you. Here are two quick ways to share analytics with collaborators.

Share Performance Reports

With one click of a button, download a comprehensive Instagram performance report from the Later Analytics dashboard. Simply select the Share Performance Report button from the top of your Instagram’s Analytics Overview page and share the report with anyone you wish.

You also have the option to download individual analytics reports for any of your profiles by selecting the Export CSV button next to any category under the Analytics dashboard.

Review Analytics Within Later

Users can review the analytics reports of any Access Group they join. Later automatically creates visual displays of your analytics up to a full year (depending on your plan).

You can collaborate with users and non-users with Later. For approvals, share high-level content reviews and analytics exports with anyone who doesn’t have access to your Later account. For more hands-on collaboration, invite new users to an Access Group to plan, publish, and analyze outcomes together.

The best way to supercharge collaboration is to work directly with users in Later. Check out these guides on Social Sets and Access Groups to learn more.

An Introduction to Social Sets

Effectively manage all your profiles by adding, organizing, and scheduling with Social Sets by Later.

How to Efficiently Manage Multiple Brands With Access Groups

Learn how to use Access Groups to save time and protect your business’ content.