Disclosure: Agency Guacamole didn't receive any compensation for this blog post. We just really like using Later.
“Bring your brand to your audience—where they document their lives, one tiny square photo at a time.” -Justin Rezvani/Fast Company
I love this quote and guess that’s what made Instagram so popular: sharing life’s moments in real-time.
For brands, however, the luxury of being spontaneous and document “one photo at a time” is just not realistic. Depending on the size and reach of the brand, managing a successful Instagram account can be almost as intense and time-consuming as publishing a magazine or putting together a catalog.
Use the grid preview option to move your photos around and create the best overall vibe. You can also swap out different photos to see what works best together.
Team AG handles social media content for several really cool brands and we’ve built an internal content management system that allows us to source, plan and approve content on an ongoing basis and with multiple stakeholders.
There are quite a few Instagram tools that help do that, and we use a platform called Later (formerly known as Latergramme).
Later works for us because it’s affordable (with a free option for starters), allows for multiple accounts and team members and has an easy “search & repost” images feature. Plus, their team recently introduced a cool “grid preview” to review and optimize multi-photo layouts for mobile.
Looking for ways to streamline and manage your Instagram content flow?
Here’s an easy-to-follow, free guide built around Later that we hope you find straight-forward, reliable and fun.
Step 1. Plan out the month’s content. You can do this through a separate document/spreadsheet and add in all important events, holidays, campaigns, content themes, promotions, etc.
Step 2. Find the right images to curate. You can build a media library using your own images and saving them to Later’s cloud-based file system (easy as drag-and-drop).
TIP: Make a habit of this. Say you take images while traveling or at a fun brunch—upload those pictures the same day so you don’t forget about them.
Your feed doesn’t have to consist of only your own creations; Instagram is a social network after all, so feel free to curate images using Later’s “search & repost” feature—but be sure to credit the source when posting.
Step 3. Add in copy for your posts. We love brainstorming as a team when looking at content for the next 30/60/90 days. But each of us has his/her own taste, humor and life experiences, so for us the best way to maintain a consistent brand voice is to edit and tweak all copy in advance. Then the approved copy goes with the appropriate posts and voila—gets scheduled in Later.
We hope you found our three-step Instagram content creation/management guide helpful.
Think of your favorite brand on Instagram—what might seem like a collection of random shots that by coincidence look good together is actually hard and persistent work of an editorial team.
And like any activity that requires consistency and long-term investment, you have to have a plan and be prepared in order to succeed.
Once you have your own plan in place, don’t be afraid to get creative and have fun.
As always, we’d love to hear from you: What apps you are currently using to manage your Instagram community? Have any tips of your own for managing Instagram content workflow? Tell us in the comments!
-Mila // Team AG