In today’s digital age, managing social media platforms has become an essential aspect of growing one’s online presence and brand engagement.

With the plethora of available social media management tools, it can be overwhelming to decide which one fits your needs best. In this article, we will delve into a comprehensive comparison between two of the leading social media scheduling and management platforms – Later.com and SocialBee.

We will analyze the features, pricing, ease of use, and unique selling points of each tool, with the goal of providing you with the necessary information to make an informed decision when choosing the right solution for your social media marketing needs. So, buckle up as we navigate through the world of Later.com and SocialBee, and explore which platform is best suited for your brand and audience engagement strategies.

What is Later.com

Later.com is a social media marketing platform that enables users to plan, schedule, and analyze their social media content across multiple platforms.

Its visual content calendar simplifies social media management for businesses and individuals alike. The website offers features like post scheduling, analytics, and collaboration tools to help users optimize their social media presence effectively.

What is SocialBee

SocialBee is a social media management tool designed to help businesses and individuals automate their social media posts and content.

It provides users with content curation, scheduling, and analytics features to grow their online presence and boost engagement. By using SocialBee, users can save time and increase their social media efficiency.

Why Use?

Later.com and SocialBee are both social media management tools that help businesses and individuals manage their social media accounts effectively. Here are some example use-cases for both platforms:

1. Content Planning and Scheduling: Both Later.com and SocialBee allow users to plan and schedule their social media content across various platforms, such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. This helps save time and ensures consistency in posting frequency.

2. Visual Content Preview: Later.com has a feature where users can preview how their Instagram feed will look before posting. This helps users maintain a visually appealing grid and create engaging content.

3. Automatic Post Scheduling: SocialBee has a feature that automatically schedules posts based on the user’s preferred posting times, using their custom category-based scheduling. This optimizes post timing for higher engagement.

4. Hashtag Recommendations: Later.com provides hashtag suggestions for Instagram posts, helping users reach a larger audience and increase engagement. SocialBee also has a similar feature where users can save their favorite sets of hashtags for future use.

5. Content Recycling: SocialBee enables users to recycle and repurpose popular evergreen content by automatically reposting it. This helps keep the audience engaged and maximizes content exposure.

6. Social Media Analytics: Both platforms provide analytics to track the performance of social media accounts, including post engagement, follower growth, and the best times to post content, assisting users in making data-driven decisions to optimize their content strategy.

7. Social Media Calendar: Both Later.com and SocialBee offer a visual social media calendar, making it easy to plan and organize content for different platforms and keep track of the posting schedule.

8. Collaboration: Both platforms allow teams to collaborate in managing social media accounts, enabling multiple users to plan, create, and schedule content with an approval workflow. This is particularly useful for social media managers working with a team or for agencies managing client accounts.

In summary, Later.com and SocialBee help users streamline social media management, enhance their content strategy, save time, increase engagement, and grow their online presence. They both offer valuable features, with Later.com having a strong focus on visual content for Instagram, and SocialBee offering a more comprehensive approach with content recycling and category-based scheduling.

Features

Later.com is a social media scheduling and planning platform designed to help users streamline their content management, curate a visually appealing feed, and analyze the performance of their social media posts. The platform primarily focuses on Instagram, although it also extends support for Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.

One of the main features of Later.com is the visual content calendar, which allows users to drag and drop images and videos into their desired posting time slots. This feature ensures that users can efficiently manage and organize their content in a way that best captures their unique brand aesthetics. Additionally, Later.com offers a user-friendly interface and bulk upload options, making it a breeze for users to schedule content according to their preferred frequencies.

Another standout feature is Later’s “Linkin.bio,” which turns the user’s Instagram profile link into a clickable mini-website, making it easier for followers to locate specific products, articles, or pages without losing engagement. Linkin.bio is a valuable addition for e-commerce, bloggers, and businesses looking to drive traffic from Instagram to external landing pages.

Lastly, Later.com provides insightful analytics that help users better understand their post performance, follower count, and engagement data. These statistics allow businesses to track their growth, as well as identify the best times to post and the type of content that garners the most engagement.

SocialBee, on the other hand, is a comprehensive social media management tool that aims to help users save time and generate powerful results through content sharing, scheduling, and audience engagement. It is compatible with popular social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Instagram.

A key feature offered by SocialBee is its advanced content organization and scheduling capabilities. Users can sort their posts into categories and create custom posting schedules for each category, ensuring a rich and diverse stream of content. Moreover, SocialBee integrates with several URL shorteners like Rebrandly, Bitly, and RocketLink, allowing users to create branded and trackable short links for their posts.

SocialBee’s “evergreen” content recycling feature is another standout aspect that separates it from competitors. This feature eliminates the need to manually repost valuable content, as SocialBee automates and recycles previously shared posts, increasing their longevity and visibility on social media.

Additionally, SocialBee provides users with in-depth audience analysis and social media listening tools. These insights help businesses identify potential leads, automatically follow or unfollow accounts, and track important conversational topics in their industry. By actively engaging with their target audience, users can grow their social media presence and increase online visibility.

In summary, both Later.com and SocialBee offer content management, scheduling, and analytical tools to help businesses effectively manage their social media presence. While Later.com focuses more on visual planning and Instagram capabilities, SocialBee offers a broader range of features, including content recycling and advanced audience analysis.

Pros n Cons

Later Pros:

1. Visual content planning: Later.com offers a user-friendly platform for planning and scheduling content, including a visual content calendar.

2. Instagram-specific features: Later.com provides the ability to schedule Instagram Stories and offers analytics and insights specifically tailored to Instagram.

3. User-friendly interface: The platform is known for its easy-to-navigate interface, making it simple to manage multiple social media accounts and schedule posts.

4. Auto-publishing: For Instagram Business accounts, Later.com can automatically publish posts on the user’s behalf.5. Integrations: The platform supports a variety of other social media platforms, such as Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter, allowing users to schedule content across multiple networks.

Later Cons:

1. Limited support for some platforms: While Later.com supports other social networks besides Instagram, certain features and in-depth analytics are limited to Instagram.

2. Pricing: The platform’s features are tiered by pricing plans, with some advanced features only available in the paid plans.

3. No built-in content curation: Later.com does not have built-in content curation features for discovering and sharing relevant third-party content.

4. Limited video scheduling: The process of scheduling video content can be more cumbersome compared to image scheduling.

SocialBee Pros:

1. Content categories: SocialBee allows users to organize their content into categories, which can help in achieving a more balanced and strategic content mix.

2. Recurring posting: Users can set up recurring posts to maximize content visibility and engagement, particularly for evergreen content.

3. Content curation: SocialBee offers built-in content curation features for discovering and sharing relevant third-party content.

4. Customizable scheduling: The platform provides flexible scheduling options, allowing users to tailor the posting schedule according to their preferences.

SocialBee Cons:

1. No auto-publishing to Instagram: SocialBee does not offer the option to automatically publish posts on Instagram, which is often important for businesses.

2. Limited analytics: SocialBee’s analytics capabilities are more limited compared to other social media management tools.

3. User interface: Some users find the platform’s interface less intuitive and harder to navigate than competitors like Later.com.

4. Pricing: Like Later.com, SocialBee offers tiered pricing plans, with different features available at different levels, which may not suit all budgets.

How to setup Later.com

Setting up an account on Later.com is a straightforward process that allows you to manage and schedule your social media posts effectively.

Here are the step-by-step instructions on how to set up your account and get started:

Sign up for an account:

1. First, visit the Later.com website (https://www.later.com) and click on “Get Started for Free” to create a new account. You can sign up with an existing Google, Apple, or Facebook account.
2. Alternatively, you can sign up with your email address by clicking on “Sign up with Email” and providing the required information.
3. Then, click on “Create Account.”

Choose a plan:

1. Later offers various plans, including a free plan with basic features.
2. Browse and select a suitable subscription option based on your requirements. You can always change your plan later at any time.

Connect your social media accounts:

1. Once your account is created, you will be asked to connect your social media profiles, which could include Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or LinkedIn.
2. Click on each platform’s icon and follow the prompts for authorization.
3. After connecting your social media accounts, you will be redirected to the Later dashboard.

Customize your calendar view:

1. In the calendar section, you can customize your view based on your preferences.
2. Choose to view your content in a monthly, weekly, or daily format.
3. You can also select specific social media platforms to set as default in your calendar.

Upload media:

1. Before scheduling posts, you need to upload your media. Click on “Media Library” in the left sidebar menu and drag and drop your images or videos, or click the “+” button to browse and upload files from your computer.
2. You can also import media from Google Drive or Dropbox by clicking on their respective icons.

Schedule posts:

1. To schedule a post, simply drag and drop media from your media library onto the calendar. A window will appear where you can customize your caption, add hashtags, mentions, and emojis.
2. You can also add a location, tag people, or add a first comment.
3. Finally, click on “Schedule Post” to set the date and time. Once scheduled, your post will be automatically published to the social media platform at your preferred time.

Analytics:

1. Take advantage of Later’s analytics feature to track and improve your social media performance.
2. Click on “Analytics” in the left sidebar menu to access various data, including performance metrics, audience growth, and post insights.
3. Utilize this information to refine your content strategy.

By carefully following these steps, you can efficiently manage and schedule your social media content, allowing you to save time and grow your online presence.

How to setup SocialBee

SocialBee is a social media management platform that allows you to schedule and optimize your content across multiple social networks. Setting up SocialBee involves creating an account, connecting your social media profiles, setting up content categories, and scheduling posts for your social media channels.

To get started with SocialBee, follow these step-by-step instructions:

Sign up for a SocialBee Account:

1. Visit the SocialBee website at https://socialbee.io/ and click the “Start Free Trial” button.
2. You will be prompted to enter your name, email address, and a password.
3. After entering the required information, click “Sign Up” to create your account.

Connect your social media profiles:

1. Upon signing up, you will be directed to the SocialBee dashboard. To connect your social media profiles, click on the “+ Add Profile” button on the left sidebar.
2. You will be presented with a list of social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest. Select the platform you wish to connect and follow the on-screen prompts to authorize SocialBee to access your account.
3. Repeat this process for all social media profiles you want to manage using SocialBee.

Set up content categories:

1. Content categories help you organize your social media content and maintain a consistent posting schedule. To create content categories, go to the “Categories” tab located in the left sidebar.
2. Click “Create Category” and give your new category a name and description. You can also assign a specific posting schedule for each category by clicking “Add Schedule” within the category settings.
3. Continue creating categories based on the types of content you plan to share, such as Blog Posts, Tips, Images, or Videos.

Import or create content:

1. With your content categories set up, you can now add content to SocialBee for sharing. Go to the “Content” tab in the left sidebar and select the category you wish to add content to.
2. You can manually create a new post by clicking “Add Content Item” or import content from a link or RSS feed using the “Import Links” or “Add RSS feed” options.
3. When creating content, ensure you include a caption, an image or a link if applicable, and select the social media profiles you want the content to be shared on.

Schedule your content:

1. Once you have added content to your categories, you can customize your posting schedule by visiting the “Schedule” tab in the left sidebar.
2. Use the “Time Slots” feature to set specific times for each category to be posted, or use the “Autopilot” feature to have SocialBee automatically schedule content based on your preferred frequency and posting times.

After completing these steps, your SocialBee account will be set up and ready to manage your social media content. Keep track of your social media performance using the “Analytics” tab in the left sidebar, and make adjustments to your content and scheduling as needed to optimize your social media presence.

Main Differences

Later.com and SocialBee are both popular social media management platforms that cater to the needs of businesses, influencers, and content creators. Although they offer similar features such as automated scheduling, analytics, and content organization, there are key differences that set them apart and make them suitable for different users and purposes.

Later.com has a strong emphasis on visual content planning, primarily for Instagram marketing. It offers a user-friendly calendar that allows you to visually plan and curate your content, ensuring the right balance of photos, videos, and stories. Later.com also offers features like autoposting, hashtag suggestions, and a media library where users can store and organize their media files.

On the other hand, SocialBee is more multipurpose and supports a broader range of social platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Google My Business. It provides advanced social media content curation and automation features, such as content categorization, evergreen recycling, and performance analysis, that are designed to save time and generate steady audience engagement.

Ultimately, the choice between Later.com and SocialBee depends on the specific needs and goals of the user. Later.com is particularly suited for visual content creators who want a more focused Instagram marketing strategy, while SocialBee caters to those looking for a more comprehensive social media management solution across multiple platforms.

Pricing Comparison

Later.com is a social media scheduling tool that assists users in organizing and scheduling content across multiple platforms. They offer four main pricing plans to cater to diverse users’ needs, from individuals to businesses.

The pricing tiers are:

1. Starter Plan:

• Priced at $18/month (billed monthly), the Starter plan is suited for solopreneurs or small businesses.
• With this plan, you can manage one social profile per platform, schedule up to 60 posts per profile per month, and access additional features like basic video and photo editing.

2. Growth Plan:

• At $33.33/month (billed annually) or $40/month (billed monthly), the Growth plan targets growing businesses.
• It allows management of three social profiles per platform, schedules up to 150 posts per profile per month, and includes advanced features like hashtag suggestions and Instagram story scheduling.

3. Advanced Plan:

• For $66.67/month (billed annually) or $80/month (billed monthly), the Advanced plan is designed for established businesses.
• With support for up to six social profiles per platform and up to 250 posts per profile per month, this plan also includes additional features like in-depth analytics and team management tools.

SocialBee offers three pricing plans:

 

1. Bootstrap

• ($29/month, or $24.2/month when billed annually)
• Suitable for solopreneurs and startups, offers posting on up to 5 platforms and 10 content categories, and limited features.

2. Accelerate

• ($49/month, or $40.8/month when billed annually)
• Suitable for growing businesses, offers posting on up to 10 platforms and 50 content categories, and includes additional features.

3. Pro

• ($99/month, or $82.5/month when billed annually)
• Suitable for larger teams or agencies, offers posting on up to 25 platforms and unlimited content categories, with all features included.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is the main purpose of Later.com and SocialBee?

A: Later.com and SocialBee are social media management tools designed to help users schedule, manage, and analyze their social media content across various platforms efficiently.

Q: What sets Later.com and SocialBee apart from each other?

A: While both tools offer similar features, Later.com is geared towards visual content planning, making it ideal for users who rely heavily on images and videos. SocialBee, on the other hand, focuses on providing a more holistic approach to social media management with features like evergreen content recycling and audience management.

Q: Which platforms do Later.com and SocialBee support?

A: Both Later.com and SocialBee support major platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. However, Later.com has unique features tailored specifically for Instagram users, such as a visual content planner and Instagram Stories scheduling.

Q: Are there any free plans available for either tool?

A: Yes, both Later.com and SocialBee offer free plans with limited features, making them accessible to businesses with smaller budgets. Each tool also provides a variety of paid plans with more advanced features depending on your needs.

Q: How do analytics and reporting features compare between Later.com and SocialBee?

A: Later.com offers in-depth visual and performance analytics specifically for Instagram, helping users understand their content’s performance and optimize their strategy. SocialBee has more basic analytics across the different supported platforms. However, it supports integration with tools like Google Analytics for more comprehensive insights.

Q: Can I bulk upload and schedule content on both Later.com and SocialBee?

A: Yes, both tools allow users to bulk upload and schedule their content across the supported platforms, streamlining their social media workflows.

Q: Which tool is better suited for teams and collaboration?

A: Both Later.com and SocialBee offer team collaboration features such as multiple user accounts, user roles, and access permissions. However, the extent of the collaboration features may vary depending on the plan you choose in each tool.

Q: How does content recycling work in SocialBee, and is it available in Later.com?

A: Content recycling in SocialBee allows users to repurpose and re-share evergreen content automatically, ensuring their social media profiles stay active and engaged. Later.com does not offer a built-in content recycling feature, but users can manually re-schedule their posts.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the debate between Later.com and SocialBee ultimately hinges on the specific needs and preferences of users when it comes to managing their social media presence.

Both platforms offer valuable features and unique advantages that cater to a diverse range of businesses, content creators, and social media marketers. While Later.com focuses on streamlining visually-driven content planning and scheduling with its calendar interface, SocialBee encompasses a more versatile set of tools to help users build and maintain an engaging social media presence.

Ultimately, there is no one-size-fits-all solution as both platforms provide unique benefits. Users seeking a visually-oriented platform that excels in image and video content would likely find Later.com more appealing, while those looking for more comprehensive features and automation capabilities may prefer SocialBee.

The key to making the right choice is to carefully assess the individual requirements, goals, and budget constraints of your social media strategy and selecting the platform that offers the features that best align with your objectives.

Regardless of the choice made, both Later.com and SocialBee provide valuable resources to empower users in their quest to develop and maintain a strong social media presence in today’s dynamic digital landscape.