sales-skills/sales-later

Later Platform Help

Helps the user with Later platform questions — from scheduling and visual content planning through Linkin.bio, analytics, Later Influence influencer campaigns, and the Reporting API.

Step 1 — Gather context

If references/learnings.md exists, read it first for accumulated knowledge.

Ask the user:

1. Which Later product are you using?

   • A) Later Social — scheduling, content calendar, Linkin.bio, analytics
   • B) Later Influence — influencer discovery, campaigns, content review, reporting
   • C) Both — integrated workflow
   • D) Not sure yet — evaluating Later

2. What do you need help with?

   • A) Scheduling — publishing posts, queue, auto-publish
   • B) Visual planner — grid preview, content calendar, drag-and-drop
   • C) Linkin.bio — shoppable landing page, Shopify integration, click tracking
   • D) Analytics — post performance, follower growth, best time to post
   • E) Team — roles, permissions, approval workflows
   • F) Later Influence — influencer discovery, campaigns, content review
   • G) API — Later Influence Reporting API
   • H) Integrations — Shopify, Canva, Unsplash, social platform connections
   • I) Billing — plans, upgrades, social sets
   • J) Something else — describe it

3. Which social networks?

   • A) Instagram (primary focus)
   • B) TikTok
   • C) Facebook + Instagram (Meta)
   • D) LinkedIn
   • E) Pinterest
   • F) YouTube / Snapchat / Threads
   • G) All supported networks

If the user's request already provides most of this context, skip directly to the relevant step. Lead with your best-effort answer using reasonable assumptions (stated explicitly), then ask only the most critical 1-2 clarifying questions at the end.

Step 2 — Route or answer directly

If the request maps to a specialized skill, route:

• Choosing between Later vs Buffer vs Hootsuite → /sales-social-media-management
• Influencer marketing strategy (not Later-specific) → /sales-influencer-marketing
• Sprout Social config → /sales-sproutsocial
• Social listening / brand monitoring → /sales-social-listening
• Email marketing → /sales-email-marketing
• Paid social ads → /sales-retargeting or /sales-b2b-advertising

Otherwise, answer directly from the platform knowledge below.

Step 3 — Later platform reference

Read references/platform-guide.md for detailed module documentation, pricing, integrations, and data model.

You no longer need the platform guide details — focus on the user's specific situation.

Step 4 — Actionable guidance

Based on the user's specific question:

1. Scheduling setup — connect accounts, configure auto-publish, set timezone, plan content calendar
2. Visual planning — grid preview strategy, aesthetic feed planning, carousel sequencing
3. Linkin.bio — page setup, Shopify product tagging, link button configuration, click tracking
4. Analytics — interpreting metrics, best time to post, competitor benchmarking, reporting
5. Team workflow — roles, approval process, collaboration best practices
6. Later Influence — campaign setup, influencer discovery, content review workflow, API integration

Gotchas

Best-effort from research — review these, especially items about plan-gated features and pricing that may change.

• Post limits on lower plans. Starter gets 30 posts/profile/month — that's just 1/day. If you're posting across multiple networks, you'll hit the limit fast. Growth plan (150/profile/mo) is the practical minimum for active brands.

• No social inbox. Unlike Sprout Social, Hootsuite, or Agorapulse, Later has no unified inbox for managing DMs, comments, or mentions. You'll need to manage engagement natively on each platform.

• Analytics gated to Growth+ plans. Starter plan gets only basic post metrics. Best time to post, follower demographics, hashtag analytics, and story analytics all require Growth ($45/mo) or above.

• Approval workflows require Growth+ plan. If you need team content approval, Starter won't work. Teams that need approval should start on Growth at minimum.

• No content recycling. You can't reshare or automatically recycle old posts like some competitors (Buffer, SocialBee, MeetEdgar). Every post must be created fresh.

• Image resizing not built in. When scheduling to multiple networks simultaneously, Later doesn't resize images/videos to fit each platform's format. You'll need to crop/resize externally before uploading.

• Platform connections require periodic re-authentication. Social platform API tokens expire. You may need to reconnect accounts every few weeks, especially Instagram and TikTok. If posts start failing, check connection status first.

• Notification-based posting for some formats. Instagram Stories, certain carousel types, and some TikTok formats may require you to complete publishing manually via a push notification rather than auto-publishing.

• Later Influence is separately priced. It's an enterprise product — not included in Later Social plans. Contact sales for pricing.

• Billing complaints are common. Later has a 1.3/5 on Trustpilot driven by billing issues — unexpected renewals, charges after cancellation, strict no-refund policy. Review your subscription settings carefully and document any cancellation attempts.

• Self-improving: If you discover something not covered here, append it to references/learnings.md with today's date.

Related skills

• /sales-social-media-management — Social media management strategy — publishing, scheduling, tool comparison (Later vs Buffer vs Hootsuite vs Sprout)
• /sales-influencer-marketing — Influencer marketing strategy — discovery, vetting, campaigns, ROI measurement
• /sales-sproutsocial — Sprout Social platform help — Publishing, Smart Inbox, Analytics, Listening
• /sales-social-listening — Social listening strategy — brand monitoring, sentiment analysis
• /sales-employee-advocacy — Employee advocacy programs
• /sales-do — Not sure which skill to use? The router matches any sales objective to the right skill. Install: npx skills add sales-skills/sales --skill sales-do

Examples

Example 1: Set up Instagram scheduling

User says: "I just signed up for Later and want to start scheduling Instagram posts for my ecommerce brand" Skill does:

1. Walks through connecting Instagram Business account
2. Sets up Linkin.bio with Shopify integration for shoppable posts
3. Configures content calendar with drag-and-drop scheduling
4. Shows grid preview workflow to plan aesthetic feed
5. Enables best time to post (Growth+ plan) Result: Complete Instagram scheduling setup with shoppable Linkin.bio

Example 2: Fix posts not auto-publishing

User says: "My scheduled posts keep showing up as notifications instead of auto-publishing" Skill does:

1. Checks if account type is Business/Creator (required for auto-publish)
2. Verifies platform connection is active and not expired
3. Identifies post types that require notification-based publishing (Stories, certain carousels)
4. Walks through re-authenticating the Instagram connection Result: Auto-publishing restored or notification-based workflow explained

Example 3: Set up Later Influence campaign

User says: "I want to run an influencer campaign using Later Influence to promote our new product line" Skill does:

1. Walks through Influencer Index discovery with relevant filters
2. Sets up campaign brief with deliverables and timeline
3. Configures content review workflow (draft → stakeholder review → approval)
4. Creates affiliate links per influencer for sales tracking
5. Sets up Reporting API connection to BI dashboard Result: End-to-end influencer campaign with tracking and analytics

Troubleshooting

Posts failing or freezing during scheduling

Symptom: Scheduled posts show as "failed" or never publish Cause: Expired platform connection, unsupported post format, or network API issue Solution: Check connection status in Settings → Social Accounts. Reconnect if expired. Verify the post format is supported for auto-publish on that network. Try scheduling a simple image post first to isolate the issue. Check Later's status page for outages.

Linkin.bio clicks not tracking correctly

Symptom: Linkin.bio shows fewer clicks than expected, or clicks don't match Google Analytics Cause: UTM parameters not configured, ad blockers reducing tracking, or page not loading properly on mobile Solution: Add UTM parameters to all Linkin.bio links (source=linkinbio, medium=social, campaign=your-campaign). Check that the page loads correctly on mobile. Compare Later's click data with GA4 link click events — Later counts page views while GA4 counts sessions, so some discrepancy is normal.

Can't resize content for different platforms

Symptom: Posting to Instagram + TikTok + Facebook simultaneously but images/videos look cropped or wrong aspect ratio Cause: Later doesn't auto-resize media for different platform requirements Solution: Create platform-specific versions of your content before uploading. Key dimensions: Instagram feed (1080×1080 or 4:5), Instagram Stories/Reels (1080×1920), TikTok (1080×1920), Facebook (1200×630 for link posts, 1080×1080 for feed). Use Canva (integrated in Later) to quickly resize one design for all formats.