How do I create and share/schedule a post?
IN THIS ARTICLE
In SocialPilot, you can create a post using various elements like text, links, images, videos, and GIFs.
How to create a post?
To create a post, you need to connect your social media account(s) from the Connect Account page.
To create a post:
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- Click on 'Posts' -> Create Post from the sidebar menu.
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Type in the text in the provided box.
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The content can be customized for each platform. The Original tab has the base content, switch to the individual platform tabs to edit the text, change images, hashtags, and more. You can also add the First Comment for Instagram by clicking on the comment button in the original tab or using the designated box in the Instagram tab.
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Choosing an Image:
- Click on the Add Media icon and choose an image from various options like Google Drive, Box, Dropbox, or an image URL.
- Alternatively, you can choose an image from the site/blog link you pasted in the text box.
- You can use the stock images available on the SocialPilot scheduler from the Unsplash integration.
Note: If you have entered the URL of a blog/site in the text box, you'll see a preview of all the images from that page. You can upload a maximum of 4 images to go along with one post on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr.
Note: If you want to change the image only from the link preview generated, hover over the image and you’ll see a camera icon with a plus symbol on it. Click on it and you’ll be able to upload your own image. This applies to text/link posts for LinkedIn only. For Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms, the post will be shared according to the o.g. meta tag set on the URL you use in the post. -
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Choosing a video:
- Click on the Video icon and select a video from your computer.
- You'll see a preview of your video where you can select a thumbnail from the options provided. (maximum 5 thumbnails will be provided)
Note: The 'Video Title' and 'Content Category' boxes will be available for Facebook posts only. - 5
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Choosing a GIF:
- Add GIFs to your posts from the same source where you can get your stock images from. Just click on the "Add media from external source" button and switch to the GIF tab, and you can pick from the options available.
Note: SocialPilot allows you to select either 4 images or a GIF or a video. You cannot select images, videos, and GIFs together.
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- Select account(s) from which you want to publish the post.
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Note: You will be allowed to schedule tweets to one Twitter account only (at a time). Twitter introduced new guidelines disallowing all third-party apps like SocialPilot to permit users to share the same post to multiple Twitter accounts at the same time. The new guidelines aim to "prevent people from exploiting several accounts for artificially amplifying a message." You can learn more about the guidelines here.
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Click on '
Add to Queue' to schedule your post according to your defined time slots.
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Click on ' Click on ' Share Now' option to publish the post immediately.
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Click on ' Share Next' option which will schedule your post at the next time available slot after the time you set it for schedule. For Example: If you are creating a post at 1:09 PM and according to your schedule, there's a time slot at 2:00 PM the post will be scheduled for 2 PM.
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Click on ' Schedule Post' option to schedule your post for a specific date & time (other than your defined time slots).
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Click on ' Repeat Post' to repeat this post for the selected account(s) a number of times over a particular time period.
Creating posts couldn't get any easier!
Let's have a look at how you can use these scheduling options.
How does the 'Add to Queue' option work for automatic scheduling?
You can assign multiple time slots for each day for each account from the Manage Accounts section.
As per the image, 14 posts are in queue - the first post will be published on Friday at 1:00 p.m; the 2nd post will be published at 10:00 p.m; the 3rd post will be published on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. If there are no posts in the queue after that, the slots in the schedule will remain unused.
How does the 'Schedule Post' option work?
By clicking on the 'Schedule Post' option, you'll see a popup window where you can select the date and time for publishing that post. If you want to repeat this post over a period of time, click on '+ Add Schedule.'
How to Stagger the Posting Times of the Same Post for Different Accounts?
Normally, scheduling the same post for several accounts together leads to the same content being published on all these profiles simultaneously. This might be a problem for a franchise or agency as their posts might appear repetitive across all their profiles.
To avoid this repetition, you can use the Stagger Post feature to spread the publishing time of the same post for different accounts uniformly over an interval.
The Stagger Post toggle appears during the selection of the date and time of scheduling. You can see this button only when you are scheduling the post for more than one account simultaneously.
When you switch the toggle ON from its default OFF position, you will be able to see a dropdown list with a number of time intervals.
You can select a particular time period between 15 minutes and 24 hours. Once you select an interval and click on Schedule, the publishing times of the post across accounts will be spread evenly at regular intervals of time.
Example: If you are scheduling a post for 10 different social accounts and select 1 hour stagger interval, your post will be published on each account at a difference of 6 minutes, starting from the date and time you had originally set. The order of the account for staggering the post publishing will be alphabetically chosen.
How does the 'Repeat Post' option work?
On clicking on the 'Repeat Post' option from the 'Add to Queue' drop-down, a pop-up will appear where you need to select how many times you want your post to be repeated and in how many days. Click on the 'Preview' button to view and edit the date and time of your repeated posts.
As you click on the 'Preview' button, SocialPilot will calculate the days and time accordingly and show you a schedule. You can customize these dates and times according to your preferences.
Just like Schedule Post, you can publish repeat posts at staggered intervals of time. You can activate the Stagger Post toggle and select the time intervals. In this case, your posts will then be published in a staggered manner and will be repeated at the frequencies you have set up for each account.
Click on the 'Schedule' button to share these repeated posts from your account(s).