Our guide to posting content and approving content

How to create a post

Step 1

Opening the new post modal

Open the new post modal by clicking into a cell on the Calendar, or by clicking Add new post within the Pinboard area.

Step 2

Adding content

Open the new post modal by clicking into a cell on the Calendar, or by clicking Add new post within the Pinboard area.

Now that the new post modal is open, we can start adding our content. Use the 'add to' area to tell ContentCal which channels the post should be added to. For example, you may choose just Facebook, or Facebook + Twitter.

(Since this is a new post, the post state will be DRAFT. This means that it's still in draft format. It will not publish until you are ready. We will get to this a little later.)

🌇 Add images or videos using the Add media button.

🔗 Add links by pasting or typing them into the main content area. Links can trigger Link Previews, a rich format type for more engaging content.

🏷 Add Category Tags to your content by clicking into the Category Tags area. If you don't have any Category Tags added then no worries, you can add these in after.

Step 3

Adding Publish Date and Publish Time

Open the new post modal by clicking into a cell on the Calendar, or by clicking Add new post within the Pinboard area.

When you have finished adding content, it's time to add in the Publish Date and Publish Time. (If you clicked on a Calendar Cell to start your post, the Publish Date should be filled in for you).

If you leave the Publish Date field blank, the post will get added to the Pinboard and not the calendar. Therefore, to create Pinboard posts, simply leave the Publish Date field empty.

If you leave the Publish Time field blank, ContentCal will schedule the post at a pre-selected time for you. This is suitable for when your posts aren't time specific.

Note: It's also possible to add backdated posts to the Calendar. Simply add your post with a time/date from the past to keep you Calendar up to date with all historical activity.

When you are ready, add the post using the blue 'Add post' button.

So just to recap...

• Leave the Publish Date field blank to add the post to the Pinboard
• Leave the Publish Time field blank if you would like a pre-selected time to be added to the post.

At this point in time your posts will still be DRAFTS. Open Setting a post as Approved to learn how to get your posts to APPROVED so that they can be published...

Setting a post as Approved

Note: Setting permissions for approvals is available for accounts with 2 or more users.

Note: If you are on the Hobbyist (Free) plan, or a plan with 1 user, you are automatically a Moderator

In How to create a post we mentioned that the post is a DRAFT. In order for it to publish onto social networks, e.g. Twitter, it needs to be set to APPROVED.

The permission that each user has will determine how a post can be approved...

🙋‍♂️ If you are an Approver

To approve your own posts, simply click the Tick icon when viewing in Week View or click Approve if you've opened the post.

To approve other peoples posts, also click the Tick icon when viewing in Week View or click the Approve button if you've opened the post. Note: you will be approving Pending posts here, which will appear with an orange ribbon on top of the posts.

Your posts should now have a green ribbon at the top, rather than a blue ribbon. It is now approved and will be published on the Publish Date at the Publish Time.

🤓 If you are a Creator

As you are a Creator, you will need your posts approving for them to be published to social media channels. When you are happy with your posts and want to send them for approval, simply click the Paper Airplane icon when viewing in Week View, or click the Send for approval button if you've opened the post. This will change your post state to PENDING APPROVAL.

Colored ribbons: What they mean

Blue ribbon: This is a DRAFT post. A draft post will not be published to social channels.

Orange ribbon: This is a PENDING APPROVAL post. This is a post which needs approving by an Approver.

Green ribbon: This is an APPROVED post. An approved post will be published on the Publish Date at the Publish Time.

Navy blue ribbon: This is a PUBLISHED post- meaning ContentCal has published it to a social network.

Red ribbon: This post has FAILED. This post was not successfully published to your social network.

Cancelling / rejecting an approved post

Cancelling a post in ContentCal is done via the 'Reject' action. You may wish to add in a comment before rejecting a post, to give your team better context as to why you rejected it.

Prevent all content from being published

For times when you need to put everything on hold, you can use the 'Pause all content' action from within the 'Actions' button in the main 'Content' area.

Note: Pause all content is available on the Advanced plan and above.

Exporting content

You can export your content at any time using the Export to CSV action from within the Actions button in the main 'Content' area.

It is quickest and easiest to export from Month View. There is currently no option to export all historic posts so we recommend doing it by month instead.