Write, schedule and publish social posts

Social Media posts belong to the selected Personal or team context. Select New post to start a draft. A draft needs nothing else to exist; it opens on its own page, where every part is changed in place and saved as you type.

First steps

Until a team has an account, a post and a post that was scheduled, the Social Media page starts with First steps: add the accounts you post to, write a post, and choose when it goes out. A step is marked Done as soon as the team has done it, from the website, the app or by another member. Hide takes the steps off the page for you in that team; they are not shown again there. Members who cannot write posts do not see them.

The Social Media page and its lists

The Social Media page starts with what needs doing: Ready to post lists posts whose time has come for accounts the team posts to itself, and Needs attention lists posts that failed and accounts to reconnect. Below them are the next scheduled posts (Coming up), the latest Drafts, current campaigns and the posts that went out most recently (Posted recently). Each section shows a few posts and links to its full list.

The row above them opens the full lists: Ready to post, Scheduled, Drafts, Posted, Needs attention and Archived, each with its count. A full list has a search for a post's name and text, and pages of 25 posts with Previous and Next.

Archiving

Posts leave the Social Media page as newer ones arrive, so a long history does not need tidying. To take a post out of every list, choose Archive in its More menu, or select posts in the Drafts, Posted or Needs attention list and select Archive. An archived post is kept, with its text, images and history, and is listed only under Archived. Restore returns it to the list it came from. A post that is scheduled or ready to post cannot be archived; unschedule it first.

Choosing accounts

Post to lists the team's accounts. A new post goes to every account; switch one off to leave it out. When the team has no accounts yet, a team admin can select Add an account there; the account is added to the team and switched on for that post, and the post opens again. An account that needs reconnecting is not included and cannot be added until it is reconnected; see Connect social accounts. Magpie does not post to X and Instagram accounts: it reminds the team to; see Post to X and Instagram yourself.

The post's text and each account's own text

Every account gets the text under Text unless you write separate text for it. Under the text, each account that uses it has a character count as that platform counts it. Each account also has its own section with the image shape it will receive and an approximate preview.

When a post goes to more than one account, Write separate text in an account's section opens a box with the post's text in it. As soon as you type there, that account has its own text: its count moves under the box, and later changes to the post's text no longer reach it. Leaving the box without typing closes it again. Use the post's text, or emptying the box, removes the account's own text and returns it to the post's text.

Platforms count differently. Bluesky counts characters as they appear on screen, so an emoji made of several parts counts once. Mastodon counts every link as 23 characters, or the length its server reports. The limits shown come from each platform's rules and, for Mastodon, from the account's server.

Link is optional and adds a web address to the post. Bluesky and LinkedIn show it as a link preview card when the post has no images. Mastodon, X, and any post with images, receive the link at the end of the text unless the text already contains it. Instagram does not make links in captions clickable, so it is not given the link.

A post in a campaign sends its link with the campaign's tracking parameters while the campaign's Link tracking is on; see Group posts into campaigns.

Insert snippet adds saved text where the cursor is. Snippets are listed and written under Snippets. A post keeps its own copy, so editing a snippet does not change posts that used it.

Problems that stop a post going out

Magpie checks each account against its platform's rules: text length, number of images, image descriptions and whether the account is still connected. A problem appears in that account's section and just above the button in Publish, where it links to the account. A post with no text and no images shows Add text or an image. once, above the button. The problems are checked again each time your text saves, and the button stays unavailable until every problem is solved. A missing image description is a note unless a team admin turned on Require image descriptions in Social Media settings.

Scheduling and publishing

Publish asks one question: when should the post go out? Choose an answer, then select the button below it.

• At the next posting time shows the date and time the post would go out: the next of your posting times that no other scheduled post in the same context has taken, counted from now. The button is Add to queue. This is chosen first when you have posting times.
• A date and time I choose shows a date, time and time zone directly under it. The button is Schedule, and the post goes out at exactly that time; posting times are not used. The time zone is stored with the post once it is scheduled. A post whose time has passed, such as one that failed, starts at tomorrow at 9:00 AM.
• Now publishes straight away. The button is Publish now.

The date and time fields appear only when you choose A date and time I choose, so changing them never affects the queue. Without posting times, a team admin sees a link under it to set them; it opens Social Media settings in a new tab, and the post needs a reload afterwards to offer the next free time. If the post cannot be scheduled, the page says why and keeps the answer, date and time you chose.

If you select the button while your text is still saving, Magpie saves it first and then schedules the post with that text.

Magpie publishes a scheduled post at its time; nobody needs to be signed in. For X and Instagram accounts, Magpie sends a reminder at that time instead; see Post to X and Instagram yourself. Unschedule returns the post to a draft.

Team admins set posting times, such as 10:00 AM on weekdays in a chosen time zone, under Posting times in Social Media settings. Add posting time takes a time, a time zone and one or more days; Every day, Weekdays and Weekends tick those days at once. Each time is listed once with its days. Change edits its days, time or time zone, and Remove removes it on every day. A queued post is an ordinary scheduled post: Unschedule and Change time work the same way. Changing or removing a posting time does not move posts already scheduled for it.

Publish now asks you to confirm the accounts, then publishes in the background within about a minute. The page shows each account's state as it changes.

By default only team admins can schedule and publish. A team admin can let everyone who can edit publish by changing Who can schedule and publish in Social Media settings. In Personal, you can always publish.

After publishing

Each published account shows a link to the post on that platform. If an account fails, the post shows the reason and Retry for that account. Accounts that already published are not posted again by a retry. Temporary problems, such as a platform being unavailable, are retried automatically a few times first. When a post finishes with a failure, Magpie emails the person who scheduled it and the person who wrote it.

If publishing stopped part-way for a platform that cannot tell Magpie whether the post was created, the account is marked failed with a request to check the account before retrying.

Publish log lists every attempt for every account, with its time and result.

Each account that has published, or was marked as posted, shows the text it was sent. A post that every account has published cannot be edited. In a partly published post, the accounts still waiting can be edited, and changes do not reach the accounts that are done. Duplicate as a new draft in the More menu copies its text, link, images and accounts into a new draft.

Removing a post

Until something is published, Delete post in the More menu deletes the post. A scheduled post that is deleted will not be published.

Once a post is published to at least one account, the More menu has two choices. Remove from Magpie, keep on social accounts removes the post from Magpie and leaves the published copies on the social accounts. Delete from social accounts and Magpie deletes the published copies on platforms that allow it, then removes the post from Magpie. If a platform does not confirm the deletion, the post is kept in Magpie.

Sharing from other features

These pages have a button that starts a Social Media draft with the item's name, public address and, for Store products, its images:

• a sent Newsletter email with a web copy (Share to Social Media)
• a published podcast episode (Share episode)
• an active Store product (Promote on Social Media)
• a public or unlisted Calendar event (Share event)
• an open Hiring job (Share job)
• a published Appointments booking page (Share booking page)

The draft's text names the item; it is a starting point to rewrite.

In the Magpie app

Social Media in the app lists the selected Personal or team context's posts. Show switches between Ready to post (while posts are ready), Drafts, Scheduled, Published and Needs attention (failed and partly published posts). Times are shown in your time zone.

New opens the composer: the post's text, an optional link and campaign (typing a campaign's name puts the post in it, and a new name starts one), the accounts to post to, and images. Switch on Its own text to write an account's own text; switching it off returns the account to the post's text. Each account shows a character count as its platform counts it, and problems that stop the post going out appear as you write. Add from Your images adds images from your library; tap each one you want. Choose photos can pick several at once, and Take photo takes one. Photos are saved to your Images library first, then added to the post. A post can have up to 20 images. Each image has alt text and can be moved up, moved down or removed. Save stores the post as a draft.

On a post, Edit opens the composer. Under Publish, people who can publish choose a date, time and time zone and select Schedule (or Change time), Add to queue or Publish now. Magpie publishes the post; the app does not need to stay open. Each account shows its state, the reason it failed and Retry where it can be retried, and Open on the platform once it is published. The menu has Duplicate as a new draft, Unschedule, Retry failed accounts and the same removal choices as the website, with the same permissions as above.

Accounts posted to by hand have their own actions in the app; see Post to X and Instagram yourself. Connecting accounts, Social Media settings, posting times, snippets, campaigns' pages, archiving, the Social Media calendar, image shapes and focal points are not available in the app.

Calendar

Calendar in Social Media shows scheduled and published posts by month or as a list, in your time zone. A team admin can also show them in Calendar for the whole team with Show posts in Calendar in Social Media settings. That setting is off by default.

To see posts from Personal and your teams on your own Personal Calendar, choose Your posts (posts you wrote or scheduled) or All posts in Calendar settings → Social Media posts. Social Media settings shows your choice under Posts on your Personal Calendar. See Use Calendar.

For problems with a connected account, see Connect social accounts. For other help, see Contact support.