Publish is the main source to create, collaborate, and schedule content for your social media channels. You can post new messages immediately, schedule them for the future, or save them as drafts. You are able to create posts for multiple accounts, and channels, at once.
This article will outline some best practices for using Publish for your social content management by different use cases.
Best Practices in Publish
Below are the best practices you should follow for all Publish use cases. For a comprehensive list of channel-specific options in Publish, learn more about Channel-Specific Options in Publish.
Alt Text
Alternative text, or Alt text, is a short written description of an image. It improves accessibility by describing an image with words for visitors who are unable to see it. It also helps with search engine optimization (SEO). It is recommended to always use Alt Text with your images. Alt text is available for Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. When attaching images, click Edit alt text to add to each image.
Bit.ly
Link tracking provides valuable information and analytics about your social content. Link tracking can directly show the relationship between your posts and desired results. By connecting your Bit.ly account to Meltwater, you can automatically shorten and track any attached link you publish. Then, within your Bit.ly account, you can utilize Link Click analytics to review the engagement with the links in your post.
When adding a link, you will see an option to Shorten links, which will automatically use your connected bit.ly account.
More information on connecting your Bit.ly account to Meltwater, learn more about Connecting and Shortening Links Using Bit.ly.
Tags
Tagging your content is a great way to track your outbound message trends. Since you can apply more than one tag per post, it allows for easy segmentation when running reports. It is highly recommended that you tag every post.
Learn more about Tagging Content.
Example tag types
Campaign tags - tag all posts within a single campaign
Product tags - segment by the product and/or service you offer
Geo/Language tags - if you post the same message in different languages or geographies
Protip: You can also filter by tag both on the Calendar and Feed view, to only see the specific content you need to. If you forget to tag a post, you can use the Brand Posts type filter in Conversations to apply a tag after it is already posted.
Dragging and Dropping Media Assets into the Composer
Gone are the days of clicking on the media icons or upload files one by one. Simply select multiple assets and drop them in at once, streamlining your workflow and saving valuable time.
To drag and drop media assets, follow these steps:
Click the Engage drop-down in the left-hand navigation bar
Select Publish
Click Create
Select Post
Navigate to the designated area in the Publish composer (General Composer or channel specific)
Select the images or videos from your desktop
Drag and drop them into the designated area in the Publish composer
Repeat steps 6 & 7 as needed
Technical Requirements
Each tab in Publish specifies the file types that can be uploaded for different platforms.
Example: LinkedIn supports PDF, DOC, and PPT files via drag and drop.
Best Time to Post
Best Time to Post is an AI-powered tool designed to help you pick the optimal time to schedule and post social content.
Meltwater regularly collects and synthesizes data on all social posts and their engagement both published from Meltwater and native social channels. This data forms the backbone of our algorithm, ensuring a wide-reaching and comprehensive understanding of social media interactions.
We refine this data to meet each social media channel's specific requirements. Engagement patterns on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, TikTok, and YouTube are each distinctly modeled. We are able to calculate the expected engagement for each hour of the day, providing a unique engagement model for each day of the week per social channel.
This empowers you with actionable insights to strategically time your posts for maximum impact and engagement.
Select the Engage drop-down in the left-hand navigation bar
Click Publish
Select Create Post
After selecting your social accounts and composing your post, navigate to the Post Time section
Select Schedule date and time
Click Best Time
A new pop-up featuring a bar chart and up to five (5) suggested times to schedule the post will populate
Select a recommended time for your post
Click Schedule
Approval Processes
Team collaboration is an essential component of content creation. Having another member of your team review social content before it's published can help ensure your tone of voice and branding stays consistent. Learn more about Assigning Posts for Approval.
Drafts
The Drafts section is where all of your work in progress lives. These are the pieces of content that have been created but are not yet ready for publishing.
Whether you are still waiting on approval, have not finalized the copy, need more creativity, etc., drafts offer a flexible way to plan content in advance while signaling to your team that more work and actions need to be taken.
When creating posts, you have the option to Save as Draft or Schedule a Draft.
Scheduled drafts will live on the Calendar.
Note: When viewing the Calendar, scheduled drafts will appear with a mango-colored ribbon atop the postcard.
Unscheduled drafts will live under Drafts in the workbench pullout.
You do not need to schedule a date and time for your draft, though it is recommended. If you do not select a date and time, your draft will only appear under Drafts in the workbench pullout. Since there’s no date and time associated with an unscheduled draft, we cannot place it on the calendar.
Moving Out of the Draft Stage
To move a draft out of the draft stage and either schedule for later or post now, follow these steps:
Hover over the drafted post
Select Edit
Navigate to the Post Time section of the post-creation workflow
Select Now or Schedule date and time.
Select Post Now or Schedule
For an Unscheduled Draft you have the option to edit or simply drag and drop the post to schedule for the desired time on the calendar.
Drafts Use Cases
Evergreen Content: Evergreen content is content that remains relevant regardless of the time of year. Drafts are also a great way to store content that you can use whenever you need to add something to the calendar quickly.
Content Sharing: If you publish to multiple markets, goes, or countries, drafts can be a perfect place to share content. By creating content and storing it in drafts, team members can copy that content, and localize it for their specific market.
Approvals Workflow: Any rejected or unapproved content will be stored in drafts. (More below)
Exporting
Get a detailed, shareable view of each post on your calendar, including content, status, and history, so your team has all the context they need.
To export a Post Detail PDF, follow these steps:
Click the Engage drop-down in the left-hand navigation bar
Select Publish
In the top right-hand corner, click Download
Select PDF - Post Details
A new tab will open, and your PDF will begin loading. The time required depends on the number of posts in your calendar.
Once the export is ready, a pop-up will prompt you to save the file.
Enter a name
Save it to your desktop
The exported PDF will reflect the selected date range, accounts, and filters. Posts will be displayed in chronological order, based on their scheduled or published date.
Examples
Single-Channel Post:
Cross-Channel Post:
Audience Restrictions
Audience restrictions allow you to limit who sees your post based on age, country, region, city, language, etc. This option is available for both Facebook and LinkedIn. Learn more about Customizing your Facebook Audience.
Audience restrictions use cases:
Location: combine this with the language of your post to customize your message per area
Ex. Posting once in English to all of Canada, and the same post in French to only Quebec
Age: content that is only available for certain ages
Ex. Alcohol, giveaways, etc.
A/B testing: create a slightly different message for separate groups, then track the analytics to see which performs better.
Managing Publish Alerts
Publish Alerts (or System Alerts) notify you when something in the product requires your attention. Delivery methods can be Email, Meltwater web, Slack or
Microsoft Teams.
To find and edit System Alerts, follow these steps:
Click Alerts in the left-hand navigation bar
Select System Alerts
To edit a System Alert, hover over the alert
Click Edit
Make all necessary changes
Select Save
Types of System Alerts
Publish Assignment
Alert me when a post I created, assigned, or am assigned to approve is added to an approval workflow or reassigned to me as the next approver in Engage Publish.
Publish Approval
Alert me when a post I created, assigned, or approved receives an approval or final approval in Engage Publish.
Publish Needs Changes
Alert me when a post is marked as ‘Needs Changes’ in Engage Publish. This applies to posts I created, previously approved, or am assigned to.
Publish Failed Post
Alert me when a post fails to publish in Engage Publish. This applies to posts I created, assigned, or approved.
Publish Successful Post
Alert me when I have a new successful post in Engage Publish. This applies to posts I created, assigned, or approved.
Publish Notes
Alert me when a note is added to a post in Engage Publish. This applies to posts I created, assigned, or approved.
Publish Deleted Post
Alert me when a post is deleted in Engage Publish. This applies to posts I created, assigned, or approved.
Mobile App
Expanding on the Approvals Workflow, the Engage Mobile App allows users to approve or reject assigned posts on the go. Under the My Tasks stream, a user can quickly approve or reject content, without needing to be at a computer. This helps speed up content creation and review time.
Learn more about The Meltwater Mobile App.
FAQs
What if I select more than one social channel?
What if I select more than one social channel?
The recommendation will take all selected social channels into account. This is based on the volume of those channels. Meaning, if Facebook has a higher engagement percentage than LinkedIn, naturally, the recommendation will favor Facebook to maximize engagement.
In which time zone does the Best Time to Post display?
In which time zone does the Best Time to Post display?
The Best Time to Post recommendations is shown in the time zone that corresponds to the user's account settings.
💡 Tip
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