Social media campaign planning software for marketing agencies

What a social media marketing plan maker should produce

The words social plan mean two different things: a strategy and a set of posts. This planner builds the posts and leaves the strategy to each client's themes.

A strategy says who the brand speaks to and what it wants to be known for. A post plan says what goes out, on which network, with which words and picture, and who approved it. A search for a plan maker turns up tools for both. This one covers the post plan, one plan per post. The strategy half lives in Themes, where each client keeps its positioning angles, and every post is filed under one of them.

A plan holds the theme, the post name, the networks, one caption, a set of hashtags, the creative and a brief for the team. The planner itself does not post, queue posts on a network or report how a post performed. Once a plan is approved, Launch sends it to Facebook and Instagram, now or at a set time, and hands LinkedIn and X over as a task to post by hand.

Plan one post for four networks, step by step

The builder has four steps, Theme, Copy, Creative and Review, and the same post can target any mix of the four networks.

1. 1

   Name the post and pick the networks

   Choose the client's theme, name the post and select any mix of Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and X. One network always stays selected.

2. 2

   Write one caption and one hashtag set

   Start from a caption saved in the Copy library, or write a new one. Hashtags sit in a field of their own, and a fit line under the caption reports each selected network's count against its limit as you type.

3. 3

   Attach the creative

   Choose a picture or video from the client's creative library. The builder asks for at least one before the review step, and an Instagram post cannot go without one.

4. 4

   Compare the previews

   Flip the preview between the selected networks to see how the same post sits in each layout, with the caption, the tags and the first creative.

5. 5

   Submit for approval

   Confirm the reviewer, add a note if the reviewer needs one and submit. The reviewer signs off the caption, the hashtags, the network list and the artwork as one unit, and the plan is locked while it waits.

6. 6

   Publish and record it

   After approval, Launch posts to Facebook and Instagram, now or at a time you choose, and opens a task with a post for each of the other networks. Post those yourself, then have someone with the Publish permission mark the launch as published, adding the link to the post if there is one.

Caption, hashtag and picture rules for each network

Limits differ by network, and a post that fits one can be over on another. The planner keeps the four rule sets in one place and measures the post against each.

A caption and its hashtags are measured together, because that is what the network receives. X counts every link written with https://, http:// or www. as 23 characters, however long it is, and counts emoji and Chinese, Japanese and Korean characters twice, so a caption that looks short can be over. The planner counts a bare domain such as example.com as typed, so a caption with one can read a few characters lower than X will count it. Facebook's limit is long enough that it rarely decides anything. The last column describes the launch checks: the builder itself asks for one creative whatever the network.

The previews are representative layouts for Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and X. Use them to judge the composition and the opening line. Crops, truncation and interface details stay up to each network.

Writing one caption that survives more than one network

One caption is the fast path. It works best when you know where it will bend.

Approval, the Launch task and recording the publication

Launch sends the Facebook and Instagram posts, while a person posts on LinkedIn and X by hand. The planner's job is to make both short and the record accurate.

Submitting a post opens a review task in Projects for the reviewer, who decides from Team > Approvals or the plan's page; ticking off the task does not approve the post. If the reviewer asks for changes, the written note goes back to the submitter. Change the caption, hashtags, networks or artwork of an approved post and its approval goes stale, so it has to be approved again before it can launch.

Launch runs its checks on the approved post: each network's caption limit, the hashtag counts, and a picture wherever the network needs one. It then freezes a JSON export of the spec that holds one post for each network, with its caption, hashtags, creatives and character count. Publish now or Schedule posts sends the Facebook and Instagram posts from the client's connected Page and account, and a task carries the networks the app cannot post to.

A plan can be launched once. To publish a second version, duplicate the plan and change what needs changing; the copy starts from the same theme, caption and creative.

Keeping a month of posts organized by theme and client

The planner lists posts for one client at a time, each filed under its theme, so a month reads as a set of campaigns and not a flat feed.

Two tabs matter most on a busy day. Needs approval lists posts waiting on a reviewer, and Ready to launch lists posts that are approved as they stand and have no launch under way; once one starts, the post moves to the Launch page. A post reads Draft until its launch is recorded, then Published.

A duplicate starts as a draft with no approval and an empty brief, so each one is judged on its own.

The planner stops at the approved plan, and Launch publishes it. How a channel performed is a reporting question, and the social media report layout shows how such a report can be organized; it holds illustrative figures and does not connect to any network.