How to schedule social media posts (or publish them right now): the full composer walkthrough

Every post you create in Octonity ends one of three ways: it goes out immediately, it goes out at a time you (or the recommendation engine) picked, or it waits as a draft until it's ready. This guide walks through all three — how to publish to multiple social networks at once, how to schedule Instagram posts, and how the "★ Best slot" button answers the eternal "when is the best time to post?" question with your own data instead of a generic chart.

In short: you write the post once in a single composer dialog, select the channels it should go to, then choose "Post now", "Schedule post", or "Save as draft" from the footer. Everything you publish or schedule lands on the Content page afterwards, where you can track it by status.

Prefer to see it rather than read it? This is the whole flow, recorded from the real product — it plays on its own, and you can step back with "Previous" at any point:

Before you start: connect a channel

The composer publishes to channels you've connected. If you haven't connected any yet, the composer tells you plainly: "No connected channels yet. Connect one from Accounts first." So step zero is connecting at least one social account — Instagram, Facebook, or whichever networks you publish to. Once that's done (see publishing features for what each network supports), everything below applies.

Where the composer lives

The composer is a dialog, not a separate page — it opens on top of whatever you're doing, so you never lose your place. You can open it from three spots:

• The "Create post" button in the top bar — the primary filled button on the right side (it's hidden on narrow mobile screens).
• The "New content" button on the Content page.
• The social home and calendar page.

A quick tour of the composer

From top to bottom, here's what you're working with:

• Caption box — the big text area with the placeholder "What would you like to share?". This is your post text.
• Channel picker — your connected accounts as avatar tiles, each with a channel badge. Selected tiles get a brand-coloured ring.
• Media — click "Add media", then "Drag & drop" a file "or select" one from your computer. Once added, "Remove media" takes it off again.
• "AI Assistant" — "Need help writing a caption?" — drafts or improves your caption, and "Suggest hashtags" proposes hashtags to go with it.
• "Post tags" — "Add #tag, press Enter". These are for your internal organisation (filtering and reporting), not hashtags in the caption.
• "Campaign" — optional, defaults to "— none —". Group the post under a campaign if you run them.
• "First comment" — "Auto-posted as the first comment on your Instagram / Facebook post". This is the standard place to park your hashtag block or a link so the caption itself stays clean.
• "Auto-reply to comments" — attach an existing rule to the post, or "Create a new rule for this post", with the option to "Also DM the fan privately". (New to auto-replies? We have a full guide.)
• "Post previews" — a per-channel rendering of how the post will actually look on each selected network.

Two rules the composer enforces

One brand per post. The first account you select locks the post to that brand; accounts belonging to other brands grey out with the tooltip "Locked to brand "X" — start a new post to change brand." If you manage several brands — agencies, this is the first thing that trips people up — the fix is simply one post per brand. Cross-posting to many channels of the same brand is exactly what the composer is for.

Instagram needs media. Select an Instagram channel without media and the composer tells you: "Instagram posts need at least 1 media item. If media isn't ready yet, you can save this post as a draft." That's a tip, not a dead end — the draft route below is built for exactly this case.

Part A: publish now

The fastest path, start to finish:

1. Open the composer with "Create post".
2. Select your accounts — as many channels as you like, within one brand.
3. Write the caption, or ask the "AI Assistant" for help and "Suggest hashtags" for tags.
4. "Add media" — required if Instagram is among the selected channels.
5. Check "Post previews" to see the per-channel rendering.
6. Click "Post now" — the outlined button on the left of the footer's split control. Its tooltip says it all: "Publish to every selected channel immediately."

That's publishing to multiple social networks at once: one caption, one media set, every selected channel, one click.

Part B: schedule for later

Scheduling is the same steps 1–5, with a different finish:

6. Set a date and time in the footer's date/time field (tooltip: "Scheduled publish time").
7. Click "Schedule post" — the filled, brand-coloured button.

The post publishes automatically at that time. You don't need to keep the browser open or your computer on — the scheduler runs server-side.

★ Best slot: let the engine pick the time

Next to the date/time field sits the "★ Best slot" button, and it's the most interesting control in the composer. Click it and the recommendation engine looks for the next-best publishing time for that brand and those selected channels, fills the date/time field for you, and — crucially — tells you where the answer came from, with one of three confidence labels:

• "your audience" — the recommendation is personalised to your own engagement data. This is the strongest signal: it's when your followers are actually active, not an industry average.
• "curated" — based on curated knowledge for your kind of channel when your own data isn't deep enough yet.
• "research" — the general-research fallback. The button says plainly when it's falling back to research rather than your numbers, so you're never left guessing whether a time is personal or generic.

Best slot needs a brand and at least one selected channel to activate — it can't recommend a time for nobody. The honest answer to "what's the best time to post?" is it depends on your audience, and this button is that answer operationalised: the more you publish, the more the label shifts from "research" to "your audience".

Part C: save as a draft

Caption ready but the image still with the designer? Click the caret on the right side of the split button (tooltip: "More publish options") and choose "Save as draft". The hint next to it — "Skips media check" — is the important part: a draft saves even for an Instagram post that has no media yet. Write the caption now, add the picture later, schedule when it's complete. That's the whole workflow for "the post is half-ready".

Where posts go after you hit the button

Everything lands on the Content page — the same place the "New content" button lives. It lists every post with status filters — Scheduled, Live, Draft, Failed, Needs approval — in a Grid view or List view, with channel and tag filters and a search box that matches titles and captions.

So after you click "Schedule post", close the dialog and look at Content: your post now appears under Scheduled. A few honest notes about the other statuses:

• Needs approval — if your brand requires approval, a post can land here instead of publishing straight away. How approvals work is its own topic.
• Failed — real networks occasionally reject posts. When a channel rejects one, it shows as Failed and you can retry it, rather than it silently disappearing.

FAQ

Can I post to multiple social networks at once?

Yes — select several channel tiles in the composer and one "Post now" or "Schedule post" publishes to all of them. The one constraint: all selected channels must belong to the same brand. The first account you pick locks the brand; for a second brand, start a second post.

How do I schedule Instagram posts?

Open the composer with "Create post", select your Instagram channel, write the caption, and add at least one media item — Instagram requires media. Then set the date/time in the footer (or click "★ Best slot") and hit "Schedule post". If the media isn't ready yet, "Save as draft" skips the media check so the caption can wait safely.

What is the best time to post on social media?

Honestly: it depends on your audience, and a personalised answer beats any generic best-times chart. That's what "★ Best slot" is for — it recommends the next-best time for your brand and selected channels, and labels whether the recommendation comes from "your audience" (your own data), "curated" knowledge, or general "research". Once it says "your audience", trust it over anything you read in a blog post — including this one.

Do scheduled posts publish if I close the browser?

Yes. Scheduling is handled server-side, so posts go out at the set time whether your browser, laptop, or coffee machine is on or not.

Why is my post in "Needs approval" instead of Scheduled?

Your brand has approvals enabled, so posts wait for a sign-off before they publish. That's a feature for teams, not an error — see our approval workflow guide for how the review step works.

One post, your way

Write once, choose your ending: "Post now", "Schedule post" with "★ Best slot", or "Save as draft". Create a free account — no card required — connect a channel, and schedule your first post today.