Creating, Editing and Deleting a Social Post
Through the My Activities section, you can post a social media message on up to 4 different social channels at once.
Follow these steps to access the social post capabilities:
1. Click on the Campaigns tab.
2. Select the My Activities option.
3. Find the Social Post panel.
4. Click the Create New button.
You’ll have 4 options for your simultaneous social post:
Twitter
Facebook
LinkedIn
Pinterest
If you have not authenticated any of these social media accounts to your Cision account yet, you will have the option to do so on this screen as long as your Cision user account has administrative privileges. To connect a social account for any channel listed on this page, click on the corresponding logo which will open a pop up with instructions to guide you through the connection process. If you already have social accounts linked, simply click the check boxes to add that social channel to the current social post.
NOTE: Users with standard privileges cannot connect social media accounts. If you need a change in your user privileges, please contact Cision Support.
Next, complete the form to create the social post.
1. Type or paste text in the window. Above the window, you will see how much room, in characters, you have left for your message. Character counts will be indicated for each social channel you have selected.
NOTE: A total of three @mentions may be included in your posts ONLY IF those accounts have mentioned you in the past seven days. These requirements are part of Twitter’s anti- spamming rules. If you include an @mention that does not meet these requirements, you will receive an error message.
2. You also have the ability to add an image or hyperlink to your post for most social networks. The LinkedIn publishing API does not currently allow images to be added to posts created in Cision. As a result, we recommend that you add a link/URL to the image when posting to LinkedIn. Also, if you add an image that is not supported by the Social Networks to which you are posting, the image will NOT appear in the post.
3. To associate your social post with a Campaign, select the name of your Campaign from the drop-down menu.
4. Select the time that your post should go out. Selecting the Now button will immediately post to the selected channels once you click Send. Click the Set Time button to designate a future time the post should go out.
5. Finally, click Send to confirm your choices. If Now is the scheduled time, the post will immediately go out to the designated channels. Otherwise, it will be scheduled to post at the designated time in the future.
NOTE: When posting to multiple social accounts, the character count will max out at the minimum character count allowed. Twitter has increased their character limit to 280.
Your scheduled or sent post will now be listed on the My Activities page and each social network post will be broken up into their own individual activity. In this view you will see:
Which social post (Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn) that you have sent or have currently scheduled.
The status of the post if it was scheduled or sent.
Additional post information such as Owner, Campaign, Date and Time, Notes, and Tags.
Including @Mentions in Twitter Posts
Up to three @mentions may be included in a single post. Each @mention will only be valid if the users/handle you are mentioning has mentioned your account during the past seven days. If any of the users/handles you mention have NOT mentioned you previously in the past seven days, the post will fail. The requirement that a user/handle mention you prior to you @mentioning them is a compliance required by Twitter.
Editing a Social Post
If you scheduled your social post, you will see an activity for each of the channels to which you have scheduled a post. You have the ability to Edit to contents of any post for which you have ownership.
Once you have verified that you have ownership of the post, follow these steps to Edit it if necessary:
You can find a social post in several ways, one of which is the keyword search field. To use the keyword search, enter a word or phrase enclosed in quotations, or a combination of words and phrases connected using simple Boolean Terms. Boolean Terms accepted by this field are OR, AND, and AND NOT all of which must be capitalized when used. NOTE: The keyword search looks through the Title and Notes fields of social posts.
Another option for finding a particular social post is to use the Title column in the bottom My Activities page.
If you have many Social Posts, Activities, and Email Distributions, you may prefer to apply filters to help you find the Social Post more quickly.
Click the upside-down triangle beside the name of the post.
Click the Edit option.
A modal will appear enabling you to Edit your post. Note that you can edit the Message contents of your post and the time that it is scheduled to go out, but you cannot change the Social Networks to which the message will post.
6. Click the Send button. Your Social Post has been edited and remains scheduled to go out at the designated time.
Un-scheduling and Deleting a Social Post
If you scheduled your social post, you will see an activity for each of the sites they are scheduled for. You have the ability un-schedule and delete any post of which you have ownership.
Once you have verified that you have ownership of the post, follow these steps to un-schedule and delete it if necessary:
You can find a social post in several ways, one of which is the keyword search field. To use the keyword search, enter a word or phrase enclosed in quotations, or a combination of words and phrases connected using simple Boolean Terms. Boolean Terms accepted by this field are OR, AND, and AND NOT all of which must be capitalized when used.
NOTE: The keyword search looks through the Title and Notes fields of social posts.
2. Another option for finding a particular social post is to use the Title column in the bottom My Activities page
3. If you have many Social Posts, Activities, and Email Distributions, you may prefer to apply filters to help you find the Social Post more quickly.
4. Click the upside-down triangle beside the name of the post.
5. Click the Un-schedule & Delete option.
6. You will receive a confirmation message confirming you want to delete your social post.
7. Click the Delete button.
Your social post is now removed and will not be sent out.
Identifying Failed Social Posts
If there was a problem with your social post, it will be labeled with a status of failed. Failed will also then show up as a choice under the Status filter in the left panel.
Social Post Statistics and Insights
Following a Social Post, you can see valuable insights about your message. You can see these insights for an individual post or for all posts when using the column view.
Viewing Insights for All Social Posts
At the bottom of the My Activities page, you will find a grid view describing data associated with each of your interactions. Within the grid, there are columns specifically dedicated to showing you Social Statistics for your posts made within the Cision Communications Cloud:
Likes: Reflects the total count of favorites for Twitter and total reactions for Facebook.
Shares: Indicates total shares for Facebook, total retweets for Twitter, and re-Pins for Pinterest.
Comments: The total number of comments for Facebook and Pinterest posts.
Followers: The total number of followers.
To access the grid view and the Social Statistics that can be included in it:
Locate the grid view of interactions at the bottom of the My Activities page.
If you do not see the activities described in a grid, click the Three Lines icon.
Click the Gear icon to customize your grid view.
Ensure that you have the Likes, Shares, and Comments columns selected.
Click the Save button.
NOTE: The Likes, Shares, and Comments columns will be added to the rightmost portion of your grid. You can drag and drop these columns to another area of the grid if you prefer so that they are more visible.
Viewing Insights for an Individual Social Post
To see Social Statistics insights about an individual post:
Use the Title column to find the post for which you want to see insights.
If you have many Social Posts, Activities, and Email Distributions, you may prefer to apply filters to help you find the Social Post more quickly.
Click the upside-down triangle beside the name of the post.
Click the View Details option.
A window will appear showing Social Statistics associated with the post.
Bulk Upload of Social Posts
You can leverage your extended campaign planning by scheduling up to 50 unique social posts at one time by uploading a .csv (comma separated values) file of your posts.
Bulk Scheduling Instructions
Click on the Campaigns tab.
Select the My Activities option.
Find the Social Post panel.
Click the Create New button.
Complete the form presented to upload social posts in bulk.
Select the Bulk post option.
2. Click the Sample .csv file link to download a template to use for entering the details associated with your upcoming social posts. Use the template to enter details for each social posts you want to schedule.
3. Click the Upload button and select the completed template file containing your posts. The bulk social upload will only accept .csv files. If you attempt to upload a file of another type, you will receive an error message.
4. All of the posts will go out according to the selected Time Zone. While the default Time Zone is based upon your user login settings, you can change the Time Zone.
5. If you want to associate all of the posts with a Campaign, select the desired Campaign from the drop-down.
6. If you are ready to proceed with bulk posting, select the Schedule button.
Bulk Social Post .CSV File Additional Information
Twitter, Facebook Page, and LinkedIn Company Page are supported for bulk social post scheduling only.
The scheduling will apply to the connected social networks within your account and the Data Group you’re working in.
Users can schedule up to 50 unique bulk posts at one time (1 header, and 51 rows, if you are working in a spreadsheet). This does not include if one post is going to all three social channels. For example, if you are scheduling one unique post to Twitter and Facebook, it would only count as one post.
The bulk schedule is assuming the first ‘row’ will be a header, so it ignores this row. Be sure to always have a header row in the .csv file that you are using, otherwise the post in the first row will not go out.
The file must be a .csv file type for the upload to be accepted.
The character limit follows that of the network(s) you are posting to. Only one post per time slot.
Do not include any duplicate messages. All posts must be scheduled in the future.
The time zone for all of the posts in your file is set in-app, on the pop-up for social bulk scheduling.
If the scheduling fails due to an error, no posts are scheduled.
There is a sample file on the pop-up for social bulk scheduling, we recommend using this file. When using this, you must delete the sample data rows.
The .csv file columns are ordered from left to right with details and formatting:
Social Network (required)
Format: TW; FB; LN
Definition: TW = Twitter, FB = Facebook, LN = LinkedIn Example: TW; FB (this will send the post to Twitter and Facebook)
At least 1 social network is required for posts.
If more than one social network is needed for a post, separate them with semicolon (;)
Bulk scheduler will only send to the authorized social accounts connected to your platform.
Date (required)
Format: YYYY-MM-DD
Example: 2017-10-31 (this will send the post on October, 31st 2017)
Tip: When formatting the date field in excel, this format is found under the UK settings.
Time (required)
Format: HH:MM
Example: 06:30 (this will send the post at 6:30 am)
Example: 14:15 (this will send the post at 2:15 pm)
Example: 20:45 (this will send the post at 8:45 pm)
Time is supported in 24 hour format.
For 1 digit hour, it must lead with a ‘0’ (example: 08:30)
The time is based off the time zone you select in the social bulk upload pop-up interface during the upload process.
Message (required)
Type or paste text in the window.
Above the window, you will see how much room, in characters, you have left for your message.
NOTE: @mentions cannot be included in Twitter posts in compliance with Twitter’s anti- spamming rules.
URL (optional)
Format: https:// or https:// URLs
URLs are supported for Facebook and LinkedIn posts. URLs are not supported for Twitter posts. You can always include a URL in the message field if needed for Twitter.
If a URL is included in a post where TW is one of the networks, the post will still go out, it will just ignore the URL.
Each network can support a URL or an Image URL, not both.
If you include both URL and Image URL for a post – Facebook will use the URL, LinkedIn will use the URL, and Twitter will use the Image URL.
Image URL (optional)
Format: https:// or https:// URLs
The image URL must end in image file type .jpg, .jpeg, .png, or .gif. NOTE: If you add an image that is not supported by the Social Networks to which you are posting, the image will be ignored in the post.
Image URLs are supported for Twitter and Facebook posts. Image URLs are not supported for LinkedIn posts. If your post is going to LinkedIn only, you can use the URL option to connect to an image.
If an Image URL is included in a post where LinkedIn is one of the networks, the post will still go out, it will just ignore the Image URL.
Each network can support a URL or an Image URL, not both.
If you include both URL and Image URL for a post – Facebook will use the URL, LinkedIn will use the URL, and Twitter will use the Image URL.
Example Bulk Social Post Outcomes When Using URLs and/or Image URL
Viewing Bulk Uploaded Social Posts
Each post contained in a Bulk Social Post upload will be listed individually in the grid view at the bottom of the My Activities page. The benefit of this is that you can manage each post individually by editing, un-scheduling, or deleting it.
If you have many Social Posts, Activities, and Email Distributions, you may prefer to apply filters to help you find specific Social Posts more quickly.
Editing a Social Post
If you scheduled your social post, you will see an activity for each of the channels to which you have scheduled a post. You have the ability to Edit the contents of any post for which you have ownership.
Once you have verified that you have ownership of the post, follow these steps to Edit it if necessary:
You can find a social post in several ways, one of which is the keyword search field. To use the keyword search, enter a word or phrase enclosed in quotations, or a combination of words and phrases connected using simple Boolean Terms. Boolean Terms accepted by this field are OR, AND, and AND NOT all of which must be capitalized when used. NOTE: The keyword search looks through the Title and Notes fields of social posts.
Another option for finding a particular social post is to use the Title column in the bottom My Activities page.
If you have many Social Posts, Activities, and Email Distributions, you may prefer to apply filters to help you find the Social Post more quickly.
Click the upside-down triangle beside the name of the post.
Click the Edit option. A modal will appear enabling you to Edit your post. Note that you can edit the Message contents of your post and the time that it is scheduled to go out but you cannot change the Social Networks to which message will post.
Click the Send button. Your Social Post has been edited and remains scheduled to go out at the designated time.
Un-scheduling and Deleting a Social Post
If you scheduled your social post, you will see an activity for each of the sites they are scheduled. You have the ability un-schedule and delete any post of which you have ownership.
Once you have verified that you have ownership of the post, follow these steps to un-schedule and delete it if necessary:
You can find a social post in several ways, one of which is the keyword search field. To use the keyword search, enter a word or phrase enclosed in quotations, or a combination of words and phrases connected using simple Boolean Terms. Boolean Terms accepted by this field are OR, AND, and AND NOT all of which must be capitalized when used. NOTE: The keyword search looks through the Title and Notes fields of social posts.
Another option for finding a particular social post is to use the Title column in the bottom My Activities page.
If you have many Social Posts, Activities, and Email Distributions, you may prefer to apply filters to help you find the Social Post more quickly.
Click the upside-down triangle beside the name of the post.
Click the Un-schedule & Delete option.
You will receive a confirmation message confirming you want to delete your social post.
Click the Delete button.
Your social post is now removed and will not be sent out.
Identifying Failed Social Posts
If there was a problem with your social post, it will be labeled with a status of failed. Failed will also then show up as a choice under the Status filter in the left panel.
Social Post Statistics and Insights
Following a Social Post, you can see valuable insights about your message. You can see these insights for an individual post or for all posts when using the column view.
Viewing Insights for All Social Posts
At the bottom of the My Activities page, you will find a grid view describing data associated with each of your interactions. Within the grid, there are columns specifically dedicated to showing you Social Statistics for your posts made within the Cision Communications Cloud:
Likes: Reflects the total count of favorites for Twitter and total reactions for Facebook.
Shares: Indicates total shares for Facebook, total re-Tweets for Twitter, and re-Pins for Pinterest
Comments: The total number of comments for Facebook and Pinterest posts.
Followers: The total number of followers.
To access the grid view and the Social Statistics that can be included in it:
Locate the grid view of interactions at the bottom of the My Activities page.
If you do not see the activities described in a grid, click the Three Lines icon.
Click the Gear icon to customize your grid view.
Ensure that you have the Likes, Shares, and Comments columns selected.
Click the Save button.
NOTE: The Likes, Shares, and Comments columns will be added to the rightmost portion of your grid. You can drag and drop these columns to another area of the grid if you prefer so that they are more visible.
Viewing Insights for an Individual Social Post
To see Social Statistics insights about an individual post:
Use the Title column to find the post for which you want to see insights.
If you have many Social Posts, Activities, and Email Distributions, you may prefer to apply filters to help you find the Social Post more quickly.
Click the upside-down triangle beside the name of the post.
Click the View Details option.
A window will appear showing Social Statistics associated with the post.
