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Planning posts you publish yourself

Manual slots hold a time for a network Social Studio cannot publish to, and record where you posted it.

Updated

A manual slot is a planned post for a channel Social Studio cannot publish to. You hold the time, write what you plan to say, publish it yourself on the network, then mark the slot done and paste the URL so it can be counted later.

Social Studio never claims it published a manual slot. Marking one done records that you did.

BEFORE YOU START

  • A workspace you can reach. Manual slots belong to a workspace.
  • Nothing else. There is no permission verb on manual slots beyond workspace access, no plan limit, no provider and no credits.
  • The name of the channel you are planning for. It is free text, so anything you would recognise works.

STEPS

  1. Open the workspace and choose "Manual slots", or go to /app/workspaces/{workspace}/manual-slots.
  2. In "New manual slot", type the channel or network, for example Mastodon or Snapchat.
  3. Optionally write the copy you plan to post.
  4. Choose "Add slot". The slot appears as "planned".
  5. Publish the post yourself on that network.
  6. Come back and choose "I published this" on the slot. Paste the URL of the post when asked, or leave it blank.

WHAT YOU SHOULD SEE

The slot's chip changing from "planned" to "published manually". On mobile the same slot is edited through "Record outcome", which lets you set the status to planned, published elsewhere or cancelled, and record where it was published.

WHAT THIS WILL NOT DO

  • It does not publish anything, anywhere, ever. That is the entire point of the feature.
  • It does not check the URL you paste beyond requiring a plain http or https address.
  • It does not connect the channel or make it publishable. If a channel becomes publishable later, a manual slot for it stays a manual slot.
  • It is not the same thing as a recommended slot. Nothing on this page suggests when to post; it records what you decided.

IF IT DOES NOT WORK

  • "That slot could not be added. Check the channel name and try again." usually means the channel field was empty.
  • "That slot could not be marked as published." leaves the slot as it was.
  • "The external URL must be a plain http or https address." means the address you pasted is not one, or uses a scheme the product will not store.
  • "You do not have access to this workspace." means ask an administrator for access.
  • On mobile, "The request did not complete, so it is not known whether that outcome was recorded." means reload the list and check before repeating.

COMMON QUESTIONS

Will a manual slot show up in analytics?

Recording the URL is what makes that possible later. The slot itself carries no metrics.

Can I cancel a slot?

Yes, by setting its status to cancelled. On the web that is done through the same outcome control; on mobile it is an option in the status dropdown.

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