Creating and editing a post
This page explains how to create a post manually, choose the time and accounts, and how to change or delete an already published post. Before you start, connect at least one social network account (a draft can be saved without accounts).
Create a post
- Open Posts and click + Add new post. The Create post page opens: the form on the left, the preview on the right.
- Fill in Content — the Post text field. A character counter is shown inside the field.
- Add Attachments (optional): click the upload area or drag files into it. You can also paste a picture from the clipboard (
Ctrl+V). - If you need a link, click Attach link and paste the page address (it must start with
http://orhttps://). Networks that support it receive the link as an attachment. Remove link removes it. - If needed, turn on Add UTM tags to the link (see UTM tags).
- In When to publish, choose the time (see Publish time).
- In Where to publish, select one or more accounts. The number of selected accounts is shown next to the title.
- If VKontakte is among the accounts, the Platform options block appears (see Settings for different social networks).
- Click Publish — the post is published at the chosen time — or Save draft — the post is stored without publishing (Drafts).
While attachments are uploading, the buttons are disabled and a message asks you to wait for the upload to finish. A post with no text and no attachments cannot be saved: "Add text or at least one attachment". If no account is selected, the post cannot be published ("Specify where to publish the post"), but a draft can be saved.
After publishing you return to the post list; after saving a draft, to the Drafts page.
Attachments
Click the upload area ("Click to select media (images, video, audio, files), or drag them here") or drag files onto the page. Accepted:
- images: PNG, GIF, JPEG, WebP;
- video and audio;
- files: PDF, Word, ZIP, text files.
You can reorder attachments by dragging and remove the extra ones.
Limits
- A post holds no more than 10 files: if there are more, the first 10 are taken.
- Every social network has its own limits on file size, duration and number of attachments, and on text length. If a file does not suit a particular network, it is skipped or publishing to that network fails (Instagram, for example, requires at least one picture or video). A summary is in Settings for different social networks.
- A picture with a side shorter than 100 pixels is rejected.
UTM tags
The Add UTM tags to the link switch shows the fields utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_content, utm_term. Non-empty tags are appended to the link. UTM only works for the post link (which must be set and valid), not for addresses pasted inside the text.
You can use macros in tag values: {social_code} is replaced with the full network name (vkontakte, facebook, odnoklassniki, instagram, telegram, max) and {social_short_code} with the short one (vk, fb, ok, ig, tg, max). This way one form gives different utm_source values for different networks.
Publish time
When to publish offers three options:
| Option | What happens |
|---|---|
| Now | the post is sent right after you click Publish |
| After 15 minutes | 15 by default; the Number of minutes list offers 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 or Own option where you type your own number. The time counts from the moment you click Publish |
| Custom | pick the Publish date and Publish time; a past date cannot be chosen |
You set the custom time in the time zone of your browser (the device ParrotPoster is open on). If you came to the form from a day in the calendar, "Custom" is preselected for that day at 10:00.
Interval between posts
Posting too often can get accounts blocked by social networks, so ParrotPoster keeps a minimum interval between your posts. If you schedule a post too close to another one, its publication time is shifted automatically. The interval is set in Settings → Posts, the Interval between posts in seconds field: from 1 to 3600 is allowed, and if no value is set, 60 seconds is used. The setting applies to manually created posts; in automation the interval is set in the pipeline publishing rules.
Preview
The post preview is shown to the right of the form. Switch between the selected networks to see the post formatted for each one ("Preview social network"). Until an account is selected there is no preview — a hint asks you to select at least one account. The preview is approximate: the final look depends on the social network.
Editing a post
Open the post in the list and click Edit (or choose Edit in the card menu). The Edit post page opens with the same fields as when creating, plus separate Tags and Link fields. The save button is called Update.
What you can change depends on the post state:
| Post state | What you can change |
|---|---|
| Not published yet ("Preparing", "Waiting for the right time") | everything: text, tags, link, UTM, attachments, accounts, time |
| Published (successfully or with an error) | only text, tags, link and UTM. The publish time, accounts and attachments are locked — hints appear under the fields. To publish to other accounts, create a new post |
| Publishing, updating, deleting | cannot be edited: wait for processing to finish |
A published post can be edited only during the first day
If more than a day has passed since the publication date, ParrotPoster will not accept changes to the post, and the Edit button is hidden. Edit such a post directly in the social network.
Changes to a published post are sent to all of its accounts at once, and the result is visible per account in the details window: "Updated: …" or "Update error: …". Not every network applies changes to the link and pictures.
Which networks support editing
| Network | Editing | Deleting |
|---|---|---|
| VKontakte | yes | yes |
| yes | yes | |
| Odnoklassniki | yes | yes |
| Telegram | yes | yes |
| MAX | yes | yes |
| no | yes |
If you change a post published to Instagram, the change is saved in ParrotPoster but is not sent to Instagram: that account shows "Update is not supported on this network". To change a caption in Instagram, delete the post and create a new one, or fix the caption in the Instagram app itself.
Delete a post
In the post details window (or the card menu) click Delete and confirm "Delete post?". What happens:
- A post that has not been published yet simply stops being published and goes to the Trash — you can restore it.
- A published post (status "Success" or "Publish failed") is also deleted from the social networks: the status becomes "Deleting" and a request is sent for each account separately. If deletion failed in some network, the post stays there — delete it in the social network itself.
- If you delete a post while it is being published, updated or deleted, no delete request is sent to the social networks: delete such a post manually in the social network.
- You cannot delete a post only from ParrotPoster and leave it in the social networks.
Permanent deletion from the trash is not connected with the social networks: a post is deleted from them only at the moment of the first deletion.