Social media: connect, publish, schedule, automate

Who this is for: you want to publish on Facebook, Instagram, Google Business, LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok, Snapchat or YouTube from a single interface. Your choice: write it yourself, let the AI suggest, or have Auto Pilot publish fully automatically on your schedule.

What you'll see: how to connect each network, create a manual post (text + AI image + multi-platform scheduling), turn on Auto Pilot, and read your weekly planner with audience peak slots.

Overview of the Social Media page

From the Dashboard, click the "Social Media" card (blue share icon) or use the nav: Social Media.

Direct URL: /dashboard/publications

You land on "Social Media Scheduling". The top of the page contains:

Below: the Weekly schedule (Mon to Sun) with a heatmap of the best posting slots per network.

Pick a network (click the Facebook/Instagram/etc. icon) to see ITS heatmap. The darker the orange cell, the more active your audience is at that time. The Legend at the bottom explains the levels: Perfect (80%+), Good (60-80%), Average (40-60%), Calm (-40%).

Tip: use the heatmap to decide when to schedule. An Instagram post at 1pm on Tuesday (dark cell = perfect) will get far more engagement than 5pm on Sunday (light cell).

Preliminary — Connect your networks

Before you can publish, you need to connect each platform to your bubble. Go to "Settings" › "Connections" (under LOCATION, in the left menu):

You'll see the list of every connectable platform. For each one:

Instagram time-saver: if Instagram doesn't connect after Facebook does, check on business.facebook.com that your Facebook Page is properly linked to an Instagram Business account (not Creator, not Personal). Otherwise Meta won't allow publishing from an external tool.

Each row shows the connected account's name (e.g.: Food'Alexandre, @food_alexandre, Food Alexandre Restaurant) and a "Disconnect" button to revoke access.

Create a manual post — The 3 steps

Click "Create post" (or "Schedule a post"). A "New post" modal opens in 3 steps: 1 Content, 2 Media, 3 Schedule.

Step 1 — Content (networks + text)

Select the networks. Click the pills (Facebook, Instagram, Google Business, LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok, YouTube). Selected ones have an orange border.

TikTok requires a video (not an image). YouTube accepts videos and Shorts only (vertical 9:16 for Shorts, no image-only, no text). Pinterest requires at least one image (otherwise the post fails). Snapchat isn't active yet.

Pick the writing method in the "How do you want to create your content?" section:

• "Write myself" → opens the free text area
• "Ask AI" → the AI proposes multiple versions adapted to each platform

Write the text. Tab Same text (same text on every network) or Text per platform (one text tuned to each — recommended: LinkedIn = professional, Instagram = visual, Facebook = conversational).

Character-limit tip: GMB Club shows a warning "Too long for Instagram (limit 2200)" if you go over on a platform. Either shorten, or switch to Text per platform mode to adapt.

Click "Next" (bottom right — the button stays disabled until you've filled in the text).

Step 2 — Media (image, carousel, video, AI, PDF)

6 media modes:

You can also leave No image — except for Pinterest (which rejects it) and TikTok (which requires a video).

AI mode — Generate the image

If you pick AI, a field appears: "Describe the image to generate...". Describe what you want (e.g.: "A steaming margherita pizza on a wooden table, warm evening light, food-photography style"). Click "Generate image".

During generation (5-15s), you'll see the steps:

• "Rendering the image"
• "Optimizing for publication"

The image appears. Not convinced? Click "Generate image" again for a variant. You can also click "Image generation settings" to tweak style, aspect ratio, etc.

Retouch mode

Start from an image (uploaded or already generated) and describe the change: "Describe the modifications..." → e.g.: "Add the Food'Alexandre logo in the bottom right" → "Retouch image".

Click "Next" to go to scheduling.

Step 3 — Schedule the post

For each platform you ticked at step 1, you pick "When to publish?":

• Date (calendar picker)
• Time (in 5- or 10-minute slots)

You can schedule different times per platform — useful because audience peaks aren't the same: 1pm on Instagram, 9am on LinkedIn, 7pm on Facebook for example.

The "Preview" at the bottom shows the rendering with the bubble's avatar, name ("Food'Alexandre Lyon Bellecour"), platform badge and the text as it'll be displayed.

Click "Schedule publication" (orange button, bottom right). You get a confirmation. The post immediately shows up in the Weekly schedule on the Social Media page.

Publish now tip: to publish right away (no scheduling), pick today's date at the current time or shortly after. The post goes out within a minute.

Auto Pilot — Generate your publishing plan

Auto Pilot is a generation tool: you tell it which month you want posts for, which days, at what time — it generates the posts (text + image) ahead of time. You validate them one by one before they go out. Nothing publishes without your approval.

On the Social Media page, click "Auto Pilot" (next to the "Create post" button). The "Auto Pilot Posts" modal opens:

The header shows a monthly quota counter (0 / 16 for example — 16 is the default monthly cap, 4 posts/week × 4 weeks).

Step 1 — Configuration

The footer shows your "Active subscription: up to X posts/week" (contract limit, e.g.: 4).

Click "Next" → step 2.

Step 2 — Content

At step 2, you frame what the AI should write:

• Custom briefs (optional): you can supply themes per day (e.g.: "Monday: chef's tips", "Wednesday: signature product", "Friday: vibe") and the AI works from them.
• Tones and instructions (optional): you can specify a dominant tone (professional, casual, humorous, inspiring) and guidelines ("don't forget our local commitment", "never mention competitors").

If you leave it blank, the AI relies on your bubble's description, your industry, and the season to suggest relevant topics.

Once validated, Auto Pilot generates the posts for the chosen period. They show up in the Weekly schedule as drafts. Open each post, double-check the text and image, adjust if needed, then validate so it goes out at the planned time.

Manage AI Settings for posts

Go to Settings › AI Settings (under ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE). There you configure:

And a "Business context" panel showing the info already known about the bubble (business type, description) — that's what the AI builds on. If it's empty, head back to Sphere settings › General and fill it in.

See your publishing history

The Weekly schedule shows scheduled posts in color on each slot. Click a post to:

• See its full content
• Edit it (text, image, date) if not yet published
• Delete it
• See its publishing stats (actual publish date, published platforms, failures)

Already-published posts get a Published badge. Pending posts: Scheduled. Failed posts: Failed (with the problem details: expired connection, missing image, etc.).

Common issues

"Expired connection: Facebook" (red banner at the top) → The Facebook connection expired (~60 days without refresh). Go to Settings › Connections, click the "Reconnect" button next to the platform. Future posts will go out again. Posts scheduled during the expired window may have failed — check the Schedule.

"Pinterest requires an image" → You picked No image but selected Pinterest. Either add an image, or uncheck Pinterest.

TikTok doesn't publish → TikTok only accepts videos from external tools. If you uploaded an image, the post fails. Add an MP4 video (9:16 ratio recommended, ≤ 60 sec ideally).

The post went out on Facebook but not Instagram, even though both were ticked → Most common cause: the Facebook page isn't linked to an Instagram Business account (just personal or Creator). Check the link in Meta Business Suite. Once fixed, reconnect Facebook in Settings.

My AI-generated image doesn't look like what I want → The description has to be very precise. "Pizza" gets a generic result. "Margherita pizza fresh out of the wood-fired oven, melting mozzarella di bufala, fresh basil, rustic wooden table, warm food-photography lighting" gets you something usable. You can also use Retouch to adjust afterwards.

Auto Pilot generated an off-topic post → Your AI Settings › Custom instructions are probably too thin. Spell out topics to avoid, values to respect, phrases to use. Re-trigger Auto Pilot after editing.