Automate Social Media Posts (Airtable & Zapier)

[@GarethPronovost]

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[@MarkShockley]

I'm not even a small-business owner, but this channel has given me so many awesome ideas about Airtable!

[@GarethPronovost]

Haha! Thanks for watching Mark - there's a ton we can do (business or otherwise) to make things more organized and efficient!

[@cencinisbooks9669]

This really was super useful! Thank you so much

[@GarethPronovost]

Awesome, thanks Davide!

[@microgreensnetwork1841]

Super helpful! Thanks!!!

[@GarethPronovost]

Glad it was helpful!

[@trisaswa782]

Hi Gareth, I am not sure if you are still active on comments from older videos but my team is trying to do exactly this, and you have been very helpful. I am not sure what value to put for Delay Until when it asks for " How should we handle dates in the past" as I do not understand what it means completely to the automation. I'd be really appreciative if you can give me a short update. thankss

[@mridhu21]

I'm sure this will make my social posting easy!

[@GarethPronovost]

Hope so, Amsa - thanks for watching :)

[@ambardeo]

This video has helped me a lot now I can schedule my tweet easily and it is happening as well. Many thanks for the video. I have an issue though, I have created a message and schedule it and then I have edited my message after some time. But, at the time of scheduled message both tweet got posted first one and the updated one. How to avoid this and post only updated one.

[@BLINGofBOSTON]

Is it possible to remove the “delay until” step but still make the post happen at a later date and time? I’m trying to replicate what you did in the video with only 2 steps as allowed in the Free Zapier plan.

[@GarethPronovost]

Well, without the delay step, the zap would trigger and process action steps at roughly the same time. If you need it to trigger at a specific time AND be on the free Zapier plan, I'm afraid you'd need to wait until the 'time' to trigger the automation. That is to say, without the paid Zapier plan, you can't schedule posts in advance - sorry!

[@RichLeighton]

I'm having the same problem.

[@shajahanshafiullah2590]

How to add image to the post

[@TheDaftMonk]

One way would be to use Zapier's "Create Page Photo" action for Facebook, instead of "Create Page Post". If you did this, you would need to add any hyperlink you want to include within the body of the post-but otherwise, it should achieve the result you're looking for.

[@GarethPronovost]

@@TheDaftMonk Thanks - great advice!

[@simonharris4998]

@@GarethPronovost I guess this doesn't work with Instagram as you mentioned having to use buffer in a previous post, but could this technique be used to post assets/images to Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin?

[@suewheeler7859]

Hi Gareth - I love your videos they are so easy to follow. I've even managed to do automation using Zapier as you suggested. I was wondering if you could help me with a query. I have the image e.g. i want to upload to Facebook. When I saved the image it is the correct size for Facebook but when it is uploaded from Zapier/Airtable it seems to be displaying incorrectly and is cropping really important information from the image such as my logo and writing on the post. Is this fixable? * I am using the free version of Airtable and Zapier if this helps. Look forward to hearing from you!

[@GarethPronovost]

Be sure to use the Full URL link in your automation. There are other options that are resized, but this will not give you the results you want.

[@jordanstanisz2856]

Can we do this for posting images onto instagram?

[@GarethPronovost]

IG is a bit more tricky - it doesn't take images directly from Zapier but instead requires that you go through Buffer. So the automation looks like this: Airtable > Zapier > Buffer > Instagram Certainly not the easiest automation, but it's great once you get it all set up!

[@Rochellegroh]

@@GarethPronovost I am using Hootsuite for the above steps instead of Buffer. I am getting stuck on selecting the "time and date" under the "delay until" step in Zapier. When I click the drop down menu under "delay until" I don't see my "date/time" column I created in Airtable. I am only shown 1 option even though on Airtable I have a ton of other columns. Ahhhhhh

[@Rochellegroh]

@@GarethPronovost Nevermind -- I had to test the "record view" trigger first before the "delay until" would populate all of my column options (including the publish/date time column). I see it now...moving on to fully testing it.

[@Rochellegroh]

@@GarethPronovost Me again. LOL. Under the media URL section, I want to select a column in Airtable that has an image. But this is the only column not showing up as an option for me to select...I know this area says "URL" and an image isn't a URL...but uh...how the heck can I select my image in Airtable to connect to Hootsuite if I am not given the option of this column?

[@doritrabbani7978]

Is it possible to tag a person through the Zapier API?

[@GarethPronovost]

Tag them on an Airtable comment? No we can't interact with comments via automation. However you can tag someone in a slack message, or in some other messaging tool

[@HollyTheTwisterSister]

I can't for the life of me figure out how to set the timezone in airtable, any advice?

[@GarethPronovost]

This is a tough one! There is a formula that allows you to manually set the output to a specific timezone [ SET_TIMEZONE() ] - there are some support docs on the Airtable page here that might help: support.airtable.com/hc/en-us/articles/216141558-Supported-timezones-for-SET-TIMEZONE Shoot me an email if this doesn't help!

[@WorldschoolingCentral]

Hey Gareth, awesome video - I've been using Buffer for my Facebook Groups and Pages, but this process replaces everything I've been doing with that. One quick question... is there any way to add new lines to a post. For example I finish a sentence and want to start a new paragraph. How do I go about that? I've tried various techniques but not yet found something that works!! Thx in advance!

[@GarethPronovost]

Are you doing this in the LONG TEXT FIELD? If so, hitting enter creates a new line. If you're using SINGLE LINE TEXT it won't allow for line breaks.

[@Rewad008]

Hi Gareth. Thanks for this video ! With this process, is it possible to automate the scheduling time and have a queue mode, I mean the way that SM scheduling apps (like Buffer, Publer ...) can do ? The idea is not to have to enter manually the publish time, but to say first post will be at 8am, the second entering poste will be at 9am ... Thanks for your insights

[@GarethPronovost]

Ah, great question. Yes, you can certainly do this! You could rank your scheduled posts and build an automation to send them at specific times during the day, depending on their order/ranking.

[@davidgilchrist]

This facebook example is great - HOWEVER... I don't think zapier can action into instagram? It doesn't offer me that option?

[@GarethPronovost]

Correct - Zapier and Insta don't play nicely together. I've heard people really like Buffer for Insta automation. You can sync Buffer to Zapier as well to close the loop.

[@danielmotzouris9832]

@@GarethPronovost We're doing this step in Zapier, and then using Integromat to use the new post in FB as a trigger to post to other socials and relevant pages.

[@GarethPronovost]

@@danielmotzouris9832 Love it!

[@aaliyah8983]

HOW DO YOU link zappier with airtable

[@GarethPronovost]

add Airtable as an app inside your Zapier account and follow the steps to get your API key from Airtable!

[@frankkroondijk586]

Any one figured out to post multiple photos at once? No hint to how possible found thus far.

[@geekless]

Have you figured out how to post just one image from Airtable to Facebook?! I've been trying to figure out how to do that.

[@ambardeo]

@@geekless I have figured out to post image on Twitter.

[@alaajad8439]

is there a way without zap, coz zap need money for Instagram and Pinterest

[@GarethPronovost]

You can use Airtable automations for Facebook, but Zapier or Make are needed for Instagram or Pinterest.