Create and publish content with confidence in the new Composer. The full-screen compose experience lets you preview your posts on each social network before you send or schedule them!
Composer contains other new features to help you craft messages efficiently. Try it out by clicking New Post 
in the top-right corner of your dashboard.
Click Minimize
in the top-right corner to visit other areas of the dashboard and resume composing your message later.
To compose a message
- Click Select social networks, and then select the social profiles to post your message to (only one Twitter profile can be selected per message). Members of teams in an organization can select a team from the list to easily select all the social profiles managed by that team. You can search by social network, profile name, or team to surface the right profile(s).
- Click the arrow
to close the window when you’re done.
If you belong to more than one organization, select one in the top-left corner to view the social networks in that organization. Private social networks are always visible.
- In the Text field, enter the content of your message, including any links. The character count for each social network selected will display above the Text field.
- Instagram captions can contain a maximum of 30 hashtags.
- To mention a user or Page, enter @ followed by the user/Page name, and then select the username from the list that populates for the social network selected. More details
- To add emojis, click the smiley face in the bottom-left corner.
- If a link is included in the post, a link preview for each social network will appear in the message preview on the right. More details about link previews
Note that if your post contains a link preview, it must also contain text in the message body (the URL is sufficient) before it can be published.- To shorten a link, click Shorten with Ow.ly below the Text field. Organization members can also click Add tracking and then Customize, to shorten with available vanity URLs or other external shorteners.
- To shorten and/or add link tracking parameters, click Add tracking, and then customize the link's shortener, tracking parameters, or apply preset link settings. More details about link settings
- Drag and drop files into the Media box or click select a file to upload to attach images or a video to your post. More details about posting images or videos.
- Or, click Open Media Library to search free stock images or GIFs to include in your message. Click an image to attach it to your post. Click Free Images, and then select GIPHY to insert an animated GIF in tweets or Google+ messages.
Media library apps from the app directory can also be accessed here to easily attach approved media assets to your social posts. Click the Free Images drop-down to access your installed Media Library apps. - Click Close Media Library in the top-right corner.
When multiple images are attached, drag-and-drop them within the list to reorder them in your posts. - If a Twitter profile is selected, click Edit image details below an image to include alternative text with the image. Alt text describes an image's content to make it accessible for users who are visually impaired. Alt text is not supported for animated GIFs or videos. More details
- On any attached image, click Edit Image to crop it for a specific social network, add filters and text, or make other adjustments to it.
- Click Save and the edited image will appear in your message preview.
Facebook: Images attached to a Page post get uploaded to the Timeline Photos album by default. Uploading multiple images to the Timeline results in one post containing all the images. Click Timeline Photos to select a photo album to post them to.
Instagram: Stories and multi-image carousel posts are not supported. If multiple images are attached, only the first one will post to Instagram.
- Enterprise: To add tags to your messages, click Edit to the right of Tags. Click Add Tag
, select the tag(s) to add to your message, and then click Add Tags.
Tags are not visible on your posts, but they help you categorize them. Use tags to analyze the performance of your published content in Hootsuite Analytics.
Organization admins can click Manage Tags to create new tags and manage existing ones in the tag library. - Facebook Pages, Instagram business profiles, and Twitter profiles: Click Add to the right of Location to tag your post with a location. Search for a location, select it from the results, and then click Apply. More details
- Review how your message(s) will look on each social network with the per-network preview on the right. If the Composer detects any issues with a post, an error message will display below the preview.
- To post the message right away, click Send Now in the bottom-right corner.
- To schedule the message, click Schedule for later, select a date and time to publish the post, click Done, and then click Schedule.
