Create a Facebook post

Create and publish posts to your Facebook Pages and groups. To save time, you can publish to several Facebook accounts or social networks at once. You can choose to publish posts right away, or schedule them in advance for a specific day and time.

Note: Publishing to personal profiles is not supported, due to changes by Facebook in 2018 to protect user privacy.

Before you begin

Make sure you’ve already added a Facebook Page or group to Hootsuite. How to add a Facebook account.

Create your post

To get started, select Composer . Then follow the steps in this article to create your post. Hootsuite does not support creating event posts or polls.

1. Select the Facebook Page or group you'd like to publish to.
2. Create your post and proofread your text using Grammarly. The character limit for Facebook is 2,000. You can use all of the following in your post:
   • Links - If you include a link, it's shown in the preview (see Overview of link previews). You can shorten links and add tracking parameters to them.
   • Mentions - To mention a Page, enter @ followed by the Page name, and then select an option from the list.
   • Hashtags - Select the hashtag icon for hashtag suggestions. The suggestion list is powered by AI (artificial intelligence), and is based on your post text and media (see our guide to using hashtags on every network).
   • Emoji - Select the smiley face to add emoji (check out Add more inclusive emoji).
3. Add one or more images, a GIF, or a video to your post.
   Media upload options

   You can add media to your posts using any of the following options:

   • Drag files from your computer into the Content area.
   • Select Upload media.
   • Select Design with Canva (see Design images with Canva in Composer for details).
   • Select Media library, and then select Free Images or GIPHY.
     

     Note: Uploading multiple images results in one post with all of the images. You can drag the images to reorder them in your post.
     
     Unless you choose an existing album, your images will be added to Timeline Photos for Facebook Pages, and to Group Feed for Facebook groups.

     To learn about media file requirements, see Image file requirements and Work with videos.

4. To edit or add alt text to an image, point to the image thumbnail and select an option. The limit for alt text in Facebook is 500 characters. Learn how to use the image editor.
   
5. To add captions or a custom cover to a video, point to it and select Video settings.
   Edit video settings

   You can do the following in video settings:

   • View the video file's properties.
   • Customize the video title for Page posts.
   • Customize the cover image for Page posts. Select one of the options provided, or select Add custom cover to add your own.
   • Add captions to your videos. Drag a SubRip Subtitle file (SRT file) from your computer into the Subtitles area or choose Upload an SRT file. One file can be uploaded per post. SRT file names must have the following format: filename.[language code]_[country code].srt. Language codes are two lowercase letters and country codes are two uppercase letters. Example: hypevideo.es_ES.srt. Refer to the Facebook list of valid language and country codes.

   Tip: Need to publish subtitles in multiple languages? No problem. Duplicate the post and add a different SRT file.

Advanced options

When you create your post, you can take advantage of additional options, such as promoting your post or selecting the specific audience who can see your post.

Promote a post

Select Promote this post under Promotion to boost your post on Facebook. For more details, see Boost a Facebook post.

Specify targeting for a Facebook post

Select Add next to Facebook target audience to select who you’d like to see your post. Select age, country, region, city, ZIP, and postal codes, and then select Add.

Specify a campaign (Business and Enterprise organizations)

Select your organization, and then select Campaign to associate your post with a current or future campaign. To learn more, see Create and manage content campaigns.

Upload images from your content library (Business and Enterprise organizations)

In the Content area, select Media library , and then select Content Library Images from the drop-down to select an image from your pre-approved media files.

Apply a tag (Business and Enterprise organizations)

Select Add next to Tags to apply tags to your posts and analyze their performance in Hootsuite Analytics. Select the tags to add to your post, and then select Add. To find out more, see Add tags to track your outbound posts.

Publish your Facebook post 

When you’re finished creating your post, review it in the preview on the right to see how it will look on your Facebook Page or group. You'll be alerted if there are any issues. Once you're ready, select from the following options:

• Post now - Publish the post right away.
• Schedule for later - Select a date and time to publish the post, or select a day and choose from any recommended times available (see Schedule posts at recommended times).
• Save draft - Not quite ready to publish? Select the arrow next to Post now, and then select Save draft.

Tip: Find and manage your drafts, published posts, and scheduled posts in Planner .

If you want to create another post right away, select the arrow next to Post now (or Schedule), and then select one of the following options:

• Post and reuse accounts (or Schedule and reuse accounts) - Publish your current post and begin a new one to the same social accounts.
• Post and duplicate (or Schedule and duplicate) - Publish your current post and retain its content to create a new, similar post with a unique post ID. Promoted ad spend is not retained for the new post.