How-to guide
Before you switch to live mode
The checklist to go through in test mode before you turn on live publishing, from your accounts and brand to the approval rule, time zones, test results, budget and team.
In test mode nothing reaches your followers. Once an owner or admin turns on Live publishing, every planned post goes out on your real accounts at its time, including the ones planned while you were testing. Go through this list first: each step takes a few minutes, and fixes now what would otherwise fail later, in front of your followers.
The checklist
Check your social accounts
In Settings › Social accounts, every account you'll post to should be in the list and say Connected. Press Check on each one: a notice says it's fine, or that there's a problem, with the details under the account. Then, network by network:
- YouTube: a channel connected before SemPost asked about content made for kids shows Until it's confirmed that this channel does not publish content made for kids, posts to it fail when their time comes. Press Confirm under it, then Not made for kids.
- Pinterest: your pins go to the board shown in Pinterest board under the account. Make sure it's the right one.
- TikTok: posts reach the TikTok app as drafts, which you finish and publish there. Before you publish a draft that carries AI-made content, switch on its AI-generated content setting in the TikTok app. For a post that should go out by itself once it's approved, press Publish directly in the Studio, choose TikTok's settings and press Save as a direct post: by posting, you agree to TikTok's Music Usage Confirmation. TikTok asks for these settings for each post. A photo post with an AI-made picture still goes as a draft.
See Nightly checks and reconnecting and Connect a YouTube channel.
Tell SemPost about your brand
In Settings › Brand, upload your logo and switch on Put the logo on posts, fill in Brand name and How do you talk?, then press Save. A few minutes here make every post sound like you. See Set up your brand.
Choose what waits for approval
On the Posts page, the Approval and planning card shows the rule under Posts that wait for approval. Keep Only what the AI and automation write (recommended), or choose Also what editors write when editors write posts for you. With None, even the AI's and the automation's posts go out without a look in SemPost. See Who approves what: the approval rule.
Check the time zones
Every time in SemPost is in the workspace's time zone. Check it under Time zone in Settings › Workspace, and press Save changes if you change it. When an account's audience lives elsewhere, give the account its own Time zone in Settings › Social accounts: SemPost then shows you the time on the account's clock beside its posts. See Time zones, best times and daily limits.
Read the test results
In test mode, each post is checked against its network's rules at its time. On the Posts page, in Post history, press Filters and choose Validated (test) and Failed under Status. A post that failed in test mode would fail in live mode too: its details say why, and Posts that didn't go out says how to fix it. Then create the post again.
On the Automation page, look at each rule's card. A YouTube channel or Google Business Profile marked Needs your consent gets none of the rule's posts: Edit the rule, tick the consent box on the account's card in the Accounts step and save.
Set a budget
Generation and automation rules spend credits in test mode and live mode alike. To keep spending within what you planned, an owner or admin sets a Daily cap (credits) and a Monthly cap (credits) in Settings › Budget and presses Save budget: a job that would go over a cap doesn't start. See How credits work.
Check the team and two-factor authentication
In Settings › Team, check that each member has the role they need: only admins and the owner approve posts, connect accounts and change the publish mode. Then turn on your own two-factor authentication with Turn on 2FA in Settings › Security. To require it of everyone, switch on Require two-factor authentication for the team in Settings › Workspace and save. See Roles and what each can do and Two-factor authentication.
Look through the calendar
Open the Calendar and look at the coming days: once live publishing is on, every planned post goes out at its time. Take off the plan, or delete, what shouldn't go out.
Turn on live publishing
On the Posts page, turn on the Live publishing switch in the Publish mode card, and press Switch on live publishing when SemPost asks. The badge at the top of the page changes to Live. Until the workspace's first paid plan, each account publishes at most 5 live posts a day. See Test mode and live mode.
After you go live
- Go through the regular checks once a week.
- For most failed live posts, the workspace's owners and admins get an email.
- If something must stop going out at once, turn the Live publishing switch off: from then on, posts whose time comes are only validated.