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Connect social media accounts to StretchSocial

How to link Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other channels to StretchSocial so you can schedule and publish from one place, plus how to read connection health and fix authorization errors.

What connecting a channel does

StretchSocial lets you plan, compose, approve, and publish content across your social channels from one workspace. To publish to a channel, you first connect the account — an authorization handshake (OAuth) where you sign in to the platform (Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and others) and grant StretchSocial permission to post on your behalf. StretchSocial then stores a secure token, not your password, and uses it to publish and read basic analytics.

Each connection has an authorization status (connected, needs attention, or disconnected). Keeping connections healthy is what keeps your publishing queue flowing.

How to connect an account

  1. Open StretchSocial from your app launcher and confirm you're in the correct workspace.
  2. Go to the Connections tab.
  3. Click Connect (or Add channel) and choose the platform you want to link.
  4. You're redirected to that platform's login/authorization screen. Sign in as the account or page owner and review the requested permissions.
  5. Grant the permissions (typically permission to publish content and read basic insights).
  6. You're returned to StretchSocial, and the channel now appears in Connections with a Connected status.
  7. Repeat for each channel you want to manage.

Prerequisites that trip people up

  • You must have the right role on the external account. To connect a Facebook Page or Instagram professional account, you generally need to be an admin of the associated Page/Business, not just a follower or editor. LinkedIn Company Pages require an admin role.
  • Instagram usually connects through its linked Facebook Page / Business account, not as a standalone personal profile. Make sure the Instagram account is a Business or Creator account and linked to a Page you administer.
  • Personal profiles are often restricted by the platforms themselves. Most publishing APIs support Business/Creator accounts and Pages, not personal timelines.

A realistic example

A coaching business wants to schedule a week of posts to Instagram, its Facebook Page, and LinkedIn:

  1. In StretchSocial → Connections, the marketer clicks Connect and picks Facebook, signs in as a Page admin, and authorizes.
  2. Because the Instagram Business account is linked to that Page, connecting Instagram is offered in the same flow; they authorize it too.
  3. They add LinkedIn and select the company's Page (they're an admin).
  4. All three now show Connected.
  5. They compose posts, route them through the approval queue for the owner to sign off, and schedule them. The publishing queue shows each post's status as it goes out.

Reading connection health

In Connections, each channel shows a status:

  • Connected / Active — healthy; publishing will work.
  • Needs attention / Reconnect — the token expired or permissions changed; the channel needs to be reauthorized.
  • Disconnected — not linked; nothing will publish.

If a scheduled post fails, the first thing to check is whether its channel slipped out of Connected.

Troubleshooting

"Reconnect required" appears periodically — social platforms expire access tokens (some every few weeks or months) and revoke them when you change your password or app permissions. Click Reconnect and re-authorize. This is normal maintenance, not a bug.

Authorization fails or loops — you may be signed into the wrong account in that platform (for example a personal Facebook that doesn't admin the Page). Sign out of the platform in your browser, then start the connection again and sign in as the correct admin.

Instagram won't connect — confirm it's a Business/Creator account linked to a Facebook Page you administer; personal accounts generally can't be connected for publishing.

A post failed to publish — check the channel's status in Connections first, then the platform's own rules (for example, some platforms restrict certain link or media types). Re-queue after reconnecting.

Permissions look wrong — if you accidentally granted a limited scope, disconnect and reconnect, granting all requested permissions.

Tips

  • Connect as the owner/admin, not a temporary staffer whose access might be removed — if their access to the external account goes away, the connection breaks.
  • Reconnect proactively when you change a social account's password; the token will otherwise fail on the next publish.
  • Use the approval queue so posts are reviewed before they go live, especially with multiple contributors.

FAQ

Does StretchSocial store my social password? No. It stores a revocable access token from the platform's authorization flow. You can revoke it anytime from the platform's app settings.

How many accounts can I connect? As many channels as your plan and the platforms allow; each is managed independently in Connections.

Why did a connection drop on its own? Almost always an expired or revoked token from the platform side — just reconnect.

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