Planning a Campaign End to End

Overview

This guide walks a single campaign all the way through StretchSocial, touching every major feature in the order you'd actually use them. Follow it once with a real campaign and the app's workflow will click into place.

Step 1 — Prepare your channels

1. Open Connections and confirm every network you'll target has a green status chip.
2. If a channel is missing, click New connection, enter the platform key, a brand-prefixed label, and a handle.
3. Note which networks are relevant to your content type — check Supported networks and capabilities if you're posting video (for example, avoid no-video networks).

Step 2 — Draft your posts

1. Open Compose and click New post.
2. Give it an internal Title and write the Body. If AI drafting is enabled, generate a per-network starting point from a short brief and edit for brand voice (see AI drafting and content assessment).
3. Click the networks you want to target.
4. Add the Campaign name (use a consistent scheme), a CTA, and a Destination URL.
5. Watch the readiness chip climb toward green (70+) and confirm all four approval checks pass.
6. Add Asset notes describing the creative so reviewers have context.
7. Click Create post.

Step 3 — Assess (optional)

If the content-assessment engine is enabled, run an assessment with your caption, media count, targets, and intended hour. Use its quality score and publish-risk flags to tighten the caption or adjust hashtags before you ask for approval.

Step 4 — Route through approval

1. Open Approvals. Your drafts appear as pending.
2. Click Review to claim each, then Approve the ones that are ready.
3. Reject (with confirmation) anything off-brand and revise it in Compose.

Step 5 — Schedule

1. Open Calendar. Approved-but-undated posts sit under Needs schedule.
2. Click Schedule and pick a date/time (remember: your local timezone).
3. Use the seven-day chart to spread posts across days rather than stacking them.
4. Need optimal-time suggestions? StretchBAS/StretchSEM can schedule posts in at recommended times — see Cross-app scheduling and integrations.

Step 6 — Monitor delivery

1. Open Queue. Each targeted network is its own job; scan the Status and Error columns.
2. Open Analytics after go-live to confirm posts moved to Published and to catch failed jobs per post.
3. Keep an eye on Insights readiness as an ongoing quality bar.

Concrete example

Fall Launch, three networks:

1. Connections Acme LinkedIn, Acme Instagram, Acme X are all green.
2. You draft three posts tagged Acme — Fall Launch, each targeting all three networks, CTA Shop now, destination the product page. Readiness reads 100/100.
3. Assessment flags one caption as hashtag-heavy; you trim it.
4. Your manager approves all three in Approvals.
5. You schedule them for Mon/Wed/Fri 10:00 across the seven-day chart.
6. The Queue shows nine jobs (three posts × three networks). One X job fails on a disconnected channel; you fix the connection and reschedule. Analytics confirms the rest published.

Tips

• Do the work in order — channels, drafts, assess, approve, schedule, monitor — and nothing gets missed.
• Tag every post with the same campaign so your reporting is clean.
• Build in approval time the day before scheduling.
• Remember governed publishing: scheduling locks the plan; live delivery is a separate, centrally controlled step.

Troubleshooting

• A post can't be scheduled. Confirm it's approved and has at least one target network.
• A job failed. Read the Queue error, fix the connection, and reschedule from Calendar.
• Analytics shows Unassigned posts. They lack a campaign tag — add one in Compose.