---
key: schedule-and-publish-a-social-post
title: Schedule and publish a social post
audience: staff
section: marketing
routes: ["/social/calendar"]
permissions: ["social.posts.schedule"]
features: ["social.calendar"]
since: 0.0.1
updated: 0.0.1
status: published
summary: Put a draft social post on the calendar for a date and time, send it for approval if your team requires it, publish it now, or pull it back to drafts.
keywords: [schedule post, post later, publish now, approve post, social approval, unschedule, cancel post, failed post]
related: [create-a-social-post, connect-a-social-account, use-the-automation-center]
---

In the sidebar, open **Marketing**, then **Social Calendar**. The page address is `/social/calendar`. Open a draft from the **Drafts** queue, or a scheduled post from the calendar, and the **Edit social post** drawer shows the publishing buttons along its bottom edge.

## Before you start

- Scheduling needs permission to schedule social posts; publishing needs the publish permission; approving needs the approve permission. A button your role lacks is greyed out with a reason.
- The post needs at least one ticked account under **Target accounts** and, for some networks, approved media. See [[create-a-social-post]].

## Steps

To schedule:

1. Open the post. Under **Schedule (local time)** set the date and time, set **Duration (minutes)**, and check **Timezone**; it starts as your organization's.
2. Press **Save post**.
3. Press **Schedule**. The chip changes to **Scheduled** and the post moves from **Drafts** onto the calendar. Nova publishes it at that time.

To publish straight away:

1. Open the post and press **Publish now**. The chip changes to **Published** once each network confirms. Publishing runs in the background, so the drawer may say so and update a moment later.

If your team requires approval:

1. Press **Request approval**. The chip changes to **Pending approval**.
2. A teammate with the approve permission opens the post and presses **Approve** or **Reject**. **Publish now** stays off until the post is approved, and Nova refuses **Schedule** with a message that the post must be approved first.

To change your mind:

- **Unschedule** takes a scheduled post back to **Drafts** without deleting it.
- **Discard draft** removes a draft. **Cancel post** stops a scheduled post. Both ask you to confirm and to give a reason.

## What you see

- **Target publish status** lists each account with its own result once publishing has been attempted, and shows the network's error message if one failed.
- To move a scheduled post to another day, open it, change **Schedule (local time)**, press **Save post**, then press **Schedule** again.
- Filters (**Status**, **Platform**, **Account**) narrow both the calendar and the **Drafts** queue. The view button in the toolbar shows the current view, such as **Week**; press it to switch between **Day**, **3 Day**, **Week**, **Work Week** and **Month**.

## If something looks different

- The chip reads **Failed**: open the post and read **Target publish status**. A common cause is an account whose connection expired; see [[connect-a-social-account]]. Fix it and press **Publish now** again.
- **Schedule** is greyed out with a message about a valid start time: the **Schedule (local time)** box is empty.
- **Publish now** is greyed out with a message about approval: press **Request approval** first.
- The page shows a notice that a network result could not be confirmed: refresh the page before publishing that post again, so it is not sent twice.

[[route:/social/calendar|Open the Social Calendar]]