Social Dashboard

Summary#

Social Dashboard is the hub for everything social. It publishes or schedules a post to your connected social accounts from one box, shows a month calendar of what is queued, and launches the seven social tools from one input. The accounts themselves are connected on the Integrations screen.

Purpose#

Social work is normally spread across a scheduling tool, a listening tool, a spreadsheet of ideas and whichever tab has the analytics. Every switch loses context, and the thing that actually needs doing today (post, or check what is queued) sits three clicks deep in one of them.

This screen puts the daily actions on top and the research tools underneath. Connect once, and publishing and scheduling stop being a separate product.

Overview#

The screen has three working parts, top to bottom.

Compose a post is one text box plus a chip for each connected channel. Write once, choose which channels get it, attach an image if Instagram is one of them, then either Publish immediately or set a date and time and press Schedule. Publishing fans out in parallel and reports per channel, so one channel failing never blocks the rest.

Calendar shows the month with your scheduled posts on it. A + button on any day loads that date into the composer at 9:00 AM.

Scheduled posts lists what is queued and what has already gone out, with a Cancel button on anything still pending or interrupted. A background job runs on a schedule, claims each due post exactly once and publishes it.

Below those, a Quick Social Action row and a grid of seven tool cards route into the rest of the Promote section.

The Connected channels list, where you connect LinkedIn, X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Threads, is at Dashboard → Account & Team → Integrations. Connecting opens a window on the platform itself; Metric Vault never sees your password. See Connecting social accounts.

Benefits#

• Publish the same post to several networks in one action, with a per-channel result rather than a single pass/fail.
• Schedule to a specific date and time and let the background job send it.
• See the whole queue as a calendar rather than a list of times.
• A live character counter that switches to X's 280-character limit when X is selected.
• One image attachment, which lets the same post go to Instagram.
• One launchpad for the seven social tools, from a single input.
• Connecting a channel is free. Publishing costs 1 credit per channel the post actually reaches.

Use Cases#

• Daily posting. Write one update and send it to LinkedIn, X and Facebook in a single action.
• Batch a week. Schedule five posts on five dates from the calendar and leave the queue to send them.
• Campaign day. Queue the launch post at the exact minute across every connected channel, then watch the queue flip to Posted.
• Research into action. Run a tool from the grid, then come back up to the composer to schedule the output.
• Client review. Show the calendar as the plan of record instead of a spreadsheet.

Requirements#

• A signed-in Metric Vault account.
• At least one channel connected at Dashboard → Account & Team → Integrations before you can publish or schedule. Without one, the composer reads Connect a channel on the Integrations page to start posting.
• An OAuth application registered for a platform before that platform can be connected. Platforms without one show Setup needed on the Integrations screen.
• A Facebook Page you manage, for Facebook posting.
• An image attached to the post, for Instagram posting.
• A paid plan and available credits to publish. Browsing the hub, connecting a channel and writing a draft cost nothing.

Permissions#

The hub, the composer and the calendar have no plan gate and no team-role gate.

Connections are stored against your own account. A teammate does not inherit them and cannot post to your channels.

Cost#

Free: connecting a channel, composing a draft, attaching an image, browsing the calendar, scheduling and cancelling a scheduled post.

1 credit per channel a post actually reaches. Publishing is metered, on both the immediate and the scheduled path. The unit cost is social_publish in TOOL_CREDIT_COST.

When you press Publish, the worst case is held against your allowance first (1 credit for every channel you selected), the post is sent, and only the channels that accepted it are billed. A channel that fails costs nothing.

Publishing is treated as an externally metered action, because posting to some channels costs Metric Vault money per post regardless of your plan. Two things follow from that, and neither applies to ordinary light tools:

• It is not covered by the light-tool allowance. Publishing draws on your monthly credits even though it costs 1, and stops when they run out.
• Free cannot publish at all. Not a quota message, a plan block.

If you have switched into a team workspace, the workspace owner's plan and credits pay. For a scheduled post, the payer is fixed when you schedule it. The post always goes out on your own connected channels.

Your monthly allowance is 100 credits on Starter, 500 on Pro, 2,000 on Agency and 10,000 on Enterprise (PLAN_QUOTAS). Free is 0.

Publishing can also be taken out of service by an administrator, which returns Publishing is temporarily unavailable. Please try again shortly. (HTTP 503). Scheduled posts wait in the queue until it is restored.

The seven cards in the tool grid launch metered tools and are charged at their own rates when they run, separately from the publishing cost above. The Quick Social Action row is the one to watch: pressing Start opens the selected tool, fills in your input and runs it immediately, which charges that tool's credits. Clicking a tool card only opens the tool and charges nothing. See How credits work.

Navigation Path#

Dashboard → Promote → Social Dashboard

Inputs#

Step-by-Step Guide#

1. Open Dashboard → Account & Team → Integrations. In Connected channels, press Connect next to a platform and approve the access it asks for. For Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, choose the account posts should go to.
2. Open Dashboard → Promote → Social Dashboard.
3. In Compose a post, write your post. The counter on the right shows the character count, switching to n / 280 whenever X is selected.
4. Toggle off any channel chip that should not receive this post.
5. If Instagram is selected, press Add image and pick an image.
6. To send now, press Publish. To send later, set the date and time picker next to the buttons and press Schedule.
7. Read the per-channel results under the composer.
8. Check Scheduled posts for the queue. Press Cancel on anything pending or interrupted that you want to stop.
9. Use the calendar's + button on a day to start a post for that date at 9:00 AM.

Reading the Results#

Channel chips. Only connected channels appear in the composer. If a channel you expect is missing, its connection is gone; reconnect it on the Integrations screen. There, a row reads your account name when connected, Not connected when available, and Setup needed when no OAuth application is registered for that platform, which only an administrator can fix. See Connecting social accounts.

The composer counter. With X deselected it counts characters. With X selected it reads n / 280 and turns red past the limit. That warning matters: X rejects an over-length post with This post is N characters; X allows 280. Trim M and try again., while LinkedIn and Facebook would have accepted the same text. Threads has its own 500 limit, counted in bytes, which the counter does not show.

Per-channel publish results. After Publish, one row per selected channel:

The composer clears itself only when every selected channel succeeded. If it still holds your text, at least one channel failed. Deselect the ones that worked and press Publish again for the rest.

Common per-channel errors and what they mean:

• Your <platform> connection has expired. Reconnect <platform> and try again. (X, LinkedIn, Threads) or Your Facebook connection has expired. Reconnect and try again. (Facebook, Instagram): press Disconnect, then Connect again on the Integrations screen.
• No Facebook Page found on this account. Posting requires a Page you manage.: the Page the connection used is no longer available to it.
• Instagram needs an image. Add one to the post and try again.: attach an image.
• TikTok needs a video — text-only posts are not supported there yet.: TikTok cannot be posted to from here.
• Not connected. Connect <platform> first.: the chip was selected but the connection is gone.

Calendar. The month grid shows every scheduled post as a chip on its day, up to three per day with +N more beyond that. Today's cell is highlighted. Read it for pacing: three chips on Tuesday and nothing for the rest of the week is a distribution problem you can see here and nowhere else. The + on any day starts a post for that date at 9:00 AM.

Scheduled posts. This card is hidden until you have queued something. Each row gives the send time, the post text, an icon per target channel, Image when an image is attached, and a status:

A post being sent right now cannot be cancelled. When a post did not fully go out, the reason is shown under it: each channel that did not take it, by name, with the platform's reason, or a single error that stopped the whole post. A Posted row lists only the channels that failed.

The four counters at the top of the hub. Posts Planned counts the posts in the Scheduled posts list, including ones already sent, failed or cancelled. Outreach Saved counts your saved prospect lists and Mention Alerts counts the brands on your watchlist, both as stored in this browser. Tools is a fixed 7.

The tool grid below lists seven tools with a one-line description each. Clicking a card opens that tool without running it.

Examples#

Screenshots#

Tips#

• Connect only the channels you actually post to. Fewer chips means fewer accidental cross-posts.
• Write to X's limit when X is in the mix. 280 characters reads fine on the other networks, but the reverse is not true.
• Use the calendar + button rather than typing dates. It sets the day and scrolls to the composer.
• Schedule a few minutes out when testing, then watch the row move from Scheduled to Posted.
• Open tools from the grid cards, not the Start button, when you only want to look at a tool without spending a credit.

Best Practices#

• Reconnect a channel as soon as you see an expiry message. Facebook and Instagram connections last about sixty days and do not renew, and a scheduled post on a dead connection fails at send time.
• Check the Scheduled posts card after a batch; anything showing Failed or Interrupted needs attention.
• Keep enough credits for your queue. Scheduled posts are charged when they send.
• Attach an image whenever Instagram is selected, and leave TikTok out of this composer.
• Confirm the Facebook account you connect actually manages a Page, and choose the right Page when asked.
• Pair the hub with Social Analytics to see what the posting is doing, and Brand Monitor to see what people say back.

Common Mistakes#

• Pressing Start in the Quick Social Action row expecting a preview. It runs the tool and charges its credits.
• Selecting Instagram without an image, or selecting TikTok. Both refuse; the other channels still go out.
• Scheduling a time in the past or in the next few seconds. The composer requires at least a minute of headroom.
• Assuming the composer clearing means total success. It clears only when every channel succeeded, but read the rows anyway.
• Reading Posts Planned as upcoming posts only. It counts every post in the list, including sent and failed ones.
• Expecting a teammate to publish from your connections. Connections are per-account.

Limitations#

• One image per post, sent to Instagram only. No video, link-preview or carousel upload, so TikTok cannot be posted to from here.
• Six connectable platforms: LinkedIn, X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Threads.
• Each Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn connection posts to the one account chosen when connecting.
• Facebook and Instagram connections last about sixty days and are not renewed. X, LinkedIn and TikTok renew at publish time when the platform issued a renewal token.
• Scheduled post text is stored up to 4,000 characters, and the queue list shows the 100 most recent entries.
• The background job publishes up to 25 due posts per run, so a very large batch scheduled for the same minute drains across runs.
• Scheduled posts cannot be edited. Cancel and re-create instead.
• The Tools counter and the seven-tool count are static.
• The X and Threads character limits are checked when the post is sent, not blocked in the composer.

Troubleshooting#

FAQs#

Does using the Social Dashboard cost credits? Partly. Connecting a channel, composing, scheduling and cancelling are free. Publishing costs 1 credit for each channel the post actually reaches, so a post to LinkedIn, X and Facebook costs 3, and a channel that fails costs nothing. A scheduled post is charged when it sends. Tools launched from the grid charge their own credits on top. See Cost.

Can I publish on the Free plan? No. Publishing needs a paid plan. On Free you can connect channels, write drafts and use the calendar, but Publish returns This tool needs a paid plan. Free includes the 10 technical SEO tools; upgrade to Pro to unlock the rest., and Schedule is refused with the same message.

Which platforms can I publish to? LinkedIn, X, Facebook and Threads accept text posts. Instagram accepts a post with an image attached. TikTok can be connected but needs a video, so it refuses posts from here.

Where do I connect my accounts? At Dashboard → Account & Team → Integrations, in Connected channels.

Does Metric Vault see my password? No. Connections use OAuth, so you approve access on the platform itself and only a token is stored.

What happens if one channel fails? The others still publish. Each channel reports its own result, and the composer keeps your text so you can retry the failed one.

Do scheduled posts really send on their own? Yes. A background job claims each due post exactly once and publishes it, then marks the row Posted or Failed. See Scheduled social posts.

Can my team post from my connected accounts? No. Connections belong to the account that made them.

What do the counters at the top show? Posts Planned counts the posts in your Scheduled posts list. Outreach Saved and Mention Alerts count saved prospect lists and watched brands stored in this browser. Tools is fixed at 7.