Connect your first social media channel
A connected social channel is required before you can schedule posts. You connect it once per brand in Backstage and sign in directly with the platform.
Time needed: about 5 minutes. You need: the login details for your social account and the owner or admin role. Start and finish the connection in the same browser.
Why do you connect a channel now?
Without a channel, you can’t create or schedule a publication. If you click Schedule, the dialog “No channel connected yet” appears and sends you to Backstage. The Calendar shows “No channel connected — scheduling is locked.” Viewing, unscheduling and deleting still work. The “Brand setup” card reminds you under Get ready to publish: “Connect your social channel, otherwise scheduled posts cannot be published.”
How do you connect a channel?
- Open Connections. Go to Backstage › Connections. You’ll see one card per platform, in the order Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube. TikTok only appears if it’s enabled for you.
- Click connect for the platform. For example Connect Instagram.
- Sign in with the platform. companycore sends you to the platform’s sign-in page, as a full page rather than a popup. Sign in there and confirm all the permissions it asks for.
- Back in Backstage. The card shows the green badge “Connected”. If something goes wrong, a notice appears in the pattern “Instagram: …”.
- Check the target (Facebook and LinkedIn only). Under Target profile, you choose the Facebook Page, or the LinkedIn profile or company page. When you first connect, Facebook sets the first Page it finds, so check that it’s the right one. The app confirms with “Saved”.
Finish in the same browser
Complete the process in the browser where you started it. Otherwise the app reports (in German) that the security check failed and asks you to connect again in the same browser, or that the session has expired. Then just start again.
What do you need for each platform?
| Platform | What you need | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| A professional Instagram account. The app calls it an “Instagram business account”. | Sign-in runs through Instagram itself. You don’t need a Facebook Page for this. Each brand has one Instagram account and no target selection. | |
| A Facebook Page you’re allowed to manage. | companycore publishes to Pages, not to personal profiles or in groups. If the app can’t find a Page, it says “No pages found”. | |
| Your personal profile or a company page where you’re an administrator. | You choose one target per brand under Target profile. | |
| TikTok | A TikTok account. | The card only appears once TikTok is enabled for you. |
| YouTube | The Google account that owns the YouTube channel. If you don’t have a channel, create one first. | Manager access from YouTube Studio isn’t enough. In the Google dialog, leave all the checkboxes (upload and view channel) checked. |
TikTok is being rolled out step by step. Each platform has its own guide:
Connections apply per brand
The app says: “Connections apply to this brand: each brand connects its own accounts.” There’s one account per platform for each brand. If you have several brands (from Pro), you connect the accounts for each brand separately.
Who can connect channels?
Owners and admins always can connect channels. Editors can only if the owner has turned on the Manage social accounts switch under Settings › Permissions. It’s off by default. Viewers and clients can never connect. To connect, you need an active plan, and the trial counts. Disconnecting always works, even without a plan.
How can you tell it worked?
The card shows “Connected”, and in the “Brand setup” card, Get ready to publish is checked off. Where possible, companycore renews connections automatically. If that doesn’t work, the app lets you know with “Connection expires soon” before anything goes wrong. What to do when a connection is lost is in Connection lost.
Frequently asked questions
Can I connect several accounts of the same platform?
Per brand, it’s one account per platform. You can only have several accounts of the same platform through several brands, which are available from the Pro plan.
Can I post to my personal Facebook profile?
No. companycore publishes to Facebook Pages, not to personal profiles and not in groups.
Do I have to enter my password at companycore?
No. You sign in directly with the platform, not with companycore.
What happens to scheduled posts if I disconnect?
They stay in the Calendar. At the scheduled time, though, they aren’t published as long as no account is connected. The app warns you before you disconnect: “Without a connected account, scheduled posts for this target will not be published.”
Result
At least one channel shows “Connected”, and for Facebook and LinkedIn the target is chosen. Now you can schedule posts. Next, you write your first post.
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