Docs / Publish
Ready-to-post packs
Everything to post an episode yourself — the video, its Facebook edit, the thumbnail, the best time, and the title, caption, tags and hashtags for each platform, fitted to its limits.
Every finished episode has a ready-to-post pack: the files, the best time to post, and the words for YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and X, written much as ChannelForge's own publisher writes them — the X tab exactly — and fitted to each platform's limits. Use it when you would rather post by hand — a platform you have not connected, a translation or a compilation, an account a client keeps to themselves — without writing a caption from nothing.
What it does#
The pack is the Post it yourself section of an episode's page. It has three parts.
The files
| Button | What you get |
|---|---|
| Video (MP4) | The episode, vertical 1080 × 1920 — as it is for YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels and LinkedIn, and for X where the account takes its length (most take up to 140 seconds) |
| Facebook edit (MP4) | The episode's own edit under 90 seconds, for Facebook Reels (an episode of 2–3 minutes has one) |
| Thumbnail (JPG) | The cover to choose when you post |
The best time to post — the next of the channel's posting times, in its time zone, and in yours when they differ. A channel with no posting times gets a sensible default: 18:00 in its time zone, early evening.
The words for each platform — one tab per platform. Every box can be edited, shows a live count against that platform's limit (marked as it nears the limit, and past it), copies what is in the box now with Copy, and goes back to the text ChannelForge wrote with Reset. Edits are only for copying: they are not saved.
How to use it#
- Open Episodes (or the channel), then the episode.
- If the channel's schedule is on, press Hold back from the schedule under the video first, so the episode does not also go out by itself.
- Under Post it yourself, download the files you need.
- Pick the platform's tab, read the hint at its top, and adjust the words if you like.
- Press Copy beside each box and paste it into the platform's own app, at the time shown under Best time to post.
Any member can open a pack and download its files, viewers included.
What each tab holds#
| Tab | Boxes and limits | How the words are put together |
|---|---|---|
| YouTube Shorts | Title 100 characters · Description 5,000 (15 hashtags at most) · Tags 500, counted the way YouTube counts them · Hashtags 15 | The episode's description, the channel's YouTube footer, then five hashtags and #shorts. Tags come from the episode and the channel's default tags. |
| Instagram Reels | Caption 2,200 (30 hashtags at most) · Hashtags 30 | The title, the hook line, the call to action, a line with a dot, then five hashtags — the dot keeps them below the caption's preview. (When ChannelForge posts to Instagram itself, it adds up to ten.) |
| Facebook Reels | Caption 2,200 (10 hashtags at most) · Hashtags 10 | The title, the hook line, the call to action and five hashtags. |
| Post 3,000 (5 hashtags at most) · Hashtags 5 | The title and the hook first (LinkedIn shows the opening lines before "…see more"), then the description with its sources, the call to action and three hashtags. (The posts ChannelForge makes on LinkedIn itself leave the description out.) | |
| X | Post 280, counted the way X counts — an emoji or a CJK character is 2 · Hashtags 2 | Exactly the text ChannelForge posts to X itself: the title, the hook line when it fits, the call to action only if the channel asks for one, and two hashtags. Never a link, never an @mention. |
The hashtags start with the channel's lead hashtag, then the episode's own, then the rest of the channel's set. A Hashtags box holds the same hashtags on their own — on Instagram, for example, take them out of the caption and post them as the first comment instead.
Each tab's hint says how to post there: on YouTube, a vertical video of up to 3 minutes is a Short; on Instagram, choose the thumbnail as the Reel's cover; on Facebook, post the Facebook edit, because Reels stop at 90 seconds.
When the pack appears#
- A ready or published episode with a video always has its pack.
- A held episode that was paid for (you held it back yourself) keeps its pack, with a note to read the quality report first. One the quality checks held was not charged: its pack appears once you release it with Release for posting, which costs what it cost to make. See The quality gates and the critic.
- A translation or a compilation is never posted by the schedule, so its pack is how it is posted. A compilation's YouTube description carries its chapters and leaves out #shorts, since a 16:9 video is not a Short. See Compilations and Languages, translations and twin channels.
- A product channel's episode has the product's link, code and disclosure in each platform's words. See Product videos for businesses.
Never twice#
- When ChannelForge has already posted the episode to a platform, its tab carries a posted badge and says so, with a link to the post: posting it again by hand would put it there twice.
- When the episode may post by itself — the channel's schedule is on, the episode is ready and, where the channel asks for approval, approved — a note at the top of the pack says so. Hold it back first, then post by hand.
- A post you make by hand is not known to ChannelForge: it does not appear on Publishing, and the schedule cannot tell it is there. Holding the episode back is what keeps the two apart.
Credits and plans#
The pack is free, in every plan, the Trial included. Downloading the files costs nothing.
Limits and good to know#
- TikTok and Pinterest posts are made on their own screens in the app, where the platform's rules are kept; see TikTok and Pinterest. Threads and Bluesky post on the channel's slots.
- The pack's words are the episode's own. Nothing is added to the video: no logo, no watermark, no label.
- YouTube refuses the characters
<and>in titles and descriptions, so the pack uses look-alikes in their place, as the publisher does. - A long word, a link or a script written without spaces is cut mid-word only when cutting at a word would throw away much of the room.
Related#
- Schedules and autopilot — posting on slots instead
- Episodes — what an episode contains
- Carousels — photo posts made from an episode
- Brand suites — the profile pictures and copy for setting up each platform
Something missing or unclear? Tell us and we will improve this page.