# Complete Guide to Post Publishing

Source: https://help.ligosocial.com/articles/complete-guide-to-post-publishing

Once you have an idea you like, LigoSocial turns it into a LinkedIn post that you can review, edit, preview and then publish or schedule. This guide walks through that whole flow in the **Publishing Hub**, the page where all your posts live. It is for anyone who has generated their first posts and wants to know what every button does.

## Generate a post from an idea

1. Open your idea bank: click **Create Post** at the top of the sidebar, then **From my idea bank**. In the Classic layout, open **WRITE** > **Post Ideas**. You can also go straight to https://app.ligosocial.com/content-ideas.
2. Find an idea you like and click **Generate** on its card.
3. The request is added to the **Generation Queue** panel on the right. You can keep reviewing other ideas while it runs.
4. When the item is done, click **Click to view posts**. This opens the new post in the Publishing Hub.

Ideas stay in your idea bank until you generate or dismiss them, so you do not have to generate a post straight away. For more on choosing ideas, see [Reviewing and selecting content ideas](https://help.ligosocial.com/articles/reviewing-selecting-content-ideas).

## Find your way around the Publishing Hub

Open it from **Publishing Hub** in the sidebar, or go to https://app.ligosocial.com/publish-post.

![The Publishing Hub with the Your Posts header, status tabs, Labels row and the Create New Posts panel](https://cdn.kamaan.io/kamaan/sites/6a635ec0d7ff039d80923865/images/complete-guide-to-post-publishing-hub-main-69c84494.webp)

- **Your Posts** header: **Search posts** (or press Cmd/Ctrl + K), **Select** to pick several posts at once and move them to the recycle bin, and a **Content Calendar** shortcut.
- **Status tabs**, each with a count: **Drafts**, **Liked**, **Scheduled**, **Failed**, **Published**, **Archived** and **Recycle Bin**.
- **Labels** row: click a label to see only posts with that label, or **New label** to create one. See [Post labels](https://help.ligosocial.com/articles/post-labels).
- **Create New Posts** panel on the right:
  - **Write Post from Scratch** opens **Add Your Own Post**. Type your post and click **Add to Drafts**.
  - **Import from CSV File** adds many posts at once. See [Import posts from a CSV file](https://help.ligosocial.com/articles/import-posts-from-a-csv-file).
  - **Speak Your Idea** opens the idea bank so you can record or type an idea.
  - **Carousels** turns a draft into a swipeable carousel.
  - **Feed shortcuts** lists the keyboard shortcuts.

When the Drafts tab is empty you will see **You've reached feed zero**, with buttons to draft new posts or view your schedule.

## Work with variants

A generated post usually comes in a few versions, called variants, each with a different angle or structure. On the active post card you will see **Variant 1 of 3** (or similar) with arrows on each side. Click the arrows, or press the left and right arrow keys, to compare them.

When you find the version you want, click **Like** in the card footer (or press **L**). A **Choose This Variant?** dialog explains what happens next. Click **Confirm Selection** to move that variant to **Liked Posts** and the other variants to the **Recycle Bin**.

## The post card actions

Each post card has a few direct buttons in its footer:

- **Like**: keep this variant (Drafts only).
- **Carousel**: create a carousel from the post, where carousels are available on your plan.
- **Discard**: move the post to the Recycle Bin (Drafts, Liked and Failed). You can also press Backspace.

Everything else is in the **...** (More actions) menu. The items change with the post's status. For a draft you will see:

![The More actions menu on a post card, showing Publish Now, Reschedule, Unschedule, Edit / format, AI Edit, Alternative hooks, Attach media, Preview on LinkedIn and Share link](https://cdn.kamaan.io/kamaan/sites/6a635ec0d7ff039d80923865/images/complete-guide-to-post-publishing-hub-card-menu-d4804311.webp)

- **Publish Now** and **Schedule for later** (on scheduled posts: **Reschedule** and **Unschedule**)
- **Edit / format**
- **AI Edit**
- **Alternative hooks**
- **Attach media**
- **Labels**
- **Preview on LinkedIn**
- **Share link**
- **Move to Drafts**, **Move to Archive**, **Move to Published** or **Move to Recycle Bin**

## Edit a post yourself

1. Open the **...** menu and click **Edit / format**, or press **E**.
2. Edit the text directly on the card. A small bar gives you **Bold** and **Italic** (select text first), bulleted and numbered lists, and an **@** button to tag a LinkedIn company page.
3. Click **Save**, or press Cmd/Ctrl + Enter. Click **Cancel**, or press Esc, to drop your changes.

Clicking outside the editor does not save, so always use **Save**.

## Improve a post with AI

1. Open the **...** menu and click **AI Edit**.
2. Pick one or more quick options: **Change the hook**, **Adjust length**, **Change tone**, **Enhance clarity** or **Translate**. Some options let you choose a preference, such as shorter or longer, a tone, or a language.
3. Add your own instruction in the text box if you like, for example "Make this more conversational" or "Use a B2B example instead of B2C". You can also dictate it with the microphone.
4. Press Enter or click the send arrow, review the new version, then click **Apply** to keep it or **Discard** to go back.

Results can vary, so read the new version before applying it.

To try a new opening line only, choose **Alternative hooks** from the **...** menu. It suggests three openings that you can copy and paste into your post.

## Add media

Choose **Attach media** from the **...** menu to add images, a video or a PDF to the post. See [Posting images, carousels, PDFs and video](https://help.ligosocial.com/articles/posting-images-carousels-pdfs-and-video-with-ligo).

## Preview before you publish

Choose **Preview on LinkedIn** from the **...** menu. Switch between **Desktop** and **Mobile** to see how the post will look.

![Post preview dialog with Desktop and Mobile options](https://cdn.kamaan.io/kamaan/sites/6a635ec0d7ff039d80923865/images/complete-guide-to-post-publishing-3e7109c8.webp)

Pay most attention to your hook: LinkedIn shows only the first lines before **...more**, so those lines need to make people want to keep reading.

## Publish or schedule

- **Publish now**: open the **...** menu and click **Publish Now** (or press **P**). In the **Do you want to publish this post?** dialog, click **Yes, publish it!**.
- **Schedule**: open the **...** menu and click **Schedule for later** (or press **S**), then pick a date and time.

If your LinkedIn account is not connected yet, you will see **Enable LinkedIn Posting** first. The full steps are in [Post scheduling and publishing](https://help.ligosocial.com/articles/post-scheduling-publishing).

LinkedIn allows up to 3,000 characters, but posts close to that limit are often rejected. If your post is over 2,800 characters, LigoSocial asks you to shorten it before publishing or scheduling.

## Where your post goes next

- **Scheduled**: waiting to go out at its date and time.
- **Published**: live on LinkedIn. To open the live post, find it in the **Content Calendar**, open its preview and click **View on LinkedIn**.
- **Failed**: could not be published. Open the **...** menu and choose **Retry Publish** or **Schedule for later**.

## Remove a scheduled post

Scheduled posts have no Discard button, so unschedule them first:

1. Open the **Scheduled** tab and select the post.
2. In the **...** menu, click **Unschedule**. The post goes back to **Drafts** and you will see "Post unscheduled and moved to drafts."
3. Open **Drafts**, select the post and click **Discard**.
4. To delete it for good, open **Recycle Bin**, then choose **Empty recycle bin** from the **...** menu.

If you only want a different date or time, use **Reschedule** instead.

## Common questions

### How long do posts stay in the Recycle Bin?

Until you empty it. Nothing is deleted automatically. To bring a post back, select it in the Recycle Bin and click **Restore**.

### Can I tag people or companies?

You can tag LinkedIn company pages: in **Edit / format**, type **@** or click the **@** button, then search for the page or paste its URL. Tagging people is not supported yet.

### Can I add hashtags?

Yes. Type them into the post as normal text while editing.