Advanced Bulk Posting: Unlocking New CSV Upload Options

Save time and streamline your workflow with our enhanced CSV upload feature. Import your content in bulk with ease, now supporting multiple images, post titles, and first comments. Experience the convenience of efficient content management with these powerful new options.

In This Article

• What's New With Bulk Importing Posts From CSV?
• How To Get Your CSV File Ready For Import
• How To Initiate A Bulk Import
• How To Manage Your Bulk Import Options

What's New With Bulk Importing Posts From CSV?

Our CSV Upload feature is here and better than ever 🎉

You can find the option to "Bulk upload from CSV" under the "Discover" hub, in the top menu bar, right next to "Find Content" and "Auto-Importers".

Easily create and upload your CSV file, now with advanced functionality:

• You can import up to 50 images for each post, which can be used for multi-image posts (depending on the limits imposed by each social platform) and/or media variations.
• You can add a post title for social profiles that allow titles for posts.
• You can even add a first comment for each post (for Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn posts).

We've also improved error detection in uploaded CSV files.

We'll tell you exactly what issues we've spotted and highlight the rows with errors, with the option to exclude valid rows and narrow down what needs correcting.

How To Get Your CSV File Ready For Import

Creating and formatting your spreadsheet properly is an important first step to importing your posts.

To help you get started, you can download our sample CSV file.

1. We recommend that you use software like Google Sheets, Numbers, or Excel  to create your spreadsheet.

Note: You may also use a text editing app, like Notepad, to create your CSV file, in which case you will use commas to separate the content of each column.

2. You may keep the header row; otherwise, the first row should contain your first post.

3. Whether or not you keep the header row, your content must follow this order for each column:

• Column A = Post Text
  • When creating a CSV file in a Notepad-like app, enclose post text in quotation marks to prevent commas within the text from being treated as separators. The quotation marks won't appear in your post when uploaded to SmarterQueue.
• Column B = Link 
  • Links will be shortened if you have link-tracking turned on in your Settings.
• Column C = Image 
  • Images are added to a CSV file in the form of a link. You’ll need to upload your images to the web first, to a platform that will allow you to retrieve public links for them.
  • We recommend the following platforms that can be used to upload images. Images must be in .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .webp, or .gif formats: 

1. https://postimages.org/ - make sure to choose "Direct link" after upload
2. https://imgpile.com/ - make sure to choose "Direct link" after upload

• Google Drive and Dropbox are not recommended to host image URLs as files are not usually visible to the public, or their links take you to a preview page, not the direct image.
• You can add up to 50 images per post, using a comma to separate the links. Video files are not supported for CSV upload
• Column D = Scheduled Time
  • The time must be written yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm with this exact punctuation. If you change a "-" too a "/" for example, the time will not register correctly in your import. 
  • The times used need to be in increments of 5 minutes. For example 10:03 will not be supported, while 10:05 will work just fine.
• Column E = Category
  • Needs to match the names of Categories you have created in your SmarterQueue account
• Column F = Evergreen
  • All Posts are imported using your default Evergreen setting unless you specify otherwise using "Evergreen" or "Once" in Column F.
• Column G = Post Title
  • If you intend to publish posts to social platforms that support/require a title, like Pinterest, you can enter the post title here.
  • If you're using a Notepad-like app for your CSV file, enclose title text in quotation marks to prevent commas from being treated as separators. The quotation marks won't appear in your title on SmarterQueue.
• Column H = First Comment
  • If you intent to publish some or all of these posts to social platforms that support a First Comment (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn), you can add it in advance to the CSV file.
  • If you're using a Notepad-like app for your CSV file, enclose the First Comment text in quotation marks to prevent commas from being treated as separators. The quotation marks won't appear in your First Comment on SmarterQueue.

4. Write all of your posts accordingly filling out each section of the CSV file where necessary.

Note: All columns are optional, but you must have something in at least one of the first three columns (Post Text, a link, or an image).

5. Once you're finished writing and formatting your posts, export the file as a CSV. When saving the CSV file, be sure to choose UTF8-encoding if you have the option.

6. You will be able to review and edit imported Posts before they are added to your Queue, including specifying which Social Profiles to post to 💪 

Note: Keep in mind that CSV stands for Comma Separated Values, meaning that the information in every field of your CSV needs to be separated by commas. When saving as CSV, some software (ex: Numbers) could default to other separators that won't work, based on your Language & Region settings. If your CSV isn't successfully importing, open the file and check if other separators are being used.  

How To Initiate A Bulk Import

1. Select "Discover" from the top menu of your SmarterQueue dashboard, followed by "Bulk upload from CSV".

2. Drag and drop your CSV file onto the screen or click the blue "Upload CSV File' button to initiate the import.

If your CSV file returns errors during import, they will be explained so you can fix them.

In the example above, we can see a red box detailing the errors, followed by a preview of the CSV with the problematic entries and specific areas in red. We can see the following:

• Line 2: the date is in the past;
• Line 4: the image link isn't working (most likely it's not a public image link;
• Line 5: the Category name doesn't match the ones created within the account.

💡 Top Tip: If you're working with a large file, use the "Exclude valid rows" checkbox to filter out correct entries and identify the ones with errors easily.

3. If there are no errors, the file will upload and you'll see all of your posts inside of the Bulk Editor.

4. Using the Bulk Editor, you can then adjust any aspect of your imported content, as you would in the Post Editor when creating/editing individual posts:

• Click on "Show More" for each post to start editing:

• Select the social profiles the post will be published to, as well as the Category (unless pre-selected based on the information in the CSV file, which can still be modified if needed).

• Use any of the familiar features to edit the posts further. You can customize each post per profile, use Snippets, the AI Assistant, add text or media Variations, etc.
• Check the post Timing and Evergreen options and select how posts should be published (unless pre-selected based on the information in the CSV file, which can still be modified if needed).
• Make any edits to your link settings.
• Review the uploaded images and add media where needed.
• If you added a "Title" to the CSV file, make sure to select a social profile that has a title box, such as Pinterest, to apply the title text to it.

• If you added a "First Comment" to the CSV file, make sure to select a social profile that support the feature, then click on "Add First Comment" on the post to apply the text to it.

5. Once ready, save your posts for publishing.

How To Manage Your Bulk Import Options

When importing a large amount of content, it's important to minimize effort and maximize time-saving. The Bulk Editor includes a series of presets to handle time-consuming post settings for each imported post. You can find all of these presets under the "Bulk Actions" button:

These presets are split into 3 main categories:

1. Post Targeting:

You can check the box next to each available preset to enable it and make a choice on the exact action you want the Bulk Editor to take by default.

This section includes:

• Post Status: Select if the imported content should be saved as a "Draft" or sent to the Queue as "Active" to be published.
• Select Profile: Set the social profiles that posts should be associated with by default.
• Select a Category: Set the default Category for posts (a different Category specified in the CSV file will take priority).
• Instagram Post Type: Set if posts associated with Instagram profiles will be Queued as Feed/Reel posts or Story posts by default.
• Instagram Publishing: Select if SmarterQueue should attempt Direct Publishing for Instagram posts, or use the Mobile Notification Workflow.

2. Link Settings:

You can check the box next to each available preset to enable it and make a choice on the exact action you want the Bulk Editor to take by default.

This section includes:

• Original: Choose whether to keep link as entered in the CSV file or share the destination URL that the link redirects to.
• Existing UTM: Choose whether or not to keep any existing UTM parameters added to the links in the CSV file.
• Google Analytics: Add new UTM parameters (based on your existing UTM Settings) to your links.
• Click Tracking: Enable to set your preferred link tracking settings.

3. Scheduling:

You can check the box next to each available preset to enable it and make a choice on the exact action you want the Bulk Editor to take by default.

This section includes:

• Position In Queue: If you've set the post as "Active" under "Post Status" in the "Post Targeting" list of presents, you can now decide if the post should be sent to the Top or Bottom of the Queue (if you add a specific date and time in the CSV file for a post, it will take priority).
• Evergreen Recycling: Set if a post should be Evergreen or not by default, as well as additional expiry settings (if you add a specific Evergreen preference in the CSV file for a post, it will take priority).

Don't forget to click on "Apply Changes" at the bottom of the pop-up once you're done editing, to save all your preset choices.