Slack news blast BOT to FaceBook, X, Instagram, LinkedIn (0.00$ PR employee)

Building a Social Media Auto-Poster with Make.com

Hello there, this is Adrian from Time Hackers Lab. I know you guys want to save your most valuable asset - your time.

Today I'm building a tool for my client who doesn't want to manually post across multiple platforms.

He has a Slack channel for his team. He wants to just post something there, then BOOM - it's on all his social media. That's what we call a true blast.

Deep dive into make.com automation flow

Let's look at this flow. It's a bit tricky because these platforms aren't user-friendly interfaces. You can't just upload whatever file and it works.

Here you have to actually work with different API calls for videos and images.

Smart solution: Using Slack as the central hub

As I realize this challenge with different platform APIs, I'm using Slack as the central point. You can upload anything to Slack - that's the beauty of it!

So when you upload something to a public channel, we take that message and route it.

We'll upload that file into Google Drive. From there, we distribute it to Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

Platform-specific requirements breakdown

Only Instagram takes web links, which makes things tricky. They're not all taking the same type of file. Content needs to be 8 megabytes maximum.

We want to route the system as late as possible. I don't want to start the router too early. Otherwise, we'd have to duplicate the Slack and Google Drive processes for each flow.

Slack notifications from HenryTheBot with links to the post on all platforms!

We have Henry the bot saying "external news Auto blasted" across platforms. We have notifications and automations showing what was posted.

Pro tip: Using website blockers for productivity

By the way, I love using this blocker called "Undistracted" because it doesn't allow me to get sidetracked while working.

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/undistracted-hide-faceboo/pjjgklgkfeoeiebjogplpnibpfnffkng?hl=en&pli=1

Video and Image posts require different API calls and Modules…

I discovered the problem! We have to get a video ID, not a post ID.

It's tricky because for us it's just a post (video post, image post, etc.). But the API treats them differently.

Blueprint overview and closing tips

I hope you enjoyed this. I recommend you watch the video for more context.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHTDnbi6a60.

As you see, we're creating very useful, user-friendly applications on the backend. This way, our clients (and ourselves) don't need to do as much but get more results for the time we put in.

If you want something like this built for you, feel free to reach out. I'm also working on making blueprints available, which would be in the description below.

FAQ

Q: What platforms can this automation post to?

A: Currently, it handles Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. But it could be expanded to others.

Q: Do I need coding knowledge to set this up?

A: No coding required, but you do need to understand how Make.com works.

Q: What's the file size limit?

A: 8 megabytes maximum for this setup.

Q: Can it handle both videos and images?

A: Yes, but they require different handling in the automation flow.

Q: How much time does this save?

A: Potentially hours per week if you're posting regularly across multiple platforms.

Have a good day, talk to you later. Bye!