Status Settings

Status Settings define the status(es) to automatically send to your social media account(s) linked with your Hootsuite account, depending on the Post Action being performed on a Post, Page or Custom Post Type (for example, whether a Post is first published, or an existing published Page is updated).

For each Post Type, WordPress to Hootsuite Pro provides options to:

• Define Default status messages, depending on the Post Action being performed on the Post.
• Choose which Social Media account(s) to send content to
• Optionally define social media account specific status messages, which override the Default status messages

To set your status messages, in the WordPress Administration, click on the WP to Hootsuite Pro > Settings in the menu.

WordPress to Hootsuite provides a three level granular control of status(es):

• Post Type
  • Profile
    • Post Action

Post Type

Depending on your theme and plugins, additional tabs may appear as well as the default Posts and Pages tabs. These additional tabs will be registered Custom Post Types.

To edit the status updates to be sent to Hootsuite for a given Post Type, click the relevant tab.

Profile

For each Post Type, you’ll see each of your Hootsuite social media profiles, as well as a Defaults tab, listed on the left of the screen.

• Defaults: Global settings that apply to enabled social media accounts.
• Social Media Accounts: Each social media account linked to your Hootsuite account will be displayed here, one account per tab. Clicking a tab will provide options to enable posting to said social media account, as well as an option to override the default Defaults tab above.
  • Account Enabled: Tick this checkbox if you want to send status updates to this social media profile.
  • Override Defaults: Tick this checkbox if you want to specify a custom set of status updates for this specific social media profile.  If this checkbox is not ticked, the settings on the Defaults tab will be used.

Post Action

When clicking on either the Defaults tab, or a Social Media Profile, status settings are split into four Post Actions:

Post Action	Description
Publish	Statuses defined here will be sent to Hootsuite for scheduled posting to the chosen social networks, when a new WordPress Post is published.

Update Statuses defined here will be sent to Hootsuite for scheduled posting to the chosen social networks, when an existing published WordPress Post is updated. Repost Statuses defined here will be sent to Hootsuite for scheduled posting to the chosen social networks, when an existing WordPress Post meets the criteria for reposting. Bulk Publish Statuses defined here will be sent to Hootsuite for scheduled posting to the chosen social networks, when an existing WordPress Post is manually chosen by the user through the Bulk Publish screen.

To define the status(es) to send to Hootsuite for a particular action, click that action tab:

Post Action: Publish

• Enabled: Tick this checkbox if you want to send a status update to your Hootsuite account when a Post, Page or Custom Post Type is published.  This also applies to scheduled Posts, Pages and Custom Post Types.

Post Action: Update

The Update Post Action is triggered when an existing published Post is updated (that is, a WordPress User modifies the Post by clicking Update).

Any status(es) defined within the Update tab of either your Defaults, or a specific Social Media Profile, will be used when an existing published Post is updated.

Settings in the Update panel are the same as the Publish section above.

Post Action: Repost

The Repost Post Action is triggered when an existing published Post, that has not been updated for a while, is selected by the Plugin for automatic re-sending to Hootsuite.

Any status(es) defined within the Repost tab of either your Defaults, or a specific Social Media Profile, will be used .

Settings in the Repost panel are the same as the Publish section above.

Refer to the Repost Documentation to understand how reposting works, and where to define the conditions that determine which published Post(s) should be automatically re-posted to Hootsuite.

Post Action: Bulk Publish

Any status(es) defined within the Bulk Publish tab of either your Defaults, or a specific Social Media Profile, will be used when you manually use the Plugin’s Bulk Publish functionality.

Settings in the Bulk Publish panel are the same as the Publish section above.

Refer to the Bulk Publish Documentation to understand how to manually Bulk Publish Posts to Hootsuite.

Add Status

To add a status to a given action and/or profile:

• Navigate to the Post Type
  

  

• Click on the Profile (or, to specify status(es) that you might use across multiple Profiles, click the Defaults tab)
  

  

• Click the applicable Post Action tab (Publish, Update, Repost, Bulk Publish), depending on when you want the status(es) to be sent:
  

  

• Tick the Enabled option
• Click the Add Status Update button in the table that appears:
  

  

• Refer to the Status: Editing section below to configure the status.
• Click the blue Update button when you’ve finished editing a status.

Edit Status

To edit an existing status:

• Click the Edit icon (pencil) next to the status that you want to edit
  

  

• Refer to the Status: Editing section below to configure the status.
• Click the blue Update button when you’ve finished editing a status.

Delete Status

To delete a status:

Reorder Status Updates

To re-order a status updates:

• Drag and drop them by using the move icon
  

  

Save Statuses

You can add, edit, delete and re-order statuses for a Post Type until you’re happy with your settings.

Once done, it’s important to apply those changes by saving them.

To save changes:

• Click the blue Update button if you’re editing a status
  

  

• Click the blue Save button towards the bottom of the screen
  

  

On screen conformation will be displayed showing that the status settings have been saved.

Status: Editing

When adding or editing a status update, the following form is displayed below the status:

Make the applicable changes, described below, and then click the Update button when done.

Status: Text

To define the status text, edit the main textarea.

Refer to the Documentation for Post-specific Tags that can be used in this field.

Status: Scheduling

For each defined status, several options are available to define where (and when) a status should appear in your Hootsuite queue when the Post is published, updated, reposted or bulk published.

Post Immediately

Posts the status update to your social media profile immediately.

Custom Time

Schedules the status update in your Hootsuite queue for a given offset in days, hours and minutes relative to the Post’s last updated date and time (for publishing new Posts, this will be the Post’s published date and time).

For example, to schedule the status update in your Hootsuite queue to be sent to your to social media profiles 2 days after your Post is published, updated, reposted or bulk published:

• Days: 2
• Hours: 0
• Minutes: 0

Custom Time (Relative Format)

Schedules the status update in your Hootsuite queue for a given offset relative to the Post’s last updated date and time (for publishing new Posts, this will be the Post’s published date and time).

For example, to schedule the status update in your Hootsuite queue to be sent the Tuesday your Post is published, updated, reposted or bulk published at 9am:

• The next: Tuesday
• at: 09:00

Custom Time (based on Custom Field / Post Meta Value)

Schedules the status update in your Hootsuite queue for a given offset in days, hours and minutes relative to the Post’s Custom Field / Meta Field.

For example, to schedule the status update in your Hootsuite queue to be sent to your social media profiles 2 days after the date given in your Post’s Custom Field called event_date:

• Days: 2
• Hours: 0
• Minutes: 0
• Before / After: After Custom Field Value
• Custom Meta Field Name: event_date

For example, to schedule the status update in your Hootsuite queue to be sent to your social media profiles 12 hours before the date given in your Post’s Custom Field called my_date:

• Days: 0
• Hours: 12
• Minutes: 0
• Before / After: Before Custom Field Value
• Custom Meta Field Name: my_date

Supported values for your Custom Meta Field can be found on PHP’s Documentation for Supported Date and Time Formats.  These include, but are not limited to:

• yyyy-mm-dd (e.g. 2019-01-01)
• yyyy-mm-dd Hh:ii:ss (e.g. 2019-01-01 13:12:00)
• Timestamps (e.g. 1571847286)

The Events Calendar

Refer to the Documentation for applicable scheduling options when creating or editing status(es) for an Event.

Events Manager

Refer to the Documentation for applicable scheduling options when creating or editing status(es) for an Event.

Modern Events Calendar

Refer to the Documentation for applicable scheduling options when creating or editing status(es) for an Event.

Specific Date and Time

Schedules the status update in your Hootsuite queue for the given date and time.

Status: Choose a Pinterest Board

When specifying status(es) for Pinterest, a field is displayed above each status text field:

Enter the full URL of the Pinterest Board that you want to post the status to.

• This must be a Pinterest Board that can be posted to by the Pinterest Profile you’re defining the status for.
• An example URL would be https://www.pinterest.co.uk/n7studios/wordpress-to-hootsuite-pro/

Status: Image

To define the image(s) to attach to the social media post, select an applicable option:

• No Image
• Use Feat. Image, not Linked to Post
• Use Text to Image, not Linked to Post

For a deeper understanding of each option, refer to the Link Previews and Images documentation.

If the image setting for the status has been set to Use Featured Image, not Linked to Post, an option is displayed below called Additional Images, with two choices:

• Specified in Post settings: Only include additional images in the status if images are specified in the Featured and Additional Images settings on the individual WordPress Post
• Auto populate from Post content: As above, but also includes images from the Post content, up to the maximum number of images supported for the social network.

Status: Text to Image

If the image setting for the status has been set to Use Text to Image, Not Linked to Post, an option called Text to Image is displayed, allowing you to specify some text.

This text is then converted to an image, and the image is included with the status when scheduled on social media:

This is useful if, for example, you want to schedule statuses to a Social Media profile that requires images (e.g. Instagram or Pinterest), but your Post might not support Featured Images, or you might not want to use Featured Images.

For color, background image and text styling options, refer to the global Text to Image Settings.

Status: Conditions

For each status update, you can conditionally choose to send the status to Hootsuite based on certain Post parameters, such as the Post’s date range, Author, Taxonomy Terms and/or Custom Field Values.

To do this, navigate to the Post Conditions section of the status.

Status: Conditions: Post

For each status update, you can conditionally choose to send the status to Hootsuite based on whether a Post has (or does not have) values for the Post Title, Excerpt and/or Content.

This is useful if, for example:

• Your status message uses the {content} tag, but the Post doesn’t have any Content (perhaps published in error),
• You want to define multiple statuses, each with different text, depending on whether the Post Title contains a specific keyword

To define Post Title, Excerpt and/or Content conditions for a status update, the following options are available:

• Key: Post Title, Excerpt or Content
• Compare: The method used to compare the Post’s custom field value to the Value below.
• Value: The value to compare.

The available comparison methods are:

InThe Post’s Title/Excerpt/Content must match one of the given Values.  Multiple Values are comma separated.

Comparison Method	Description
Equals	The Post’s Title/Excerpt/Content must exactly match the Value given
Does Not Equal	The Post’s Title/Excerpt/Content must be different from the Value given
Greater Than	The Post’s Title/Excerpt/Content must be greater than the Value given.  This only works with numeric values.
Greater Than or Equal To	The Post’s Title/Excerpt/Content must be greater than or equal to the Value given.  This only works with numeric values.
Less Than	The Post’s Title/Excerpt/Content must be less than the Value given.  This only works with numeric values.
Less Than or Equal To	The Post’s Title/Excerpt/Content must be less than or equal to the Value given.  This only works with numeric values.
Not In	The Post’s Title/Excerpt/Content must not match all of the given Values.  Multiple Values are comma separated.
Like	The Value given must be equal to, or within, the Post’s Title/Excerpt/Content
Not Like	The Value given must not be equal to and not within the Post’s Title/Excerpt/Content
Empty	The Title/Excerpt/Content has no value. The Value field is ignored.
Not Empty	The Title/Excerpt/Content has any non-empty value. The Value field is ignored.

For example, to only have a status be sent to Hootsuite when the Title has any value:

• Attribute: Title
• Compare: Not Empty
• Value: (leave blank)

For example, to only have a status be sent to Hootsuite when the Excerpt contains the word “hello”:

• Attribute: Excerpt
• Compare: Like
• Value: hello

For example, to only have a status be sent to Hootsuite when the Title is either “Title1” or “Title2”:

• Attribute: Title
• Compare: In (Comma Separated Values)
• Value: Title1,Title2

Status: Conditions: Dates

For each status update, you can conditionally choose to send the status to Hootsuite based on whether a Post falls between two given dates.

This is useful if, for example:

• You only want to send statuses for Posts in a specific month (or months),
• You want to define multiple statuses, each with different text, but only have one status send depending on the Post’s date.

To define date conditions for a status update, complete the following fields:

• Start Date:
  • Compare: Choose a month
  • Value: Enter the day, as a number
• End Date
  • Compare: Choose a month
  • Value: Enter the day, as a number

To remove date conditions:

• Leave the Day fields blank
• Select Any Month from the Month dropdowns

Status: Conditions: Taxonomies

For each status update, you can conditionally choose to send the status to Hootsuite based on whether a Post has (or does not have) specific Taxonomy Terms (categories, tags etc).

This is useful if, for example:

• You want to send different status updates for a Post depending on the Post Category,
• You do not want to send status updates for a Post belonging to a specific Category,
• You want to send different status updates to different Pinterest boards depending on the Post Category

To define conditions for a status update:

• Compare: Choose a comparison method
  • No Conditions
    Do not apply any conditions to this status update for the given Taxonomy.
  • Post(s) must include ANY Terms 
    The Post must have at least one of the Taxonomy Terms you specify, for the status update to be sent to Hootsuite.
  • Post(s) must include ALL Terms
    The Post must have all of the Taxonomy Terms you specify, for the status update to be sent to Hootsuite.
  • Post(s) must exclude ANY Terms
    The Post must not have any of the Taxonomy Terms you specify.  If the Post does contain one or more of the Taxonomy Terms you specify, the status update will not be sent to Hootsuite.
• Value
  • In the text input beside the Compare dropdown option, start typing the Taxonomy Term Name(s) that you require for this condition.
  • As you start typing, your existing Taxonomy Term Name(s) will appear in the list.  Click on a term to add it.
    

    

  • To remove an existing Taxonomy Term, click the small cross to the left of the term
    

    

Click Save to update your settings.

Status: Conditions: Polylang

If using the Polylang Plugin for multilingual WordPress web sites, you can conditionally choose to send a status to SocialPilot based on the Post’s language, by using the Language taxonomy:

This is useful if you want to specify language-specific statuses, or only send a status based on the Post’s language.

Status: Conditions: WPML

If using the WPML Plugin for multilingual WordPress web sites, you can conditionally choose to send a status to SocialPilot based on the Post’s language, by using the WPML condition:

This is useful if you want to specify language-specific statuses, or only send a status based on the Post’s language.

Status: Conditions: Custom Fields

For each status update, you can conditionally choose to send the status to Hootsuite based on whether a Post has (or does not have) Custom Field Values (sometimes referred to as Meta Key values).  More than one rule can be specified per status, and each rule can have different comparison operators for the same or different Custom Fields.

This is useful if, for example:

• You want to send different status updates for a Post depending on the value of a Custom Field, such as an Advanced Custom Field value or meta key value,
• You do not want to send status updates for a Post where a meta key value is missing (such as your SEO Plugin’s Title field)

To define conditions for a status update, use the Custom Fields table:

• To add additional conditions, click the Add Meta  / Custom Field Condition button.
• To remove an existing condition, click the Remove button for the row you want to remove.

For each condition, the following options are available:

• Key: The Custom Field (meta key) to inspect
• Compare: The method used to compare the Post’s custom field value to the Value below.
• Value: The value to compare.

The available comparison methods are:

Comparison Method	Description
Equals	The Post’s Meta Key’s Value must exactly match the Value given
Does Not Equal	The Post’s Meta Key’s Value must be different from the Value given
Greater Than	The Post’s Meta Key’s Value must be greater than the Value given.  This only works with numeric values.
Greater Than or Equal To	The Post’s Meta Key’s Value must be greater than or equal to the Value given.  This only works with numeric values.
Less Than	The Post’s Meta Key’s Value must be less than the Value given.  This only works with numeric values.
Less Than or Equal To	The Post’s Meta Key’s Value must be less than or equal to the Value given.  This only works with numeric values.
In	The Post Meta Key’s Value must match one of the given Values.  Multiple Values are comma separated.
Not In	The Post Meta Key’s Value must not match all of the given Values.  Multiple Values are comma separated.
Like	The Value given must be equal to, or within, the Post’s Meta Key’s Value.
Not Like	The Value given must not be equal to and not within the Post’s Meta Key’s Value.
Empty	The Post’s Meta Key exists, but has no value. The Value field is ignored.
Not Empty	The Post’s Meta Key exists, and has any non-empty value. The Value field is ignored.
Not Exists	The Meta Key must not be specified on the Post.  The Value field is ignored.

For example, to only have a status be sent to Hootsuite when the Custom Field yoast_seo_title has any value:

• Attribute: yoast_seo_title
• Compare: Does Not Equal
• Value: (leave blank)

For example, to only have a status be sent to Hootsuite when the Custom Field price is greater than 10, and the Custom Field quantity is greater than or equal to 1:

• Attribute: price
• Compare: Greater Than
• Value: 10

 

• Attribute: quantity
• Compare: Greater Than or Equal To
• Value: 1

For example, to only have a status be sent to Hootsuite when the Custom Field _location_id matches 1 or 2:

• Attribute: _location_id
• Compare: In (Comma Separated Values)
• Value: 1,2

Status: Conditions: Authors

For each status update, you can conditionally choose to send the status to Hootsuite based on:

• A Post’s Author matches one or more given specified Authors (WordPress Users),
• A Post’s Author matches one or more given specified Roles,
• A Post’s Author user metadata

This is useful if, for example:

• You only want to send statuses for Posts belonging to specific Authors,
• You want to define multiple statuses, each with different text, depending on whether an Author has specific metadata.

Authors

To define Author conditions for a status update:

• Compare: Choose a comparison method
  • Equals
    The Post’s Author must match one of the Value(s) specified, for the status update to be sent to Hootsuite.
  • Does Not Equal
    The Post’s Author must not match all of the Value(s) specified, for the status update to be sent to Hootsuite.
• Value
  • In the text input beside the Compare dropdown option, start typing the User / Author Name(s) that you require for this condition.
  • As you start typing, matching Author usernames will appear in the list.  Click on an Author to add it.
    

    

  • To remove an existing Author, click the small cross to the left of the username
    

    

Roles

To define Author Role conditions for a status update:

• Compare: Choose a comparison method
  • Equals
    The Post’s Author’s Role must match one of the Value(s) specified, for the status update to be sent to Hootsuite.
  • Does Not Equal
    The Post’s Author’s Role must not match all of the Value(s) specified, for the status update to be sent to Hootsuite.
• Value
  • In the text input beside the Compare dropdown option, start typing the Role Name(s) that you require for this condition.
  • As you start typing, matching Roles will appear in the list.  Click on a Role to add it.
    

    

  • To remove an existing Role, click the small cross to the left of the role
    

    

Custom Fields

To define conditions for a status update, related to the Post’s Author, use the Custom Fields table:

• To add additional conditions, click the Add Custom Field Condition button.
• To remove an existing condition, click the Remove button for the row you want to remove.

For each condition, the following options are available:

• Key: The Custom Field (author/user’s meta key) to inspect
• Compare: The method used to compare the Author’s custom field value to the Value below.
• Value: The value to compare.

The available comparison methods are:

Comparison Method	Description
Equals	The Author’s Meta Key’s Value must exactly match the Value given
Does Not Equal	The Author’s Meta Key’s Value must be different from the Value given
Greater Than	The Author’s Meta Key’s Value must be greater than the Value given.  This only works with numeric values.
Greater Than or Equal To	The Author’s Meta Key’s Value must be greater than or equal to the Value given.  This only works with numeric values.
Less Than	The Author’s Meta Key’s Value must be less than the Value given.  This only works with numeric values.
Less Than or Equal To	The Author’s Meta Key’s Value must be less than or equal to the Value given.  This only works with numeric values.
In	The Author Meta Key’s Value must match one of the given Values.  Multiple Values are comma separated.
Not In	The Author Meta Key’s Value must not match all of the given Values.  Multiple Values are comma separated.
Like	The Value given must be equal to, or within, the Author’s Meta Key’s Value.
Not Like	The Value given must not be equal to and not within the Author’s Meta Key’s Value.
Empty	The Author’s Meta Key exists, but has no value. The Value field is ignored.
Not Empty	The Author’s Meta Key exists, and has any non-empty value. The Value field is ignored.
Not Exists	The Meta Key must not be specified on the Author.  The Value field is ignored.

For example, to only have a status be sent to Hootsuite when the Custom Field facebook has any value:

• Attribute: facebook
• Compare: Does Not Equal
• Value: (leave blank)

Save Statuses

To save changes:

• Click the blue Update button if you’re editing a status
  

  

• Click the blue Save button towards the bottom of the screen
  

  

On screen conformation will be displayed showing that the status settings have been saved.

Per-Profile Status Settings

For each Social Media Profile, it’s possible to define different status(es) with their own unique settings.

To do this:

• Navigate to the Post Type
  

  

• Click on the Profile (in this case, the WP Zinc Test Facebook Page):
  

  

• Tick both the Account Enabled and Override Defaults options
  

  

• Click the applicable Post Action tab (Publish, Update, Repost, Bulk Publish), depending on when you want the status(es) to be sent:
  

  

• Tick the Enabled option
• Add, edit, delete or re-order statuses as necessary, referring to the above Documentation.

These status settings will then be used for status(es) for the given specific social media profile.

Testing

Sometimes Publishing or Updating a Post, Page or Custom Post Type may (or may not) send statuses as expected.

WordPress to Hootsuite Pro’s Test Mode allows you to test your Plugin and status(es) configuration, logging the result as if a status would be sent to Hootsuite, without actually sending it.

1. Enable Test Mode

Enable Test Mode in the Plugin’s Settings.

2. Enable Logging

Enable Logging in the Plugin’s Settings.

3. Test: Publish or Update

In the WordPress Administration, either publish the Post in question, or update the existing published Post, depending on which action you want to test.

In WP to Hootsuite Pro > Logs, filter by Result = Test:

You’ll see status(es) that would have been sent.  Make a note of any errors or issues, and make configuration changes as necessary to resolve: