# Social Engine

## What it does

The Social Engine plans, writes and schedules a client's social posts. It runs two separate streams, each with its own dashboard:

- **Company Social**: the company's own LinkedIn page, Instagram, Facebook and Google Business Profile, planned from the social strategy.
- **Thought Leadership**: individual authors posting on their own LinkedIn, each planned from that author's own strategy and voice.

Plain "social" always means Company Social. Say "thought leadership" or name an author for the other one.

## Set it up

Work through these in order. **"What's left to set up for the social engine?"** shows which are done for the client, with the next one to do.

1. **Go-to-market strategy (G2M)** — Build it from the website, or import an existing strategy doc.
2. **Brand identity** — Build it from the website and any brandbook (brand-identity agent).
3. **Social strategy** — Build the social strategy (channels, cadence, formats).
4. **Thought-leadership authors** _(optional)_ — Register the people who post on their own LinkedIn.
5. **Instagram / Facebook** _(optional)_ — Connect the client's Meta business assets.
6. **Google Business Profile** _(optional)_ — Connect the listing so GBP posts can publish.
7. **Image library** _(optional)_ — Connect the client's photo folder for real photos in posts.

The G2M and brand identity come first because the social strategy is built from them. The social strategy gates the Company Social calendar: Nexus won't plan company posts without one.

Steps marked ✋ need a person:

- ✋ Connect Instagram and Facebook: **"Connect Meta for them."** Someone who manages the client's Meta business assets opens the link Nexus posts and picks the pages and accounts. Optional, but the strategy then uses the real audience and top posts.
- ✋ Connect Google Business Profile: the profile's manager opens the link Nexus posts (see the Google Business Profile guide).
- ✋ Connect LinkedIn: each author signs in with their own LinkedIn, and a page administrator connects the company page (see the LinkedIn publishing guide).
- ✋ Share the client's photo folder with the Google account your Nexus team gave you as Viewer, if posts should use real photos (image library).

Your Nexus team turns the engine on once the required steps are done.

## Use it

1. **"Plan next month's social posts."** Nexus plans the company posts from the strategy and links the Company Social dashboard.
2. **"Show the social dashboard."** Review titles, dates, channels and formats. Click a post's title to open it.
3. Draft the copy, approve it, then make the creatives. See the social calendar guide.
4. For authors, plan their month from their own strategy: see the thought leadership guide. **"Show the thought leadership dashboard."** opens their posts.
5. Publish: LinkedIn and Google Business posts can publish from Nexus. Instagram and Facebook posts are drafts; a person posts them and records the live link.

## Maintain

- Blogs that go live can be cross-posted to the company channels (cross-posting guide).
- Refresh the social strategy every quarter, or when the client adds or drops a channel.

## Prompts

- "What's left to set up for the social engine?"
- "Connect Meta for them."
- "Plan next month's social posts."
- "Show the social dashboard."
- "Show the thought leadership dashboard."