Personalizing Your Post Captions
Overview
When you schedule or edit a post, you can personalize it in two ways:
- Add Your Context, a short note that appears above the caption.
- Rewrite the whole Caption, for content from My Stream.
Before You Start
- You need the Admin or Editor role.
- You can change a post only before it publishes.
How to Add Your Context
- Open the post: click a post on the Calendar, or pick content for a day and continue to the scheduling form.
- Find the Your Context box ("Add a sentence about why you're sharing this...").
- Type up to 280 characters.
- Click Schedule (new post) or Save (existing post).
Your Context appears at the top of the published post. The full post reads in this order: Your Context, caption, attribution, disclaimer, hashtags.
Your Context isn't available for designed posts.
How to Rewrite the Caption (My Stream Only)
For content from My Stream, you can replace the caption with your own text.
- Open a My Stream post.
- Under Caption:, edit the text. You can use up to 2,200 characters.
- Click Schedule or Save.
Your edit replaces the caption on this post only. To go back to the original, clear the field and save. The note under the field says "Editing pins this caption to your version. Clearing the field restores the original source caption."
For content from Streams and for videos, the caption can't be replaced. Add Your Context instead.
Post Length by Platform
Below the caption, Post length by platform shows the full length of the post, including attribution, disclaimer and hashtags, for each platform with a character limit, such as Instagram and TikTok.
- When a platform gets close to its limit, you'll see how many characters are left.
- When it's over, you'll see a message such as "Instagram posts are limited to 2,200 characters. This post is 40 over."
- Click Added when posted to see the attribution, disclaimer and hashtags that are added for you.
When you save changes to a post that's over a limit, Social Cascade asks you to shorten the caption or context first.
If an Instagram post is still over 2,200 characters at publish time, Social Cascade trims it: linked hashtags go first, then the end of the caption is cut and replaced with "…". Your attribution and disclaimer are kept.
Character Limits
| Field | Limit | Available for |
|---|---|---|
| Your Context | 280 characters | All posts except designed posts |
| Caption | 2,200 characters | My Stream content only |
Troubleshooting
| Issue | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| I can't edit the caption | The post's content isn't from My Stream. | Use Your Context instead. |
| I don't see Your Context | It's a designed post, the post has published, or you're a Viewer. | Designed posts don't use Your Context. For the other cases, ask an Admin or Editor, or schedule a new post. |
| My change didn't save | A box with only spaces counts as empty, which clears it. | Type at least one visible character, then save. |
| I can't save because the post is too long | The full post is over a platform's limit. | Shorten Your Context or the caption until Post length by platform shows no warning. |
| I need to change a published post | Published posts can't be edited. | Delete the post and schedule it again. |
FAQ
Q: Where does Your Context appear? A: At the very top of the post, before the caption.
Q: Can I use Your Context and a rewritten caption on the same post? A: Yes, for My Stream content. Your Context comes first, then your caption.
Q: If a post goes to several platforms, does my rewritten caption apply to all of them? A: Yes. The caption and Your Context belong to the post, so every platform it's scheduled to gets the same text.