Content Channels and Schedules

Your brand’s Info tab has two parts that describe where and how often you post:

• Content Channels: the places your brand posts, like your Instagram account or your blog. Each channel has a name, a platform and your account handle.
• Content Schedules: how often you plan to post on a channel, like “Instagram posts every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 10:00”.

Orsa turns your schedules into posting slots. You’ll see them as placeholders on your calendar, as a progress bar on your Home page, as Posting Cadence in Brand Pulse, and as suggested times when you schedule a post.

You need at least one channel and one schedule to finish brand setup. See The setup checklist.

Open them from your brand’s Info tab, then click Content Channels or Content Schedules.

Quick start (5 minutes)

1. Open your brand’s Content Channels.
2. Click New Channel. Type a Name like Instagram, pick Instagram as the Platform, and type your Account Handle, like @sunrisebakery.
3. Click Save.
4. Click Content Schedules, then New Schedule.
5. Type a Name like Weekday posts and pick your Instagram channel.
6. Leave Frequency on Weekly, tick Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and pick Instagram Post as the Content Type.
7. Set Time of Day to 10:00, then click Create Schedule.

Your calendar now shows a placeholder every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 10:00.

Add a content channel

A content channel is one place your brand posts. Add one for each account.

1. Open your brand’s Content Channels.
2. Click New Channel.
3. Fill in the fields:

4. Click Save.

Good to know:

• Use your real handle. For Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok and YouTube, Orsa uses the handle to bring in your public posts once a day, and those channels can be picked in Analyze reports. See How Metrics Are Calculated.
• Two channels on the same platform need different names. For example, Instagram and Instagram Shop.
• Each account can belong to one brand. If the same handle is already a channel in another Orsa brand, the channel isn’t saved.

Channels found on your website

While you’re setting up a new brand, Orsa can read the website on your Google Maps listing. If it finds links to your social accounts, a Social Channels Found box appears above your channels.

1. Look at each found account. It shows the platform and the link it found.
2. Click Add to add it as a channel.
3. Click Edit on the new channel and check the Account Handle. If it shows a full web address, change it to just your username, like @sunrisebakery, and click Save.

Only platforms you don’t have a channel for yet are shown. The box only appears during brand setup. See Set Up Your Brand from Your Website.

Edit, pause or delete a channel

Edit a channel: click Edit on the channel, change any field, then click Save. Click Cancel to leave it as it was.

Pause a channel: click Edit, untick Active, and click Save. The channel then shows Inactive. Orsa AI leaves inactive channels out when it looks at your brand, and they no longer appear in your Analyze reports. Tick Active again to bring it back.

Delete a channel: click the ⋮ menu on the channel, then Delete Channel, then Delete.

Deleting a channel also deletes every content schedule on that channel. Designs that were linked to those schedules show the schedule as “(deleted)”. If you only want to stop using a channel for a while, pause it instead.

Channels vs. connected accounts

A content channel is a label for your planning. It tells Orsa where you post, and lets you build schedules and reports around it. Adding a channel doesn’t let Orsa post for you.

To publish posts straight from Orsa, you also connect the account. Channels on platforms you can publish to show a Connect button. Once connected, the channel shows Connected as @yourname. See Connecting Your Social Accounts.

Twitter/X, Pinterest and Website/Blog channels have no Connect button. They’re for planning only.

Add a content schedule

A content schedule says how often you plan to post one type of content on one channel. You need at least one channel first. Until you have one, the New Schedule button says “Create a channel first”.

1. Open your brand’s Content Schedules.
2. Click New Schedule.
3. Fill in the fields (details below).
4. Click Create Schedule.

Example: a hair salon adds Monthly offer, on its Instagram channel, Monthly on day 1, Instagram Post at 09:00, with the pillar Promotions. On the 1st of every month, a placeholder appears on its calendar.

How frequency works

• Daily: a slot every day.
• Weekly: a slot on each day you tick under Days of Week. You must tick at least one day; otherwise you’ll see “Pick at least one day of the week”.
• Bi-weekly: a slot on the ticked days, every other week. Weeks are counted from the Start Date, so a bi-weekly schedule needs one. For example, a start date of Monday 2 November means that week is “on”, the next is “off”, and so on.
• Monthly: a slot on the Day of Month you pick. Months that don’t have that day get no slot. A schedule on day 31 skips April, June, September, November and most of February.

If you leave Time of Day empty, slots use 09:00.

To pause a schedule, click Edit, untick Active under Status and click Save. Tick it again to bring it back.

Content types for each platform

The Content Type list depends on the channel’s platform. Pick the channel first. Until you do, the list says “Select a channel first”.

Want both Reels and Stories on Instagram? Make two schedules on the same channel, one for each content type.

Pillars and weights on a schedule

The Pillars field records which of your content pillars a schedule’s posts cover. Tick one or more. If your brand has no pillars yet, you’ll see “No pillars for this brand”. See Content Pillars.

When you tick more than one pillar, a number box appears next to each one. This is the pillar’s weight in this schedule, from 1 to 50. A higher number means you plan more of that pillar. The schedule card then lists them like Education (2), Behind the scenes (1).

Example: a gym’s Weekday reels schedule covers Workouts at weight 3 and Member stories at weight 1. That records a plan of roughly three workout reels for every member story.

The weights are saved and shown on the schedule, but nothing in the app uses them yet. Your brand’s overall pillar balance, used in Brand Pulse and on Home, comes from each pillar’s own Target coverage instead. See Target coverage.

Edit or delete a schedule

Edit a schedule: click Edit on the schedule. You can change the name, channel, frequency, days, time, content type, pillars, dates, Active status and description. Click Save. If you change Frequency, the matching day fields appear straight away.

Delete a schedule: click the ⋮ menu, then Delete Schedule, then Delete. Designs linked to it show the schedule as “(deleted)”.

Where your schedules show up

Once a schedule is active, its slots appear in several places.

Your calendar. Each slot is a placeholder with the schedule’s name, under the Schedules layer. Click one:

• On a social channel, choose Create Design to make a blank design for that slot, already linked to the schedule.
• On a Blog Header schedule, choose Create Blog to start a blog for that date.

See Calendar.

Home: Cadence Fulfillment. This widget shows how many of your upcoming slots already have content scheduled. See Cadence Fulfillment in detail.

Brand Pulse: Posting Cadence. This tile asks “Are we posting what we committed to?” It shows each schedule’s past slots as posted or missed, with a rating from Gap to Strong. See Brand Pulse.

Scheduling a post. In a design, add the schedule under Content Schedules in the design’s info panel. When you schedule the post, click Quick Select next to the date to see that schedule’s open slots this month. Slots that already have content show “Already has content scheduled”. See Scheduling a Post.

Orsa AI. Orsa AI can see your active channels and schedules, so you can ask “How often do we post on Instagram?” or “Which days are our Reel slots?”.

When a slot counts as filled

A slot counts as filled when a design linked to that schedule has a post scheduled (or already sent) within 12 hours of the slot’s time.

• Link the design: open it, and under Content Schedules click Select schedules and pick the schedule. Or start it from the calendar placeholder with Create Design, which links it for you.
• Schedule it from the design’s Publish tab.

For a Blog Header schedule, a blog scheduled within 12 hours of the slot fills it.

A design that’s linked but not scheduled yet doesn’t fill the slot.

Example: a café has a slot on Friday at 10:00 for Weekday posts. It links its “Pumpkin latte” design to Weekday posts and schedules it for Friday at 13:00. That’s within 12 hours, so the slot shows as filled.

Ideas for using channels and schedules

Keep a steady rhythm. Put your posting plan into schedules, then use the calendar placeholders as your weekly to-do list.

Example: a florist sets Feed posts (Instagram Post, Mon/Wed/Fri at 11:00) and Weekend story (Instagram Story, Saturday at 09:00). Each Monday they open the calendar and fill the week’s four placeholders.

Plan a campaign window. Use Start Date and End Date for a schedule that only runs during a season.

Example: a toy shop adds Holiday countdown, Daily, Instagram Story, from 1 to 24 December. After the 24th, the placeholders stop by themselves.

Plan your blog. Add a Website/Blog channel and a monthly Blog Header schedule.

Example: an accountant adds Monthly tax tip, Monthly on day 5. Each month they click the calendar placeholder, choose Create Blog, and write it.

Tips for the best results

• One schedule per content type. A Reel plan and a Story plan are easier to track as two schedules than one.
• Set a Start Date on bi-weekly schedules. It decides which weeks are “on”.
• Avoid days 29 to 31 for monthly schedules unless you want months without that day skipped. Day 1 or 28 works every month.
• Link every scheduled design to its schedule. Otherwise Home and Brand Pulse count the slot as missed, even if you posted.
• Pause instead of delete. Deleting a channel deletes its schedules too.
• Write a short description. Notes like “Customer photo + quote” help your team and Orsa AI know what each slot is for.

Common questions

The New Schedule button is greyed out and says “Create a channel first”. Schedules belong to a channel. Add a channel on Content Channels first.

I get “This brand already has a channel with this name”. You already have a channel with that name on that platform. Pick a different name.

I get “This … account (@…) is already connected to another brand”. That account is already a channel in another Orsa brand. Check your other brands.

I get “An identical schedule for this channel already exists”. You already have a schedule on that channel with the same content type, frequency, days, time and dates. Edit the existing schedule instead.

I get “Please select a content type”. Every schedule needs a Content Type. Pick the channel first, then the type.

A schedule says “Content type not set — edit this schedule to fix”. Click Edit, pick a Content Type, and click Save. Until then, it can’t show whether its slots were filled.

My weekly schedule doesn’t show any placeholders. Check that at least one day is ticked under Days of Week, and that the dates you’re looking at are between the Start Date and End Date.

My monthly schedule skipped a month. The month doesn’t have that day. For example, there’s no 31st in November. Pick a day from 1 to 28.

I posted, but Home or Brand Pulse shows the slot as missed. The design has to be linked to the schedule under Content Schedules, and scheduled within 12 hours of the slot. Open the design, link the schedule, and check the scheduled time.

I deleted a channel and my schedules disappeared. Deleting a channel deletes its schedules. Add the channel again, then recreate the schedules. Next time, untick Active to pause a channel instead.

I added a channel. Why can’t I post to it from Orsa? A channel is for planning. To publish, connect the account with Connect. See Connecting Your Social Accounts.

The Info tab shows an orange ! on Content Channels or Content Schedules. Your brand needs at least one channel and one schedule to finish setup. Add them, then see Complete Onboarding.