Why Did My Social Media Post Fail?

This article applies to all themes and to users with Social Publisher permissions.

Common Reasons for Social Media Post Failures

If your social media post did not publish as expected, there are several common reasons this may occur. Use the troubleshooting steps and examples below to help identify and resolve the issue.

1. Outages

One of the main reasons your social posts may fail is due to server outages or issues with a specific social network.

Example error message: "Error posting to Facebook. # An unexpected error has occurred. Please retry your request later."

See the images below for examples of failed message warnings due to server issues:

2. Duplicate Posts

Social networks have rules to prevent duplicate content:

• Twitter requires at least 10 tweets between identical or copied posts.
• Facebook requires at least one other post between duplicates.

Example error messages:

• "Error posting to Facebook # Duplicate status message."
• "Error posting to Facebook. # Facebook anti-spam rules prevent posting the same post to the same account or page without a different post in between. Please ensure there is at least one other post or change with account/page to post to before posting this one again."

See the images below for examples of duplicate post warnings:

3. Corrupt URL Link or Media File

If your post contains a corrupt image file or a malformed URL, it may fail to publish. This can happen if you copy and paste or save files from other websites.

Example error messages:

• "Error posting to Facebook. (#100) picture URL is not properly formatted."
• "Error posting to Twitter. (#400) error code 44 message: media ids parameter is invalid."

4. Facebook Token Not Authorized

Facebook regularly verifies your account with the SoCast platform. If Facebook cannot verify your account, you may need to re-authorize your Facebook token.

For instructions, see: How Do I Re-authorize My Facebook Token?

Example error message: "Error posting to Facebook. # There is a problem with your token or your permissions. Please re-authorize our app by clicking the Authorize button in the social tab of the SoCast admin, then follow the instructions provided in the pop-up."

Summary

If your social media post fails, check for network outages, duplicate content, corrupt media or URLs, or issues with your Facebook token. Reviewing the error messages and examples above can help you quickly identify and resolve the problem.