Everything FlowSocial does, explained for people who are new to social media and ads. Read it here, download it, or ask the assistant in the chat at the bottom right.
FlowSocial is one place to plan your social media posts, send them out automatically, run ads that reach the right people, and see in plain words whether it's all working. It's built for business owners, not ads experts.
Most small businesses lose money on ads because they press 'Boost' and hope. Boosting usually brings likes, not customers. FlowSocial does what an experienced ads manager would: it picks who should see your ad, sets a spending limit on every ad, checks your ads every 10 minutes, and pauses an ad that is wasting money. It tells you every time it does something, and why.
For posting, you write a post once, choose where it goes (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Threads and, where switched on, LinkedIn), approve it, and it goes out at your best time by itself, even when you're busy.
Your results are explained in everyday language: how many people saw you, how many reacted, what your ads cost per customer, and whether your brand is growing, steady or slipping, with one clear thing to do next.
You keep full ownership: posts and ads run from your own accounts, and ad money is paid to Facebook, Instagram, Google or LinkedIn directly, never to FlowSocial.
Nothing is posted and no ad starts without a 'yes' from the brand's owner or an admin.
Your first 10 minutes
Three steps get FlowSocial working for you: connect your accounts, tell FlowSocial Studio about your business, and plan your first posts. Ads come when you're ready.
Connect your accounts: open Connected accounts in the menu and press Connect on the apps you use: Facebook and Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Threads or LinkedIn. One is enough to start.
Fill in your brand profile: open Settings → Brand details, choose what you want FlowSocial to help with (grow your page, sell, or both), say what your page or business is about, and choose your country. That's enough to start. If you sell, you can add prices and how people order. FlowSocial Studio then uses these facts in everything it writes, and your money shows in your own currency.
Plan your posts: open Calendar and press Plan with Studio for a whole month written for each app, or press New Post for one post: write it (the writing helper can do a first draft), add a photo, pick the apps, and press Submit for approval.
Approve it: open Approvals, press Review, then Approve and schedule. It goes out by itself at its time.
Only if you want ads: open Ads, press New ad, say what you're promoting and your daily budget. The ad starts switched off until you turn it on.
Not selling anything? That's fine. Creators, communities, churches and groups use FlowSocial just to post regularly and grow. When you add your brand, choose 'Post regularly and grow my page', and FlowSocial leaves out the sales and ads steps. Ads, Sales & leads stay in the menu for later.
Home shows these steps with a progress ring until they're done. Need help on any screen? Open Help & guides at the bottom of the menu, or ask the chat.
Take the 1-minute tour any time from the round profile button at the top right.
Home shows the few things that will make the biggest difference this week, most important first, each with a button to do it: people asking to buy in your comments, buyers waiting for a follow-up, an ad that needs fixing, comments to answer, a holiday to plan for, or posts to line up.
It comes from your own buyers, comments, ads and posts, and changes as you act on it.
The same plan is in your Monday email, so you know what to do even before you open FlowSocial.
When nothing needs you, it says so. Only owners and admins see the plan.
A brand is one business (yours or a client's). Each brand has its own accounts, posts, ads, team and results. Switch between brands at the top of the menu.
If you manage several businesses, 'All brands' shows them on one page with how each is doing, and is where you add a new one.
How many brands you can have depends on your plan: Starter 1, Growth 3, Agency 15.
FlowSocial can only post to, and run ads from, accounts you connect. You connect each app once, on that app's own sign-in page. FlowSocial never sees your passwords.
Open Connected accounts (second item in the menu).
Press Connect on the app you want, for example Facebook and Instagram.
Sign in on the app's own page and allow FlowSocial. Leave every permission ticked, or some features won't work.
You come straight back to FlowSocial, connected. The list at the top shows a green 'Connected' for each account.
Facebook and Instagram: one connection does two jobs. It sends your approved posts and runs your ads. You pick the brand's Facebook Page, Instagram account and ad account. Your Instagram must be a business or creator account linked to your Facebook Page.
TikTok and YouTube: connect them to send approved videos. For YouTube you can also connect Google Ads to run YouTube ads.
Threads and LinkedIn: connect them to send approved posts there too. For LinkedIn you can also connect LinkedIn ads to run ads from your company page.
LinkedIn company page: on the LinkedIn company page card, press Link a company page and sign in with a LinkedIn profile that is an admin of the page. Approved LinkedIn posts then go out as the page. You don't need a personal profile connected; if you have one, choose 'The company page only' or 'The company page and the profile'.
Some connections expire (Facebook logins and LinkedIn after about 60 days). FlowSocial warns you before, and reconnecting takes one click.
Facebook card says some parts are still being checked? Facebook checks each new app before it lets it post, read comments or show results for everyone. Until it finishes, your connection runs ads and collects leads; FlowSocial emails you when the rest is ready, and one press of Reconnect with Facebook switches it on.
Only the brand's owner or an admin can connect or disconnect accounts.
Facebook Page missing from the list? Facebook only shares the Pages you ticked the first time you allowed FlowSocial. On Facebook, open Settings → Business integrations → FlowSocial → View and edit, tick the Page under each permission (including the last one, 'Show a list of the Pages you manage', or Facebook shows a permissions error), save, then connect again.
Disconnecting stops FlowSocial at once and deletes the saved access.
No Facebook Page or Meta ad account yet? How to make them
To connect Facebook, FlowSocial needs a Facebook Page (your brand's public page, not your personal profile) and a Meta ad account. Both are free and take a few minutes. You pay nothing until you choose to run an ad.
Make a Facebook Page: on a computer open facebook.com/pages/create. On a phone, open the Facebook app, tap Menu (☰), then Pages, then Create. Type your brand's name, pick a category (for example 'Bakery' or 'Community'), add your logo and press Create Page.
Make a Meta ad account: with the same Facebook account, open adsmanager.facebook.com. The first time, Facebook makes an ad account for you. If it asks, choose your country, currency and time zone. Choose the currency carefully: it can't be changed later.
Optional, for a business with staff: make a free Meta business portfolio at business.facebook.com and add the Page and ad account to it, so others on your team can help.
Add a payment card only when you want to run an ad: in Ads Manager open Billing and add it there. The ad money goes straight to Facebook, never through FlowSocial.
Come back to FlowSocial, open Connected accounts, press Connect with Facebook, and tick your Page and ad account when Facebook asks.
If FlowSocial says it didn't find a Page or an ad account after you signed in, it shows these same steps on the Facebook card, with a button to try again.
Already have a Page but it didn't show up? Facebook only shares the Pages you ticked. On Facebook open Settings → Business integrations → FlowSocial → View and edit, tick the Page, save, and connect again. You must be an admin of the Page.
Want Instagram too? Switch your Instagram to a business or creator account (Instagram → Settings → Account type) and link it to your Facebook Page (Page settings → Linked accounts → Instagram).
Use the Facebook account that will look after the brand. It becomes the Page's admin and the ad account's owner.
Making the Page and ad account costs nothing. Facebook only charges when an ad you turned on is showing.
Write a post once and send it to several apps. The writing helper can draft it for you, and the preview shows how it will look on each app.
Open Calendar (or Posts) and press New Post.
Tick the apps it should go to: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Threads, LinkedIn.
Write the caption, or press Write with Studio to get three drafts in your brand's voice. Add hashtags if you like.
Add a photo or video from your Media library or upload a new one.
Pick a date and time, or leave it and choose when approving. Then press Submit for approval.
The live preview on the right shows the post as it will look on the app you select, including character limits (for example Threads allows 500 characters).
TikTok and YouTube posts need a video, and ask a few extra questions (like who can see it). FlowSocial checks these before sending.
When you add a video, Video check tells you if its shape, length and sharpness suit Reels, TikTok and YouTube Shorts (for example, a wide video shows with black bars on phones), and whether YouTube will treat it as a Short. The preview shows videos the way Reels, TikTok and Shorts do, full-screen and tall.
FlowSocial can't pick trending sounds from the apps' music libraries for scheduled posts. To use a trending sound, add it to the video before uploading, using music you have the rights to.
Posts you're not ready to send can be saved as drafts.
Real photos of your products, short videos, and questions people can answer usually get the most reactions.
Aim for 3 posts a week at your best times. Regular posting matters more than perfect posts.
FlowSocial Studio plans a whole month of posts the way a professional social media manager would, designs a branded picture for each one, and spreads them over the next four weeks.
Open Calendar and press Plan with Studio. Describe your business in a few sentences, tick where the posts will go (your connected apps are ticked for you), pick what you want this month (for example More followers) and how often to post, up to every day.
Press Plan it for me. Read each post and change any words you like.
Press Design pictures: Studio makes a branded picture for every post, in your brand colour with your logo, and saves them to your Media library. Swap any for your own photo or video.
Under When should they go out, keep Over the next 4 weeks, tick where they go, and press Approve and schedule all.
Studio plans like a senior strategist: about half the posts reach new people, a third build trust, and the rest sell. Each post is written the way its app rewards: a hook for TikTok and Reels, an insight for LinkedIn, searchable words for YouTube, a conversation starter for Threads. For TikTok and YouTube most posts are short videos, with what to film.
With More followers, the month mixes the formats that grow pages: roll calls, this-or-that debates, tag-a-friend posts, fill-in-the-blank, local pride, sayings, tips worth saving and a welcome post, with your business in every one.
Pictures use the colour and logo in Settings → Brand details, so set those first. Real photos and short videos of your business are still the strongest; use designed pictures between them.
The plan uses one Studio credit. Designing pictures for posts you pasted yourself uses one more for the whole batch.
Reply to every comment quickly, or switch on auto-reply in the Inbox. Conversation is what makes a page grow.
Ask your existing customers to follow your page: share a post with them on WhatsApp or by email.
The top of the Calendar shows the holidays and shopping days coming up for your country (Black Friday, Christmas, Eid, Mother's Day, national days and more), and marks them on the calendar. Press Plan posts for it and FlowSocial Studio writes posts leading up to the day.
Set your country once in Settings → Brand details, so local holidays show up (without it you see only days marked almost everywhere).
Open Calendar. Under Coming up, a highlighted card means it's time to start posting about it.
Press Plan posts for it. FlowSocial Studio writes a few posts for before the day and one for the day itself, each with a picture idea.
Check them, add pictures and choose when they go out.
Start 3 to 6 weeks before big shopping days. Most people decide before the day, not on it.
Dates for Eid and Ramadan follow the moon and can move by a day; check before you post.
Groups for your town, school, trade or customers' interests can bring many new followers. FlowSocial Studio writes a post for each group and a polite message to its admins, ready for you to paste.
Find groups your customers are in: search Facebook for your town, area, school or trade, and join the active ones.
Open Calendar and press Share in groups. List the groups, one per line, with who is in each after a dash.
Press Write posts. Copy each group's post and paste it in that group with one of your pictures.
Where a group's rules ban promotion or ask for a fee, copy the admin message, send it to an admin, and post only after they agree.
Facebook doesn't let any app post into groups for you, so these are pasted by hand. Many groups check new members' first posts before they appear.
Post in at most three groups a day. The same post in many groups at once is what Facebook treats as spam and can stop you posting in groups.
Writing posts for up to 10 groups uses one Studio credit.
Tell FlowSocial what you sell and how much you can spend. The assistant picks who should see your ad and writes it. Every ad has a spending limit and starts switched off.
Make sure Facebook and Instagram are connected, with an ad account that has a payment method in Facebook.
Open Ads and press New ad.
Say what you sell in a sentence or two and choose the goal: messages (WhatsApp or Messenger), website visits, sales, sign-ups (leads), or Page followers.
Set a daily budget and the most you'll pay for one result. The assistant suggests sensible numbers.
Check the ad and press create. It starts switched off: press Turn on when you're ready.
Page followers ads show a Like Page button in people's Facebook feed and are judged on what each new follower costs. Facebook only offers them for Facebook Pages; Instagram and Threads grow as new followers see and share your posts.
A 'result' is what you asked for: a message, a sale, a sign-up or a visit. 'Cost per result' is what you spent divided by results. Lower is better.
The money is paid to Facebook and Instagram from your own ad account, never to FlowSocial.
Each ad shows what it spent, how many times it was shown, clicks, results, and what it brought your business, in plain words.
Money is shown in the currency your ad account bills in (that's what the platform charges), with the amount in your own currency beside it, for example '$50 (about £40)'. Home, Sales and Reports add everything up in your own currency at today's rate.
If Facebook isn't showing an ad (for example it's still in review, or the ad account has no money), the ad card explains why and what to do.
Start small: ₦2,000–₦5,000 a day for a week tells you what works before you spend more.
Messages (WhatsApp) ads usually work best for small businesses that close sales in chat.
Turn your best-performing post into an ad: Home shows it under 'Get more people reacting'.
The Ads page checks all your running ads together. When one gets results far more cheaply than another with the same goal, it offers to move money to the one that works, in one tap.
Both ads need at least 1,000 views, and the better one needs a few results within your cost limit, so a lucky day doesn't count.
Moving the money halves the weaker ad's daily budget and raises the better one by 20%. Nothing changes until you tap.
When an ad has worn out (the same people keep seeing it, or people scroll past it), its card offers Make a fresh version: the same audience, goal and budget with a new picture and new words. Pause the old ad once the new one runs.
Money protection: the assistant looks after your ads
Switch on 'Looks after your ads' on Home and the assistant checks every running ad every 10 minutes and protects your money.
If people are ignoring an ad, it lowers the daily budget.
If an ad costs more per result than the limit you set, it pauses it, tries once more the next day at half the budget, and stops it for good if that fails too.
YouTube, LinkedIn and TikTok ads are checked every hour and paused if visits cost more than your limit or nobody taps them.
You are told every time, with the reason, on Home under 'What the assistant did lately'. 'Money protected' on Home shows how much it saved you.
Show your offer to the right professionals in their LinkedIn feed: a picture, a few words and a button, from your company page, with a per-visit spending limit.
Connect LinkedIn in Connected accounts, then press Connect LinkedIn Ads on the same card and allow everything. Pick the ad account if you have more than one.
Open Ads and scroll to LinkedIn ads. Press New LinkedIn ad and pick a picture from your Media library (a landscape picture, 1200 × 627 pixels, looks best).
Write the words above the picture and a headline, choose the button and the web page it opens, the countries, the daily budget and the most you'll pay per visit. The ad is created paused; press Turn on when you're ready.
You need a LinkedIn company page and an ad account in LinkedIn Campaign Manager (linkedin.com/campaignmanager) linked to that page, with a card added. LinkedIn bills that account directly.
The ad appears only in the feeds of the people it's shown to, not on your company page.
LinkedIn bids for you to get as many visits as your daily budget allows. Its smallest daily budget is about $10.
When an ad reaches people in the EU, LinkedIn asks you to confirm it isn't political advertising.
LinkedIn checks every new ad, usually within a day. If it rejects one or stops showing it, the ad is marked Rejected or Not showing on the Ads page with LinkedIn's reason and what to change, and owners and admins get a notice.
Show one upright video with a few words and a button in the TikTok feed of the people you choose, paid from your own TikTok ad account.
Open a TikTok ad account at ads.tiktok.com (TikTok Ads Manager) and add a payment method there under Payment. TikTok won't make any ad, even a switched-off one, until it has a way to pay.
In Connected accounts, press Connect TikTok Ads, sign in to TikTok for Business with the login that owns the ad account, and tick it. If FlowSocial says no ad account was allowed, press Check again.
Open Ads and scroll to TikTok ads. Press New TikTok ad, pick an upright video (5 to 60 seconds) from your Media library, write the words over the video, choose the button and the web page it opens, the countries and the daily budget. The ad is created switched off; press Turn on when you're ready.
Add the brand's logo in Settings → Branding first. TikTok shows it next to the brand's name on the ad.
TikTok's smallest daily budget is about 20 US dollars, in your ad account's own money (for naira, the form works it out from today's rate). TikTok bids for you to get as many visits as the budget allows.
Ads are shown only to adults, in the TikTok feed. TikTok doesn't allow emoji in the words, and the button must open a web page, not WhatsApp.
TikTok bills your ad account directly. FlowSocial never holds your money or sees your TikTok password.
TikTok checks every new ad. If it rejects one or stops showing it, the ad is marked on the Ads page with TikTok's reason and what to change.
People who ask about buying (from ad sign-up forms, messages or your own notes) are listed here with reminders to follow up, so no customer slips away.
Leads from Facebook and Instagram lead forms arrive here with an email alert.
Record a sale against the ad that brought it, so you can see which ads actually make you money.
Home reminds you when buyers are waiting to hear from you. A quick follow-up closes most sales.
On the Ads page, Money in vs money out shows what your ads cost and the sales they brought. Pros also see ROAS (return on ad spend: sales ÷ ad cost) and cost per sale.
Will my ads make money? Work it out: type what a customer pays and what each sale costs you. It tells you the most an ad can pay per sale before you lose money, a safe target, and (for pros) your break-even and target ROAS compared with your real ads.
Comments on your Facebook and Instagram posts and ads arrive in one inbox. Reply from FlowSocial, with suggested replies if you want them.
Turn on Answer new comments automatically (top of the Inbox) and FlowSocial Studio replies to new comments within about 10 minutes, in a warm, professional voice: it welcomes new people, thanks them and invites buyers to message you. Spam, insults, money questions and complaints about an order are left for you, and you get a notice. Each reply uses one Studio credit and is listed in the assistant's log on Home.
Comments that ask about price, delivery, stock or how to order are marked Likely buyer and shown first, and the email alert says when someone is asking to buy. Comments that advertise something else, like a WhatsApp group invite or 'follow me', are never marked as buyers.
Press Add to buyers (or Add all to buyers) to put them on your Sales & leads list with a reminder to follow up tomorrow.
Suggested replies use your brand profile, so they can answer price or delivery questions with your real facts and never guess.
Replying quickly to comments on ads builds trust and often turns into sales.
The top of Analytics tells you plainly whether your brand is growing, steady or slipping, comparing the last 30 days with the 30 before, and the one thing to do next.
People reached: how many different people saw your posts. More reach means more people now know your business.
Link clicks: people who tapped through from a post to your website or chat. They are closer to a sale than a like.
Reactions: likes, comments, shares and saves. They show people cared, not just scrolled past.
Response rate: out of everyone who saw a post, the share who reacted. For small businesses 1–5% is normal and above 5% is very good.
Followers: people who chose to see your posts again. Steady growth means your brand is building trust.
Posts people responded to most: do more like these. Best times to post: when your followers react most.
Press Refresh numbers to fetch the latest results. Agency plans can download a client report with your agency's name and logo. It opens with business results (link clicks, results from ads, sales recorded and return on ad spend), then reach and reactions.
Judge progress over a month, not a day. One quiet day is normal.
If it says 'Too early to tell', keep posting 2–3 times a week. After a month it can compare.
FlowSocial Studio is FlowSocial's built-in planning and writing assistant, powered by AI. It writes captions, plans a month of posts, sets up ads, explains competitors and writes report summaries, following your brand profile. You check everything before anything goes out.
Each plan includes a number of Studio credits a month. Each thing Studio writes for you uses one credit.
Starter includes 30 Studio credits a month, Growth 500 and Agency 3,000 (shared by all of an account's brands). The free trial includes 20.
Run out before the month ends? On Growth or Agency, open Settings → Billing → Extra Studio credits and buy a pack: 100 credits for ₦3,000, 300 for ₦7,500 or 1,000 for ₦20,000 (prices may change; the billing page always shows the current ones). You pay once on Squad's secure page, and the credits are added as soon as the payment is confirmed.
Extra credits are used only after your plan's monthly credits, are shared by all your brands, and don't expire at the end of the month. Your balance shows on the billing page and next to every Studio button.
If you run out every month, a bigger plan usually costs less per credit than buying packs.
Plan with Studio on the Calendar plans like a specialist for your kind of business: choose a template (fashion, beauty, food, real estate, fitness, online store, services, health, education, events, apps, creators or communities). Each one has its own mix of posts, formats, how often to post, and how to ask for the sale (for example, real estate posts always lead to a viewing or enquiry).
Talking to this support assistant doesn't use your Studio credits.
Please confirm your email address first: FlowSocial Studio is ready once you do.
Your team and who can do what
Invite people to help with a brand. Each person has a role that decides what they can do.
Owner: everything, including billing and deleting the brand.
Brand profile: tell FlowSocial Studio about your business once
Answer a few questions once (what your page or business is about, who it's for, your tone of voice and anything to avoid; if you sell, also prices and how people order). Every post, ad and comment reply FlowSocial Studio writes then uses these facts.
First choose what you want FlowSocial to help with: 'Post regularly and grow my page', 'Get more customers and sales', or both. If you only want to grow, the questions about prices, ordering and opening hours are tucked away as optional, and posts are written to engage people rather than sell. Change it any time.
Press Fill it in from my posts and FlowSocial Studio drafts the answers from your recent posts. Check them, then press Save.
FlowSocial Studio only uses facts you give it. If a price isn't in your profile, it never makes one up.
Only owners and admins can change the profile; everyone on the team writes with it.
Choose the country the business is in, so the Calendar and your weekly plan remind you about local holidays and shopping days, and so Home, Sales and Reports show your money in your own currency.
Choose what kind of business it is, so Plan with Studio uses the right specialist template for your industry.
Under What FlowSocial Studio learned from your posts you can see your best posts and what they have in common (for example, videos getting more reactions). Once at least 5 posts have results, FlowSocial Studio writes new posts, monthly plans and ad text in the style that works for you, without copying old posts.
Start free. New accounts get a 7-day free trial with every feature, no card needed. After that, choose the plan that fits.
Starter (free): 1 brand, automatic posting to Facebook and Instagram, the calendar with approvals, results, competitor insights and the inbox.
Growth: up to 3 brands, plus ads set up by the assistant, a spending limit on every ad, ad care, live ad results and warnings before an ad runs out of money.
Agency: up to 15 brands, plus downloadable client reports with your agency's name and logo, report summaries written by FlowSocial Studio, and priority support.
Current prices are always on the Pricing page. Paying yearly costs less than paying monthly.
You pay on Squad's secure page. In Nigeria you pay in naira by card, bank transfer or USSD. Outside Nigeria, you see an estimate in your own currency next to each price (choose it under Show prices in), and pay in naira with your card; your bank converts it. When dollar payments are on, you pay in US dollars instead.
Cards from outside Nigeria cost more to process, so the payment charge for them is higher. It is always shown before you pay.
A small payment charge for card or bank processing is added on top and shown under each price before you pay (for example, ₦15,000 + ₦182.19). It is what the payment company charges to handle the payment.
Choose which alerts you get, in the app and by email: posts waiting for your approval, mentions in comments, posts sent back for changes, and whether posts went out. You can also get a short weekly report in plain words by email.
Check the ad card on the Ads page: it explains why Facebook isn't showing the ad and what to do.
New ads are reviewed by Facebook first, usually within a few hours.
If the ad account has no money or no payment method, Facebook stops showing ads. Add one in Facebook's Billing settings.
If an ad gets no results after spending 2–3 times your limit per result, change the picture or the words, or try a different goal. FlowSocial Studio's advice on each ad suggests what to change.