Posts

The Posts tab publishes to your Facebook Page and your Instagram account, both at once. Use a listing's photos or import your own, write the caption, and publish. The same pictures and the same words go to both places, with the pictures reframed for Instagram where its shape rules need it (see Photo and video requirements).

A post is one picture, a carousel of up to ten, or a single video.

Publish a post#

1. Connect your Facebook Page if you have not yet (see What you need first).
2. Choose the pictures: pick a listing, import files, or both.
3. In a carousel, drag the pictures into order. The first one is the cover.
4. Optionally click a picture and open Text on the picture to add your logo and price strip or write words on it.
5. Write the caption.
6. Check Post to, then press Publish photo now (or Schedule to send it later).

The composer is one column, with the preview of the post beside it on a wide screen and above it on a narrow one. Post to and Text on the picture start folded to one line that says what they are set to; click either to open it.

Each step is explained below.

Posts are not ads#

Posts and Ads are two different things and they are kept apart on purpose.

If you want reach beyond your existing followers, that is Ads, not Posts.

What you need first#

Each place you post to has to be connected. Press Connect next to it when you write a post (under Post to). You do not leave the post.

• Facebook: pick your Page in the Meta sign-in that opens. That is the same connection Messenger uses, so if you already receive Messenger conversations in Gene App you are most of the way there.
• Instagram: connect the Facebook Page your Instagram is linked to, and the Instagram comes with it. Signing in with Instagram on its own, without a Page, is not offered yet.

One Page covers more than posting#

This is Meta's structure rather than a Gene App decision, and it surprises people: when you connect through a Facebook Page, that Page is the account everything Meta-shaped in Gene App hangs off.

• Posting to Facebook goes through it.
• Posting to Instagram goes through it, when your Instagram is linked to the Page.
• Messenger conversations arrive through it.
• On the official WhatsApp path, the Business Account is tied to it as well.

So the Page connect is done once, and a workspace already receiving Messenger DMs is not asked to connect anything twice.

An Instagram that was signed in directly earlier stands on its own instead: it does not touch your Page, and your Page does not touch it. If you later connect a Page that has that same Instagram linked, the Page takes over and the Instagram then runs through the Page.

Warning

The flip side is the same fact: disconnecting the Page, or losing your admin role on it, takes all of those down together rather than just the one you were thinking about. (The Disconnect on a Page row in Settings > Lead Sources > Meta Ads is narrower: it only stops new lead ads leads from that Page.)

Instagram#

Instagram only lets professional accounts (Business or Creator) post through an app. This is Instagram's own rule, not ours. It connects through your Facebook Page, when the Instagram is linked to it. If your Page has no Instagram linked, the Instagram option stays greyed out until you link the account to the Page on Instagram's side, and Facebook still works normally. Signing in with Instagram without a Page is not offered yet while Meta reviews our app for it.

Removing Gene from Instagram (Settings, Apps and websites) disconnects that Instagram in Gene App straight away.

Reconnect once if your Page was connected earlier#

If you connected your Page before the Posts tab existed, reconnect it once. The permission screen now also asks for permission to publish, and a connection made before that was added does not carry it. Reconnecting takes a few seconds and changes nothing else.

Choosing the pictures#

There are two ways in, side by side at the top of the page:

• Choose a listing loads that listing's gallery, in the same order it appears everywhere else in Gene App, with every photo already selected. Remove the ones you do not want.
• Import takes files off your own machine. So does dragging them onto the page, anywhere in the picture area.

The two mix freely: start from a listing, then import one more picture of the handover keys.

Start from the listing itself#

Create post at the bottom of a listing's editor on the Properties page, or From a listing > One listing on the planner, opens the composer with that listing's photos already in. The other choice there, Every new listing, opens the automatic posting switch and settings.

Carousels#

Up to ten pictures go out as one carousel, which people swipe through.

• Drag a picture to change where it appears, or focus its grip handle and use the arrow keys.
• The first one is the cover, the one people see in the feed.

A video is always on its own. Neither Facebook nor Instagram has a post that is a video and photos at once, so choosing a video clears the pictures and choosing pictures clears the video. You are told when that happens.

Words on the picture#

Click any picture, then open Text on the picture, below Post to. It starts folded on a clean picture, with what it carries shown on the folded line, and open on one that already has a strip, words or darkening. Opening it puts nothing on the picture: it stays clean until you turn on the strip or add a text.

Whatever you put there appears on the picture itself and is baked into the image before it is published. This is not a caption: it is part of the photo.

Logo and price strip#

The first switch in the panel, Logo and price strip, puts a dark band along the bottom of the picture with your logo on the left and the price on the right. It looks the same on every post, which free text on a photo rarely does.

• The logo is the Logo on light backgrounds from Settings > Business Profile. Without one, the band shows your business name instead.
• The price starts as the listing's price, when the listing shows one. Change it in the box under the switch (up to 40 characters), or type something else there, such as "Sold" or "Off plan".
• Use on every picture, next to the box in a carousel, puts the same strip on every picture at once. Otherwise the strip belongs to the picture you turned it on for.

Your own text#

A picture can carry up to five separate texts, for example a headline at the top and a line at the bottom. Add text adds one, and the x next to a text removes it. Each text has its own settings:

• Words. Up to 120 characters. Short lines are set larger; longer ones step down so they still fit on the picture.
• Typeface, Line up and Ink. Four faces; left, centre or right; light or dark letters.
• Size and Width, how wide the text runs before it wraps.
• Where. Drag the text around the preview, or select it and use the arrow keys. It snaps to the middle and the edges.

Darken the picture is one setting for the whole picture, not per text: a black layer over the photo, up to 80%. White words on a bright sky are unreadable; this is what fixes that.

All of this belongs to that one picture, not to the whole post. In a carousel the cover usually says something and the pictures behind it stay clean, so each one keeps its own.

The preview shows the picture exactly as it will be published, at the same proportions, so what you line up is what goes out.

Video cannot carry words this way. A video publishes as you filmed it.

Writing the caption#

The caption box holds up to 2,200 characters, which is Instagram's limit. Facebook allows more, but one limit for both keeps a post identical in both places. A count appears under the box once you are near the limit.

The caption sits under the post, in both places, and belongs to the whole post rather than to any one picture in it.

Publishing#

Open Post to and tick Facebook, Instagram, or both, then press Publish photo now in the bar at the bottom (it reads Publish carousel now or Publish video now for those). The button stays busy until both destinations are done.

To send it later instead, press Schedule next to it and pick a date and time. The Social planner covers that.

Why Instagram takes longer#

Instagram takes a few seconds longer than Facebook. That is Instagram's own process: it fetches the photo, prepares it, and only then posts it.

• A carousel repeats that for every picture in it.
• A video is transcoded rather than merely fetched, so a video can take a couple of minutes.

Once it is live#

When every network you ticked takes the post, Gene App closes the composer and takes you back to the planner. If your workspace does not have the planner, the Posts tab is the composer itself, so it clears instead and you start on a fresh post. The message that confirms it ("Posted", or "Posted to 2 places") has a View button that opens the real post on Facebook or Instagram.

If one of them refuses#

The networks are published independently, so one can succeed while another refuses. If that happens, the composer stays open with a "Posted to 1 of 2 places" warning and a line per network: the ones that went live with a View link to the real post, and the one that refused with the reason Instagram or Facebook gave, in their own words. The one that worked stays up: a post that went live is never taken back down because the other one failed.

Photo and video requirements#

Instagram is stricter than Facebook about images. It only takes a picture between 4:5 (portrait) and 1.91:1 (landscape), between 320 and 1440 pixels wide, as a JPEG. Gene App makes a copy of every picture in that shape when Instagram is ticked, so you do not have to check your photos first:

• One picture that is already a shape Instagram takes keeps its shape and is only resized. A taller one goes 4:5 and a very wide one (a panorama) goes square, the whole photo centred on a blurred copy of itself, so nothing is cut off.
• A carousel shares one shape: 4:5 when the cover is portrait, square otherwise. Pictures close to that shape are trimmed from the centre; ones far from it sit on the blurred backdrop instead.
• Facebook and LinkedIn get the pictures as they are. Your stored photos are never changed.

The preview shows each network's post at the shape it will go out.

If Instagram still refuses a picture, it says why, in its own words. In a carousel, one picture Instagram will not take stops the whole carousel, and the message says which reason it gave.

Video on Instagram publishes as a Reel. That is Instagram's own rule: since 2024 every video posted to the feed is a Reel, so there is nothing to choose here. It also appears on your profile grid as usual.

Post new listings automatically#

Gene App can turn every new listing into a post on its own, whether it arrives from an XML listing feed or is added by hand. It is off in every workspace until a manager switches it on with Post new listings automatically, either on the planner under From a listing > Every new listing, or under Posts > Settings > New listings. Both show the same switch and settings. The section shows once the Posts planner is on for your workspace, because every post it makes lands in the planner.

• Only new listings. Only listings added after the switch was turned on are posted. The listings you already had are left alone, and switching it off and on again starts the clock from that moment.
• Never twice. Each listing becomes one post, once. A listing that was posted is not posted again when it changes or when the feed syncs.
• Photos first. A listing is posted once its photos are in, never before: Gene App waits at least 15 minutes after it is added, and for a feed listing until its gallery has been downloaded. A listing that still has too few photos two days after it was added is skipped, and the card says why.

What happens to each new listing#

• Create a draft for review (the default). The post waits in the planner as a draft, with no date. Nothing goes out until someone publishes or schedules it.
• Publish automatically. The post goes out on its own, through the same publishing as the Publish button: same caption, same Instagram sizing.

Either way the post carries the listing's photos (up to ten, in gallery order, with no words on the picture) and the caption Write would give (see AI captions). Without AI captions in your workspace, it gets the plain caption written from the listing's facts.

The other settings#

• Name the developer: off by default. Turn it on to include the listing’s developer in automatic captions and in captions you ask the AI to write. Owner names stay private.
• Post to: your connected Facebook Page, Instagram, or both. If nothing is connected, new listings wait and go out once a Page or Instagram is connected. LinkedIn is not offered here.
• Which listings: Only listings with 3 or more photos (the default) or Every new listing with at least one photo. A listing with no photos is never posted. Listing type and Status narrow it further, for example only off-plan listings; both start on Any.
• Pace: at most this many posts an hour, 3 by default, anything from 1 to 30. They are spread evenly through the hour, and the rest wait their turn, so a feed that adds 50 listings at once does not flood your page. Oldest listing first.

Each setting saves as you change it. Under them, the card shows how many listings are waiting for photos, how many are queued, and what happened to the last few listings ("Draft created for Facebook and Instagram", or "Not posted" with the reason).

Changing any of this needs permission to manage the workspace's channels, which managers have by default. Everyone else who can see Posts sees the settings but cannot change them.

Recently published#

Below the composer is a list of what you have already published, newest first. It shows the caption, whether it was a photo, a carousel or a video, and when it went out.

In some workspaces this list needs a one-time setup that may not be done yet. Until it is, the list stays empty, or shows posts without the photo, carousel or video label. Everything else on this page works exactly as described, and publishing is never blocked by it.