StoryChief provides a number of standard fields when writing and publishing stories, and when managing social posts and campaigns, however, it's possible that you need additional fields for your articles, social posts or campaigns, which can be used either internally or externally in your blog/website.
Watch our Academy video 📹 for a step-by-step guide:
Table of contents:
General info: creating custom fields
Follow these steps to create a new custom field:
Step 1. Go to your workspace and click on your name in the top right corner and then click on: Settings.
Step 2. Go to Settings ➜ Custom Fields.
Step 2. To create a custom field, click on the green button: + Custom Field.
Step 3. You will now be presented with different types of fields. Select the type you want to add:
Text: It can be used to enter a couple of words or a short sentence
Large text: It can be used to add a large piece of text, such as a long description
Auto-complete: It offers a dropdown menu from which one or several options can be selected
Single option: It offers a listview from which only one option can be selected
Multiple options: It offers a listview from which multiple options can be selected
Date: It opens a calendar view where a specific date can be picked
Image: It offers the possibility to upload an image from your computer, from an URL or from the media library. You can also specify the image dimensions
Email: It can be used to enter an email address
File: It offers the possibility to attach a file from your computer
Step 4. Create a custom field for either your Stories, Social posts, or Campaigns.
💡Tip: Add colours to your custom fields to quickly recognize them in your stories, social posts, or campaigns (learn more).
Step 5. Fill in the details and click on Save.
💡Tip: Add colours to your custom fields to quickly recognize them in your stories, social posts, or campaigns (learn more).
Using custom fields externally in Stories:
Custom fields can be used to send extra information to your blog/website when you publish the story to your CMS.
Some examples are:
A Call To Action where a specific banner is included at the bottom of the article
A different publication date (often used to backdate articles)
A second author or a co-author
These custom fields need to be mapped with your CMS, which often requires some advanced API knowledge. This information below is all your developer needs to do so:
For Developers 💻
Each created field is assigned a field key. This key should be used to map the custom fields on your website.
Once the custom fields have been connected to your blog/website, you can start using them by going to the Summary tab of the editor and scrolling down to Custom fields, where you will be able to fill them for the specific story:
Once you publish your story to your CMS, these fields will be pushed together with all other standard fields, and they will all be displayed on the blog article.
Using custom fields internally in Stories:
You don't necessarily need to connect all custom fields to your blog or website, but you can use them internally as well to track and keep important information.
Some examples of used cases are:
Create a multiple-option custom field to select what stage the story is at
Create a single option custom field to indicate if the story has been translated or not (YES or NO)
Create a date custom field to indicate when a story has reached a specific stage. This can especially be interesting for people that want to use a personalised approval flow
Next to this, if you want to have a clear overview of the values entered on these custom fields, you can add these custom fields to the Stories overview. To do so, go to Stories, click on the grid icon on the right-hand side, and make the custom field visible. You'll identify the custom fields because they show a small tool icon:
The custom field will be added as a column to the Stories overview. Ta-da 🎉
You can also create and save segments based on these custom fields, to facilitate the search and overview of stories.
Using custom fields in Campaigns:
Once you have created custom fields specifically for campaigns, these will now show up every time you create or edit your campaign details.
Some examples:
Budget: The budget that has been assigned to the campaign
Result: After the campaign has finished, the outcome of the campaign
Landing Page URL: a link to the landing page for easy access
As with Stories, these fields will also show up on the Campaigns overview, to facilitate the overview, and the columns can be enabled or disabled by clicking on the grid icon on the right-hand side:
🔔 Note: Custom fields for campaigns are included in our Campaign Pro module.
Using custom fields in Social Posts:
Using custom fields in social posts can also help you track extra info that is not available by default in StoryChief.
Once you have created these custom fields, you can manage them per social post by going to the social post > click on the 3 dots in the upper right corner > Properties:
Some examples of used cases are:
Budget: if you boost your social posts after having published them, you can keep track of the spent budget per social post. Just create a text custom field to enter the amount spent per social post
Create a single option custom field with the YES and NO options to indicate if a social post has been retargeted
As with stories, create a multiple-option custom field to select what stage the social post is at. This can especially be interesting for people that want to use a personalised approval flow
Next to this, if you want to have a clear overview of the values entered on these custom fields, you can add these custom fields to the Social Posts overview. To do so, go to Social Posts, click on the grid icon on the right-hand side, and make the custom field visible. You'll identify the custom fields because they show a small tool icon:
Add colors to your custom fields
💡 Tip: Add colors to your custom fields to quickly recognize them. In the Options section, click on the left button and then select a color.
🎉 You're done, grab a coffee, you deserve it!
Check out the next steps below for more in-depth guides or follow-up actions.