The New-Recipe Promotion Checklist

You spent hours on the recipe. Then it goes live and the real work starts — five platforms, five slightly different posts, and the nagging feeling you forgot the tracking link again. Here's the exact checklist I run on every launch. Tick it off as you go (your progress saves in this browser), or print it and pin it above the desk.

By Andrew Tibbs · food blogger & developer, building PostFlight

1 Prep your assets

Do this once, right after the post is live. Everything downstream reuses it.

Grab the live URL and open it in a private windowConfirm the page loads for logged-out visitors and the recipe card actually renders.
Check the rich snippetRun the URL through Google's Rich Results Test — a valid Recipe result is what earns the photo/time/rating in search.
Export the hero image in each platform's size (sizes below)One great photo, cropped correctly per platform — mis-sized images get cropped ugly or downranked.
Write one core blurb (2–3 sentences) you'll adapt everywhereLead with the hook: what makes this recipe worth the click — fast, dairy-free, one-bowl, etc.

Platform	Ratio	Size
Pinterest pin	2:3	1000 × 1500 px
Facebook link / Open Graph	1.91:1	1200 × 630 px
Instagram feed	4:5	1080 × 1350 px
Newsletter hero	2:1	1200 × 600 px

2 Build tracked links

The step everyone skips — and then can't tell which platform was worth the effort.

Add UTM parameters to the recipe link, one per platforme.g. ?utm_source=pinterest&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=dairy-free-queso. Keep utm_campaign the same across platforms so one launch groups together.
Keep a naming convention you'll actually rememberLowercase, no spaces, source = the platform, medium = social (or email for the newsletter).
Confirm the links resolve before you paste them anywhereA broken tracked link is worse than no link — click each one once.

📊 New to this? Our guide to UTM tracking for food blogs walks through it with a free link builder. PostFlight adds tracked links to every platform automatically — no builder, no copy-paste.

3 Prepare each platform

Same recipe, four different posts. Each one wants something slightly different.

Pinterest — vertical pin, keyword-rich title + description, tracked link, right boardPinterest is a search engine: put the words people search into the title and description, not just hashtags.
Facebook — link post with your tracked URL and the core blurbLet Facebook pull the link preview; don't bury the link in a comment.
Instagram — caption + hashtags, and update your link-in-bioLinks in captions aren't clickable — point to "link in bio" and make sure the bio link is the tracked URL.
Newsletter — subject line, hero image, one clear "Get the recipe" buttonThe button link is tracked too (utm_medium=email) so email traffic doesn't hide inside "direct".
Reddit (only where it's welcome) — read the subreddit rules first, and discloseCommunities can tell when you're just dropping links. Add value, follow the rules, never automate it.

✍️ PostFlight drafts the first pass for every platform in your voice, with live character counts and image-size hints — you review and tweak instead of starting from a blank box five times.

4 Post & track

The part that turns a scattershot launch into something you can actually learn from.

Post to each platform and mark it done as you goA simple "posted / not yet" board keeps you from double-posting or forgetting the newsletter.
Check back in a few days in Google AnalyticsFilter by utm_campaign to see the whole launch, then compare sources to find your real winner.
Note what worked for next timeWhich platform, which image, which hook. Two launches of notes beats a year of guessing.

Or run this whole checklist in about five minutes.

PostFlight imports your recipe, drafts every platform in your voice, adds the tracked links, and shows the whole launch on one readiness board. It's the checklist above, automated. Join the waitlist — founding members lock in 50% off for life.

No spam — one email when the beta opens.