A systematic, weekly-batch content pipeline: machines fill a queue, a human empties it. One review page, one weekly yes from Robb, and nothing publishes without it.
Content for Santos is ad-hoc today. Robb babysits Anna post-by-post. There is no plan, no cadence, and no single approval surface, and it eats his time.
2026 research on content operations converges on one shape: a queue that machines fill and a human empties. AI does discovery, generation, and drafting. A human owns the publish decision, always. The last step never collapses, there is no auto-post off an LLM draft.
Publishing goes through the platform's own API. Browser-posting bots get brand accounts banned 15 to 30 percent a year.
Considered as a posting tool and turned down for exactly the browser-bot risk above.
Robb reviews once a week, roughly 10 minutes. His choices persist. A review timeout escalates or expires, it never auto-publishes.
Audit taken 2026-08-16.
This is the thing we test. On a fixed weekly trigger, the system does the following.
Acceptance test: one real week flows generate, review page, Robb approves, auto-publish to IG, archive row present, with zero manual post-by-post poking. Facebook joins once the token is re-minted.
| Stage | What ships |
|---|---|
| M1 | Spine, reversible, no publishing: revive the calendar input and batch orchestrator, generate a real sample week, host the review page on a Santos URL. Robb reacts to taste. |
| M2 | Approval state: Approve/Edit/Kill on the page persists a decision per slot. |
| M3 | Publish plus archive, IG-first: approved slots auto-publish via Composio at slot time, each writing an enforced archive row; timeout expires, never auto-posts. |
| M4 | Facebook: Robb does the 30-second OAuth grant, the page-token minter runs, FB channel turns on. |
| M5 | Cadence: a weekly cron fires M1 through M3 automatically. Robb's only touch is the review page. |
Default and move, Robb can redirect once he sees M1. Volume and cadence default to the existing lock (daily IG) until he adjusts on the sample. Extra platforms (X, TikTok, LinkedIn) stay out of scope until the IG plus FB loop is solid; X now has pay-per-use pricing ($0.015 a post, $0.20 if it contains a link) to budget before adding.
Weekly share of a roughly 20-post month.
Mayan and Mexican soul. The differentiator, the "why Santos not Casamigos."
ASMR and macro pours, the repurposable asset bank.
Runs as a named weekly series, "Santos Serve." The save-and-share engine.
Agave, additive-free, aging. Justifies the price, highly saveable.
Puts Santos into real premium moments.
Reposts, bartender spotlights, branded hashtag. Free reach and trust.
Spikes on calendar dates, owns the week when one lands.
2026 platform data behind the mix.
2.25x the reach of a single image, the only format with a discovery feed.
9x the saves of a single image, re-served twice in feed.
Declining; deliberate use for brand-beauty and announcements only.
The daily community and relationship layer, and the only real conversion surface via product tags.
ASMR pour and satisfying loops, aesthetic b-roll bottle beauty, cocktail how-to. Plus BTS and agave footage for heritage. None need a person on camera. Every calendar slot names both its pillar and the format that pillar demands.
5 feed posts a week plus daily Stories. Weekly mix: 3 Reels, 1 to 2 carousels, 0 to 1 static. FB mirrors the Reels and carousels as a secondary channel, it does not originate. Every week engineers at least one "send-to-a-friend" share hook and at least one "proof-drop" save hook.
Mon P3 cocktail Reel · Tue P1 heritage carousel · Wed P2 beauty Reel · Thu P4 craft carousel or P6 UGC (alternating weeks) · Fri P5 lifestyle Reel · Sat/Sun Stories plus reactive P7.
What makes it thoughtful a week ahead. Every week, before generating, Anna asks Robb a short standing question set:
Answers shape the week's calendar. Silence means the default 7-day skeleton runs. This is the only recurring input required from Robb besides the approval page.
Tentpoles; a full month-by-month list lives in the research notes. The pipeline auto-flags any date within the next two weeks in the weekly ritual.
| Date | Moment | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Feb 22 | Margarita Day | ★ |
| May 5 | Cinco de Mayo | ★ |
| May 22 | Paloma Day | ★ |
| Jul 24 | National Tequila Day | ★★ biggest owned moment, mini-campaign |
| Sep 15 - Oct 15 | Hispanic Heritage Month | ★ series |
| Nov 1 - 2 | Dia de los Muertos | ★ reverent |
| Dec | Holiday gifting and Dec 31 NYE | ★ |
| varies | Valentine's Day, Father's Day (anejo gifting), Thanksgiving | secondary |
"4 reels, non-followers pick the winner." This is Instagram's official Trial Reels feature, and it is confirmed API-automatable.
Create-media takes a trial_params field with a graduation strategy of MANUAL or SS_PERFORMANCE. SS_PERFORMANCE auto-promotes a winner to followers with no human step. Live in Graph API v25/v26.
Business or Creator account, public, 1,000-plus followers. Change one variable per test, the hook is highest-leverage, same body, three to four different openings. Compare trials to trials, read rates not totals, over a 24 to 72 hour window. Two to three well-reviewed tests a week; review capacity is the real limit, not production.
Reading each variant's metrics programmatically is not clearly documented by Meta, so auto-picking the winner from four may need a quick in-app glance until proven against a live account. The fully automatable fallback today: publish variants with SS_PERFORMANCE and let IG auto-graduate the winner. Branded and sponsored Reels must use owned or licensed audio, not IG's consumer music library.
An optional lane on top of the weekly loop: for the week's one to two highest-stakes Reels, generate three to four hook variants, run them as trials, and let the winner graduate, or Robb picks from metrics. Everything else flows the normal generate, review page, publish, archive loop.