Content Automation: Notion, Make and Buffer That Plans, Writes and Schedules Posts for You

Build a content calendar in Notion

Create a new Notion database with the following fields:

• Title — the post headline or working title
• Status — a select field with values: Idea, Draft, In Review, Approved, Scheduled, Published
• Publish Date — date field with a view that filters for the upcoming month
• Channel — multi-select for LinkedIn, X, Facebook, Instagram
• Content Type — blog, social post, video, infographic
• Source URL — link back to the original content if repurposing

Notion's content calendar guide provides a gallery template you can duplicate. The key is the Status field, because this is what Make watches for automation.

Connect Notion to Make for workflow automation

In Make, create a new scenario with the Notion module set to Watch Database Items. Select your content calendar database. Make will monitor for changes to any item in the database.

Add a filter module that checks whether the Status field has changed. You only want to trigger actions when a post moves from one stage to the next, not when someone edits the title or adds a tag.

For each status transition, add a different branch using Make's Router module:

• When a post moves from Idea to Draft, send a Slack notification to the writer assigned to that post.
• When a post moves from Draft to In Review, notify the editor that content is ready for review.
• When a post moves from Approved to Ready to Schedule, trigger the Buffer publishing step.

The Make Notion module documentation covers the available triggers, including watching for new items, updated items, and specific field changes.

Write and approve posts through stages

With the workflow running, each post moves through a defined pipeline. The Notion database becomes the single source of truth for where every piece of content stands.

The stages work like this in practice:

1. A writer picks an item from the Idea queue, drafts the post, and changes the status to "In Review." Make sends the editor a Slack message with a link to the draft.
2. The editor reviews and either approves or sends back with comments. When approved, the status changes to "Approved."
3. If the post needs formatting for a specific channel, Make can trigger a ChatGPT step to reformat the content for LinkedIn vs X vs Instagram. The AI step uses the original draft plus the channel field to generate platform-optimised versions.
4. Once formatted and scheduled, the status changes to "Scheduled" and Buffer takes over publishing.

For teams writing blog posts, the AI blog writing agent guide with Claude Cowork covers how to generate the draft content itself. The content repurposing workflow in our guide to turning one post into ten pieces shows how to extend a single longform piece across multiple channels.

Publish with Buffer integration

When a post reaches "Approved" status, Make's Buffer module creates and schedules the post. Configure the Buffer module with your Buffer account and select the social profiles where the post should appear.

The Buffer module in Make supports:

• Creating posts with text and image URLs
• Setting a specific publish time based on the Publish Date field in Notion
• Managing queues for each connected social profile
• Retrieving post performance data for reporting

Make's Buffer module documentation covers every available action. The key detail is that Buffer handles the actual publishing, so Make does not need to interact with each social platform individually. One Buffer connection covers LinkedIn, X, Facebook, Instagram and more.

If the Publish Date is set for a specific time, Make creates the Buffer post as a scheduled item. If no date is set, Make adds it to the next available slot in the queue. Either way, the post leaves your hands the moment the status changes.