Automating Chinese and international social media without an API

Hi there, welcome to the Community! 👋

This can be a bit tricky since Zapier integrations rely on APIs to communicate. The first step would be to check if the apps you want to automate have an existing integration in Zapier: https://zapier.com/apps.

Since it is unlikely those apps have a native integration in Zapier, we do have a great guide here on how to connect apps when native integrations are not available: https://zapier.com/blog/add-any-app-to-zapier/.

I hope this helps as a starting point, and I’m here to help if you have any questions about these resources or Zapier in general!

When an API isn’t available, RPA is often a better choice. There are some free no-code RPA platforms that let you build customized workflows, such as Octoparse AI.

Hi there,

Thanks for the reply. Laura here picking this one up, I would be happy to help further!

If the Chinese social media platforms don’t offer public APIs, it can make traditional integrations tricky. In those cases, if you can use an RPA (Robotic Process Automation) tool to interact with the platform’s interface directly an idea would be to trigger a Zap using a webhook.

If your RPA tool (for example, Octoparse AI or UiPath) can send webhook requests, you can:

1. Set up a Catch Hook in Zapier

   • Create a new Zap using Webhooks by Zapier → Catch Hook as the trigger.

   • Copy the unique webhook URL Zapier provides.

2. Have your RPA send a POST request to that URL whenever it finishes a task (like posting or collecting data)

3. Continue the automation in Zapier

   • Once Zapier catches that webhook, you can route the data to your preferred international platforms (X, Facebook, Instagram, etc.), or log it to Google Sheets, Slack, or anywhere else you need.

I hope that gives you some pointers. Please let me know if I can help further.