Content Approval

We've made your content strategy workflow even easier in Social Media Management. Users with a Content Creator role can create posts in Publish and assign the content to users with approval and publishing permissions. This workflow is a great way to make sure that your posts get an editorial review before going live.

Users with the permissions of a Content Creator or higher can create posts in the Publish module. Only Editor users or higher can directly publish their content though. That means a Content Creator in Social Media Management must always submit their new content for approval to at least one Editor, Team Lead, or Admin user.

Note:

Users with Editor, Team Lead, or Admin permissions are able to publish or schedule content directly by default, but they can also choose to send it for approval.


Submitting content for approval

When submitting content for approval, there are four available options:

  • Submitting to a single approver
  • Submitting to multiple approvers, and any of them can approve and publish the post on their own.
  • Submitting to multiple approvers, and all approvers need to approve the post before it is published.
  • Anyone with approval rights can approve and publish the post.

Here's how to send your content for approval:

  1. While creating a post in the Publish Editor, scroll down in the left-hand section of the Editor and click on the Approval section.
  2. Choose the appropriate approval option out of the four options described above. Either add one approver, multiple approvers, or choose the Anyone option. For multiple approvers, make sure to select the Any or All option that fits your chosen approval method.

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  3. Click Send for Approval under the post preview. 

Your post is now moved to the Awaiting approval section in Publish. An email is sent to notify the chosen approver(s). If your post is approved and gets published, you will receive a confirmation notification.

At any time during the approval process, you can check the status of the approval by navigating to the post in the Awaiting approval section and viewing the status card in the top right. There you can see which approvers have given their approval and which are still pending.

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If the post is not quite ready for publication yet, each approver can click Ask for changes. An email notification is sent to your inbox, and a note from your colleague next to the post will detail the changes that are needed. Once these changes are implemented, the post can be resubmitted for approval. 

What if my post doesn't get approved on time?

If your assigned approvers have not yet approved your post by the time it reaches the scheduled date and time, the post will not be published. The post will remain in the Awaiting Approval section of Publish and can still be approved at any time. Neither the creator nor the approver will receive a notification.

However, when the approver opens the post, they may notice an error in the Schedule module on the left-hand side.

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To approve and publish the post, the approver will either need to select a new schedule date and time or unschedule it by clicking the X button. Unscheduling the post will allow the user to publish instantly.


Approving content or asking for changes

As an approver, you'll receive an email for any content waiting to be approved by you. 

You can only approve (and will only receive approval notifications for) posts that you have been assigned to as an approver. Admin users are an exception to this rule, they can approve any content regardless of the assigned approvers.

If a post needs adjustments before it can be approved, you can click Ask for changes. This option lets you leave a note for the post creator about which changes are required. After the adjustments, the post can be resubmitted for approval.

You can review content as follows:

  1. The link in an approval email will take you straight to the content. Alternatively, you can always find content waiting for approval in the Awaiting approval section of Publish. Clicking on any of the content there will take you to the Publish Editor.
  2. Review the post and decide if it needs changes or if it can be published.

  3. Either click Ask for changes or choose the Approve & Publish Now or Approve & Schedule option.

Approving content in bulk

Content approvers can save time viewing and approving each post individually by visiting Publish > Awaiting Approval and approving posts in bulk. Please visit our Bulk Actions in Publish article to learn more.

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