Approve messages from team members (Business and Enterprise)

Hootsuite Business and Enterprise organization admins can set up tailored content approval workflows for each social network. Approval rules are applied to all messages sent or scheduled by team members with limited social network permissions, or custom permissions requiring approval. This includes Twitter and Facebook replies and comments made in-stream.

Customizing approvals

The default approval rule requires messages by limited team members to be approved by an Admin or Editor for the social network. Rules can be customized to designate a specific team (disregards permissions) or team member as the approver. You can also add a second or third tier of approval for extra security. Users cannot approve their own messages.

 When a team is selected as an approver in a custom approval rule, every member of that team will be able to approve messages (except their own), regardless of their own social network permissions.

Custom approvals need to be tailored for each social network. This feature is not available for YouTube.

To edit a custom approval rule

This procedure must be completed by an organization admin.

1. Click your profile picture ( by default) in the top-right corner of the dashboard, and then select Manage under the organization name.
2. Click Social Networks under the organization name.
3. Select the social network from the list on the left, and then click the Profile Settings tab.
4. Click Settings  beside Custom Approvals, and then click Edit Custom Approval.
5. Click on the first approval field, and search for a team, team member, or role to act as the first approver for the social network.
6. Optional: Click Add a 2nd approver, and then select a team, team member, or role to act as the second approver for the social network.
7. Optional: Click Add a 3rd approver, and then select a team, team member, or role to act as the third approver for the social network.
8. Click Save and set.
9. Review the new approval workflow, and then click Done.

Approval workflow

Approvers and authors can enable notifications by email, and/or in their dashboard notification center. Approvers will receive an email when a message is ready for approval. Authors will receive an email when a message is approved or rejected.

View a message's status in the Content tab of the Publisher  section:

• Sent/scheduled messages that need approval appear in the author’s Pending Approval queue.
• Messages waiting for approval appear in the approver's Require my Approval queue.
• Messages rejected by an approver appear in the author’s Rejected queue. Here the author can edit and resend the message for approval, or delete it.
  Only the author of a message in an approval workflow can delete it.
• Scheduled messages not approved before their scheduled publish time move to the Expired Approvals queue.
• Messages rejected by or waiting for approval from Proofpoint appear in the Rejected queue.

To approve a message

1. Select Publisher from the launch menu.
2. Click the Content tab along the top of the calendar.
3. Under Publisher, click Require My Approval.
4. Click a message to view it in full.
5. Optional: Click Edit Message to edit before approving. Instagram comments cannot be edited before approval.
6. Click Approve.

Approved messages are published (or get scheduled) right away, unless a second or third approver are required. The second approver gets approval requests only after the first approver approves a message. Likewise, the third approver will not get approval requests until the second approver has approved the message.

 Messages can also be edited and approved in the Hootsuite mobile app.

To reject a message

1. Select Publisher from the launch menu.
2. Click the Content tab along the top of the calendar.
3. Under Publisher, click Require My Approval.
4. Click a message to view it in full.
5. Click Reject.
6. Enter a note for the author (optional), and then click Reject.

The author of the message will find the rejected message in their Rejected queue. Click the message to view the approver’s note, edit and resend it for approval, or delete it. Only the author of the rejected message can delete it.

To view a message’s time-stamped approval history

1. Select Publisher from the launch menu.
2. Click the Content tab along the top of the calendar.
3. Under Publisher, select any queue.
4. Click on a message to view it in full.
5. Click View approval history.

The approval history tracks who sends, edits, and approves each message.