Set up an approval process

Don't risk publishing mistakes, set up an approval process to make sure someone reviews content before it goes live. An approval process is a smart way to ensure you publish polished, on-brand content.

You must have one of the following roles to set approval permissions:

• Be an organization Super Admin or Admin.
• Have Team Admin or Unlimited permissions for your team.
• Have Unlimited or Advanced permissions for the social account.
• Have the custom permission Manage member social network permissions for the social account.

Set approval permissions for individual members

In an approval process, you assign team members to specific tasks for each of your social accounts. You can choose who creates content, who edits it, and who approves it.

1. Go to Account and select Social accounts and teams.
2. Select Manage.
   
3. Point to a social account, select Settings , and then select Manage permissions.
   
4. On the Permissions tab, select the permissions for each member.
   • If you want a member to have their posts approved before they publish to this account, select Limited, Responder, or the custom social network Publish Message with Approval permissions.
   • If you want a member to have the option to document approvals of a post that happen outside of Hootsuite, select Document external approval.
   • If you want a member to have their Inbox comments and replies approved before they are sent, select Limited, Responder, or the custom social network Comment and reply with Approval permissions.
   • If you want to allow a member to approve content, select Advanced, Unlimited, Editor, or the custom social network Approve Messages permissions.
     

Set up a team of approvers

Many of our most successful customers set up a team of approvers. That way, if someone isn't available to approve content, someone else can step in.

You must be an organization Super Admin or Admin to create teams (see Assign organization permissions).

If you don't already have a team, use the following instructions to create one:

1. Select Account, and then select Social accounts and teams.
2. Select Manage.
3. Select Add a team.
4. Enter a team name (you may want to name this "Approval team"), select the members from your organization that you'd like to approve posts, and then select which social accounts they'll approve posts for.

Now that you have your approval team in place, let's set them up to approve posts to your social accounts:

1. Point to a social account in the team you created in the previous instructions, select Settings, and then select Settings.
2. On the Profile settings tab next to Custom Approvals, select Settings, and then select Edit custom approval.
   
3. In the 1st approver search box, select the approval team you created, and then select Save and Set. You can also add a second or third tier of approval for extra security.

   Note: Team members can request approval from other team members when creating a post. If a team member requests approval from someone who is a designated approver in your custom approval flow, Hootsuite will skip the approver the second time, to avoid duplicate reviews. However, the skipped review will not be reflected in the approval history.

Next up - Approve content before it goes live