Set up an approval process

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. Select Account, and then select Social accounts and teams.
2. Select Social accounts in the navigation pane.
3. Choose the social account you want to set approval for, select More (in the Actions column), and then select View social account details.
   
4. On the social account details page, select the Members tab.
5. Select a permission level for each of the members you are sharing that social account in the Permissions column. Learn more about assigning social account permissions.
   • 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 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 a member to approve content, select Advanced, Unlimited, Editor.
     
   • If you want to grant custom permissions, select Custom, and then select Approve Messages.
6. Select Save changes.

Set up a team of approvers

Set up a team of approvers so that 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).

Create a team for content approval

If you don't already have a team, create one following these steps.

1. Go to Account, and then select Social accounts and teams.
2. Select Teams in the navigation pane, and then select Create Team.
3. Enter a team name, select the members that you'd like to approve posts, and then select which social accounts the team will have access to.
4. Select Create team.

Set up an approval workflow for your social accounts

Now that you have your approval team in place, you can set up an approval workflow on your social accounts

1. Select Social accounts in the navigation pane.
2. Choose a social account from the list, select More, and then, select View social account details.
3. On the social account details page, select More, and then select Edit settings.
   
4. In the Custom Approvals section, select Settings,
5. In the 1st approver search box, select the approval team you created.
6. (Optional) Select Add approval, and then add another member or team if you want to add another tier of approval for extra security. You can also specify an approval order:
   • Sequential - Approvers review the post one at a time, in the order they were added. Each approver must approve before the post moves to the next.
   • Parallel - All approvers receive the request at the same time and can approve in any order. The post publishes only after every approver has approved it.
7. Select Save.

   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.