Friends, hello! We conducted a large study in the field of SMM and surveyed over 300 specialists. The goal was simple: to find out how the process of content approval with clients goes. Does everything go smoothly, or are there hidden obstacles?
Research Data
First, we found out that more than 75% of respondents regularly approve content. For most, approval is an integral part of the job.
Who are the specialists who most often deal with content approval? Here's how the roles of the respondents are distributed.
Now about the frequency of approval. 30% of participants said that they approve posts every day, and another 28% do it once a week.
It may seem that content approval is simple: prepare the text and send it to the client for review. However, during our research, we found that most participants have a multi-level system of review and approval. This means that content goes through several stages of approval, which significantly complicates the process. In the following screenshots, you'll see several responses from participants that vividly demonstrate how complex this system can be.
According to our data, 60% of respondents spend several working days on content approval. Data on the time spent on post approval.
Now let's look at how the approval processes go and what tools are used for this. Almost 60% of respondents send posts for approval in chat messengers, where they also discuss all edits and request feedback from the client. This means that 60% of participants keep the entire array of post approval data in chats, leading to endless correspondence and complicating the search for needed information.
Main Problems
The survey results showed that everyone has practically the same approval issues. We highlighted four main reasons why this happens.
Long wait for client response
Every fourth specialist has encountered this. We all know how it is: you write to the client, "Have you looked at the content plan?" And they respond that they will look today. And so every day! The client needs a simple system to approve a post or add a remark in two clicks. If the process is too complicated, he just postpones it.
No unified space for approval and technical limitations
21% of specialists say that approval takes place in different places: in correspondence, documents, and tables. The client has to switch from chat to table and then back. Time is needed to explain where to look for what.
Problem with visualization
12% report that clients often do not understand how the post will look in the feed when they look at the table: the text in one column, pictures in another, and links to videos in the third—it's impossible to see them from the table! In the end, the specialist has to post test posts and take screenshots to show what it will look like.
Confusion in chats and misunderstandings
23% of specialists mentioned that the client can send a voice message with edits, and then you have to figure out to which posts this refers. Or they send edits a little at a time, first one thing, then another.
Conclusions
In most cases, approval is a multi-level process that involves a team of specialists and clients. However, often this process turns out to be unstructured.
When several posts are being worked on simultaneously, communication in correspondence jumps from topic to topic. Edits are lost, leading to misunderstandings and confusion. Sorting out remarks and finding the necessary messages adds extra stress on the specialists. As a result, clients may be dissatisfied with the prolonged processes.
As the study shows, all participants are aware of the existing problems but put up with them because they do not find a centralized solution that can simplify everything. As a result, the situation remains complex, and many continue to work as they are used to.
Problem Solutions
Our goal is not only to identify problems but also to understand how to address them. Here, as in many other tasks, automation will help us.
We are working on a major update to the service and have already created the first working model for content approval.
Currently, several important tools are available in the service that will help solve the problems identified during the study.
| **Problem** | **How our functionality helps** |
| Long wait for response | [You can request post or stage approval, and the client will receive an email notification and a push notification.](https://help.postmypost.io/docs/) |
| Approval using different platforms | [Clients can approve posts and leave comments directly in the mobile app. This makes the approval process even more convenient and accessible at any time, regardless of location, which is especially important for busy clients.](https://help.postmypost.io/docs/) |
| Problem with visualization | [When approving, posts are displayed as close as possible to how they will look on social networks. This helps identify potential errors in text, visual design, and formatting in advance.](https://help.postmypost.io/docs/) |
| Confusion in chats | [All communication about a specific post is available in one place. The SMM manager and client can discuss details, make adjustments, and keep track of changes without losing context.](https://help.postmypost.io/docs/) |
The introduction of tools for content approval and discussion within Postmypost will allow:
- Reducing the time for approval and edits to 4–6 hours instead of 10–12 hours by reducing the number of communication cycles and convenient content editing in one place.
- Shortening the overall cycle of preparing and publishing 10 posts to 4.5–6.5 hours instead of 12–14 hours with the manual process.
New features for post approval make the approval process simple, convenient, and efficient.
In the article at the link we share recommendations on how to effectively approve posts using the new features of our service for content review and approval. You will learn how to work in a single interface, which approval strategies to use, how to notify other participants about the need to approve posts, and why this system will be convenient not only for marketers but also for clients.
