“Have these edits been made?”, “Where is the latest version of the post?”, “Why did we miss the deadline?” — SMM specialists hear these questions more often than they would like. This is all due to the lack of a unified communication system. Edits in the chat, approvals via email, deadlines in Excel, ideas in the manager’s head. As a result, chaos ensues and deadlines are almost always missed. Let’s figure out how to fix this.

What’s wrong with chats?

It seems convenient to edit posts in a chat: you send a message in Telegram — and your colleague receives the comment. But this only works when you have one project and one client. Problems arise beyond that.

Versions get lost. In a chat, it’s difficult to determine which version of the text or design is current. All the latest edits are scattered across different threads, and the final file is often named with a random combination of letters.

There’s no single source of truth. The designer revised the image at the manager’s request, while the client wrote entirely different comments in the chat. In the end, the edits overlap and contradict each other.

Approvals get confusing. It’s unclear who gave the “go-ahead” — the manager or the client.

Deadlines have a life of their own. The post is ready — but it sits unread because the client hasn’t managed to return to the necessary message or simply missed it.

The conclusion is simple: both the client, the freelancer, and the team find it inconvenient to approve publications in messengers. What alternatives are there?

How approval works in Postmypost

In Postmypost, you can set up an approval system. Each post has a status that shows who is responsible for what, where the post is stuck, and what needs to be done to get it ready in time.

Briefly about the mechanics

Each post has a card and a set of statuses — stages of the workflow. The post moves through these stages: from idea to publication. At each stage, you can specify who is responsible for the review and whether approvals are needed.

This is what a board with work stages might look like.

What does this provide?

1. You can see at which stage the post is and who is working on it.
2. There is a responsible person at each stage.
3. The status “Under review” and subsequent automatic scheduling prevent the post from getting lost or stuck in drafts — it gets published at the scheduled time.
4. You can send a link to the post to the client without registration. They can approve everything with one click or leave a comment directly in Postmypost.

To set up stages and organize the team’s work, we wrote about this in this article.

How it works

It all begins with setting up the stages. You create your own workflow or use the automatic one. We recommend using the following sequence:

• draft,
• text,
• design,
• approval,
• scheduling,
• publication.

You can set up the workflow through the menu on the left.

In the post editor, you can compile text and media content, choose a social network for publication. There’s also a preview available. The post displays just as it will appear on the social network. This means the client sees not just dry text in Google Docs, but the final result as it will look in the feed. This is also convenient for the team — errors in formatting, extra spaces, and incorrect emojis are immediately noticeable.

The sidebar shows how the publication will look.

When all specialists have completed their stages, send the post for approval. The client will receive a push notification, an email, or a message from a bot in Telegram.

How this is convenient for the client

Approvals often fail not on the team’s side, but on the client’s side. They have a thousand tasks and a bunch of unread chats. In Postmypost, the system is designed to make it as easy as possible for the client to approve a post.

They don’t need to create an account or remember a password. They just need to receive a link. The client will immediately see the post, can leave comments, or click the “Approve” button. This saves time and simplifies the process, so the client is less likely to postpone the task.

Postmypost sends notifications via email, push in the app, and in Telegram. This means the client won’t miss the task. If the client needs to approve not just one, but a dozen materials, that’s also convenient. In Postmypost, there’s a feed of posts where all materials awaiting approval are gathered. It’s clear what has already been approved and what requires attention.

To set up the client role, go to the “Team” section in the sidebar and click “Invite to the team”.

After that, enter the client’s email and select the “Client” and “Approver” options. Click “Send invitation”.

For more details on how to set up notifications for the team and in group chats, read this article.

Edits in chats and missed deadlines are not a working routine, but a poorly organized process. When there’s no unified system, even the strongest team starts spending time just on correspondence.

Try to establish your approval process in Postmypost — and you will be surprised at how quickly deadlines stop being missed and work becomes calmer and more transparent.