How to get client approval before a post goes live
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Name one approver, send the exact caption and creative, check it, and schedule only what is approved. Here is the workflow and how Wisp supports it.
Name one approver on the client side, send them the exact caption and creative, and schedule the post only after they say yes. If anything changes after that yes, the post goes back for approval. Keep a record of who approved what and when.
Why a process matters. Without one, approval is spread over email, chat messages and calls. The version the client approved is not always the version that goes live, and nobody can show who said yes. A simple workflow fixes that. It has seven steps and one rule: a post is not scheduled until it is approved.
Step 1. Brief. Agree a short brief for each campaign or month before anything is drafted. Cover the goal, the audience, the market, the language, the key message, what must be included, what must never be said, and the dates. Keep it in one place so everyone works from the same version.
Step 2. Draft. Show the client the post as it will appear: the final caption, the final image or video, the account it goes to and the date it goes out. A screenshot of a half-finished idea invites half-finished feedback. Where you can, review the draft in a preview of the network, so line breaks, hashtags and cropping are visible.
Step 3. Name the approver. Choose one person on the client side who can say yes for the brand, and one backup. Write both names in the brief. If the client needs legal or senior sign-off, make it a second stage in a set order, not a group chat. Agree a response time too, such as one working day, and what happens to the slot if no answer comes.
Step 4. What to check. Ask the approver to look at facts, prices, offers and dates. Then names and spelling in every language, the logo, colours and tone, claims that need a licence or a disclaimer, rights for images and music, links and tags, and whether the post clashes with a national, religious or news moment. Give them a short checklist so approval means the same thing every time.
Step 5. Changes after approval. If the caption, image, link or time changes after the approver said yes, the approval no longer applies. Send it again. This one rule stops the most common mistake, a small last-minute edit that nobody looked at. In Wisp, a creative edit to an approved post sends it back to pending approval, and the audit trail records who had approved it before.
Step 6. Schedule only approved posts. Approval and publishing are different decisions. Approved means the content is right. Published means it went to the right account at the right time. Keep draft, approval, schedule, delivery and failure as separate states, so nobody mistakes an approved draft for a live post. Give publish permission to fewer people than create permission.
Step 7. Keep the record. Note who approved, what they approved and when. If a client questions a post later, you can show the approved version and the date. In Wisp the trail of who did what to a post is readable on the post itself and across the workspace, and it can be exported as a CSV on Agency.
Common mistakes. Approving a screenshot instead of the real draft. Changing the approver mid-month without telling the team. Approving a batch without reading each post. Treating a thumbs-up in a chat as approval when the caption changed afterwards. Letting the deadline slide until approvals arrive after the slot. The steps above fix each one.
How Wisp supports this. Approvals start on the Pro plan at $79 a month. You set a role for each person on each brand: view, create, approve, publish, connections, Brand Kit and calendar. You send a named version to the approver, who sees the draft and the creative that need a decision. The decision is recorded on the post. Approving a draft does not publish it, because publishing is a separate permission and a separate step. You can also schedule or approve a whole batch in one pass, with the decision recorded per post.
More than one stage. Approval workflows with several stages come with Growth at $249 a month and Agency at $499 a month. Use them when a post needs a brand check first and a client sign-off second.
For agencies. Each client brand gets its own calendar, Brand Kit, connections and permissions. You send a named version to the client's approver, who sees the drafts and creative waiting for a decision. Permissions are set per brand, so a client approver reaches only their own brand's work and nothing from another client.
If you use Wisp from ChatGPT. The Wisp by Waggle app for ChatGPT follows the same rule. A draft made in a chat becomes a reviewed draft and waits for approval like any other. It uses the same permissions and allowances as Wisp, and nothing skips review, approval or the choice of the exact account.
Want a starting point? We also publish a social media approval workflow template that you can adapt to your own clients.
Next step. This week, write your approval rules on one page: who approves for each client, what they check, how long they have, and what sends a post back. Share it with each client, then run it on their next month of posts. If you want roles and the approval record built in, compare the plans on the pricing page.