Who drafts and who approves social media posts

Two jobs that should not share a chair

Drafting and approving ask for opposite states of mind. The drafter is trying to make something: find the angle, write the line, pick the picture. The approver is trying to break it: is this true, is it ours to say, is it going to the right place? One person can do both, but not in the same minute.

Authors also read what they meant, not what they wrote. A second reader has no such memory and sees the post the way a follower will. That is the entire case for splitting the jobs, and it holds for a team of two as much as a team of twenty.

Who should draft

Give the draft to whoever is nearest the subject. The barista knows which drink is selling. The trainer knows which class has space. The store manager knows what arrived this morning. Drafts from people close to the work are specific, and specific posts are the ones that read as real.

If nobody has time, software can write the first version and a person who knows the subject corrects it. Either way the drafter's job ends with a complete proposal: caption, media, accounts and time.

Who should approve

Hand the approval to whoever would have to answer for the post if it went wrong. At a small firm the owner fills that seat. At a bigger one a marketing lead or a regional manager does. The approver does not need to be a good writer. They need to know the current prices, the current offers and what the business would never say.

• One name, not a group. 'Marketing approves' means nobody does.
• A backup. Name who approves when the first person is away.
• A time. Agree when drafts get looked at, so nobody has to chase.

Three setups by team size

The split looks different as a team grows. These three shapes cover most small and mid-sized businesses.

• Two people. The employee, or the agent, drafts. The owner approves everything.
• Three to six. Whoever is closest to each subject drafts. One marketing lead approves, with the owner as backup.
• Several locations. Local staff draft for their own location. One person at head office approves, so the brand reads the same everywhere.

When the approver is away

The weak point of any split is absence. If the approver is on a flight and a post is due, the team will either miss the slot or publish unseen. Decide in advance which of those you prefer, post type by post type. A weekly menu can wait a day. A weather closure cannot. For urgent posts, the named backup approves. For everything else, the post waits. Writing this down once saves an argument each time it happens.

Where Link AI fits

Our pick for this split is Link AI by Linkme, for two reasons. Linkme presents its business product as one for your whole team, and a draft a teammate creates is marked 'Needs review' before posting. Link AI also writes drafts itself, so in a small team the agent can be the drafter and the owner the approver.

Linkme's page does not describe named roles, permission levels or backup approvers, so ask how you would limit who can approve. See Link AI on your own accounts in a demo with two people present. Then read the review checklist for what the approver should look at.

Connected entries

Questions & answers