The drafts area in the Buffer publishing dashboard is a great spot to jot down ideas for posts, as well as create posts that you'd like to submit for approval. The option to request approval on drafts, as well as the ability to approve draft posts, will depend on permissions, which are described within this guide.
⭐️ While drafts are available on all plans, the ability to approve drafts is only available on our Team and Agency plans. Learn more about our plans and pricing here.
This article contains the following sections:
Video walkthrough
In the video below, Katie walks you through the steps to manage your draft posts, as well as how to use Buffer to collaborate with your team through the approval process.
Creating draft posts
All users with access to social channels, regardless of permissions, are able to create draft posts.
There are a couple of different places you can create draft posts:
- From any social channel’s queue
- From any social channel’s drafts tab (shown in the image just below)
- From the calendar
To understand how to best use drafts, head to this article: Saving and scheduling draft posts
Managing draft posts
Your permission level will dictate which options you have available to you when managing draft posts.
Account owners and users with Full Posting Access are able to edit, delete, and move all drafts to the queue.
Users with Approval Required Access are only able to edit, delete, and request approval on their own drafts.
Requesting approval on a draft
As a user with Approval Required Access, you will need to request approval on your draft once you're happy with it. To do so, simply click Request Approval and your draft will be moved to the "Pending Approval" tab for you and the "Awaiting Approval" tab for anyone on your team with Full Posting Access.
📝 If you are the account owner or a user with Full Posting Access, you will not have the option to request approval on your drafts.
Adding a draft to the queue
As the account owner or a user with Full Posting Access, you can move any draft from the drafts list to the queue even if the user who created the draft has not yet requested approval. Simply click Add to Queue and it will be scheduled at the date and time it was pre-scheduled for. In the absence of an assigned date and time, it'll land in the next available time slot in the queue.
If a user with Approval Required Access has already requested approval on a post, it will appear in the Awaiting Approval tab. Account owners and users with Full Posting Access can review and approve posts there.
Editing or deleting a draft
If you want to make modifications to a draft, click Edit, make any changes you like and then click Save. Likewise, if you'd like to remove a draft completely, click Delete and then Confirm. Remember, the account owner and users with Full Posting Access can edit any drafts, while users with Approval Required Access can only edit their own.
Managing approvals
Draft posts that users with Approval Required Access have requested approval on will appear in the Awaiting Approval tab, where both the account owner and users with Full Posting Access are able to review and approve them.
📝 If you'd like to receive an email when a new draft is ready to review, click your profile avatar at the top right of your dashboard, followed by My Preferences. From there, select the Notifications tab and toggle the "Collaboration" notification to Enabled.
Editing and approving draft posts
If you'd like to make modifications to a draft post in your drafts, Pending Approval, or Awaiting Approval areas, click Edit, make any changes you'd like, and then click Save. When the post is ready, simply click Approve and it will be moved into the next available time slot in the queue or into the time slot it was pre-scheduled for.
Moving a draft post back to the drafts list
If you'd like to move the post back to the drafts list so that the user can continue to work on it, click Move to Drafts, and the user who created the post will receive an email notification as long as they have their "Collaboration" notifications set to enabled.
Deleting a draft post
If you'd like to remove the post completely, click Delete and then Confirm.