Finally, you can draft, publish and edit for an author on Workplace from Meta
In the latest series of Workplace updates, the Draft For feature got a welcome upgrade to include Publish For and Edit For (I can already hear communications teams rejoicing!).
If you are not familiar with Draft For, it’s a fantastic feature that enables people with certain permissions to draft posts in advance on behalf of others in their Workplace community. It proves handy for busy leaders who often find themselves pressed for time, and need assistance managing strategic communications across the organisation.
However, the previous limitations of being unable to publish or edit on behalf of the author created some challenges and delays in the communications and approvals process. But now, thanks to your feedback, the latest updates have streamlined this process.
So what’s new?
Publish for: You can now publish posts on behalf of someone else without needing a review or approval from the post author. When published, the post will appear from the final author’s profile, and the author will receive a notification that a post has been made on their behalf.
Edit for: You can now edit posts on behalf of someone else; this allows you to edit posts for anyone in your community after creating content. Editing posts is not only limited to posts that you have drafted; this applies to any content (as long as you have the relevant permissions).
What are the benefits?
The biggest benefit of the feature is that it frees up communication jams in the approval process, ensuring campaigns and urgent posts go out at the right time, or are updated in a timely manner. This helps you execute strategic planning in a more controlled manner and takes the responsibility off busy leaders and executives to publish when needed.
- Frees up communication jams in the approval process
- Reduces manual publishing and editing tasks from leaders
- Ensures communications are sent out when they should
- Helps comms teams better manage strategic communications without relying on leadership availability to post
How do I enable the new features?
Much like setting up the standard Draft For permissions, you will now see that options to toggle on and off include Publish for and Edit for. This will only be able to be viewed by existing users with Draft For permissions and anyone else you have granted access to.
How to set permissions
- New drafters – Go to Admin Panel – Draft For – Grant Permissions – Select Drafter – Choose Author – Grant Permissions – Toggle on and off permissions to publish/edit.
- Existing drafters – Go to Admin Panel – Draft For – Select Drafter – Update User’s Permissions
[video src="https://www.enablo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/How-to-set-permissions-1.mp4" /]
How to draft a post with new permissions
- Go to Admin panel – Draft For – Select ‘Create’ Button – Select Author – Select Group – Draft Post – Publish/Schedule – Submit for Approval
[video src="https://www.enablo.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/How-to-draft-schedule-or-publish-a-post.mp4" /]
What to keep in mind
- Only admin users can grant or revoke draft/publish/edit permissions; if you require access to manage these features, contact one of your platform admins.
- In order to use any of the draft/publish/edit options, you need to be a member of the group that the content lives in.
- Make sure you educate users and authors on the new features so they know how to take advantage of the new upgrade.
Affects on leadership engagement and what to avoid
One of the foundational pillars of success in any Workplace community is the visibility and engagement from Leadership. Upgraded features like Publish for and Edit for can create the appearance that leaders no longer need to be active in Workplace. However, unless misused, this is not the case.
Remember, new features should be used deliberately and strategically for critical campaigns and communication updates to complement the author’s contributions; they should never be used to substitute organic posting, commenting and reacting.
If you need more guidance on how best to use these features, I have provided some useful links below around permissions, managing posts, and best practices.
- Help Center: How to enable permissions to draft/publish/edit for
- Help Center: How to draft and manage posts
- Guide: How to boost executive engagement on Workplace
- Workplace Learning: Best practices for handling Strategic Communication in Workplace
Key takeaways
- You can now Draft For, Publish For and Edit For in your Workplace community
- You can toggle each new feature on and off per user
- Only admin-level users can grant and revoke permissions to the draft for feature (Note: you can create custom admin roles to enable users to manage Draft For exclusively)
- Educate users and authors on the new feature to ensure it’s implemented correctly
- Don’t substitute this feature for organic leadership posting
Still have questions?
If you have any questions about the above feature we encourage you to post your thoughts in the Enablo Customer Learning Community for collaboration and visibility. Or feel free to get in touch with your friendly CSM.
