A social media checklist to run before you publish

It’s Thursday, 4:50 p.m. The client said “looks good” in a chat thread on Tuesday, the post is scheduled for 9 a.m. tomorrow, and you’re the last person to look at it. What do you check?

The short answer: check that the client approved this exact version. Check the caption, alt text, and tags on each platform. Check that anything made with AI, or paid for by a brand, carries the label the platform asks for. Check that reposted or reused content still counts as original. Then check the format details you can’t fix once it’s live.

You probably have a routine for the first two. The platform rules moved this year, and that’s where an older checklist falls short. Here are the checks, grouped, with the full list to copy at the end.

Content and client sign-off

Get sign-off on the final version, not on a draft that’s close. The caption, the cut, the cover, and the slide order are all part of what the client approves. If anything changes after they say yes, it goes back to them.

Keep that approval next to the post. A “looks good” in a chat thread is hard to find again on the day the client asks who approved the typo.

While you’re there, check prices, dates, names, and offer terms against what the client sent, not against what you remember.

Originality for reposted and reused content

This is the newest check on the list. A client asks you to repost a customer’s photo, or to bring back last year’s video.

In April, Instagram extended its originality rules from reels to photos and carousels. Accounts that mostly post content they didn’t create, or didn’t meaningfully edit, are no longer recommended to people who don’t follow them. Their followers still see the posts. Low-effort edits, such as adding a watermark, don’t make a post original. Additions that bring something new, like on-image text that adds context or a remix, can.

On YouTube, reused content has to be meaningfully different from the original, for example through commentary, to earn money in the YouTube Partner Program. Permission from the original creator doesn’t change that.

So before you publish, ask: is this the client’s own content, or does it add something real to someone else’s? If it’s another creator’s post, ask whether a repost or a collab would do the job better than a re-upload.

AI labels

Look at every image, video, and audio track for AI-made material that looks real, and ask the client the same question about the assets they sent. Then label it the way each platform asks:

• TikTok requires people to label realistic AI-generated content.
• YouTube asks creators to disclose altered or synthetic content that a viewer could mistake for a real person, place, or event. Using AI for production help, such as drafting a script or a title, doesn’t need a disclosure. YouTube says disclosing doesn’t limit a video’s reach or its eligibility to earn money.
• Meta requires people to use its AI label when they post a photorealistic video or realistic-sounding audio that was digitally created or altered, and says it may apply penalties if they don’t.

We think labeling is the right default for a client’s brand: if you’d hesitate to tell the audience how a visual was made, label it.

Branded content, tags, and collaborators

If the client paid a creator, or the post promotes a partner, it’s branded content, and each platform has its own way to disclose it.

• Instagram: Meta’s rule is that content made for an exchange of value tags the brand partner with its branded content tool. The post then shows a “Paid partnership” label.
• TikTok: its Branded Content Policy asks you to turn on the content disclosure toggle when you post branded content.

Then check every tag and collaborator: the right accounts, spelled the way each platform has them. A brand’s handle isn’t always the same on Instagram and TikTok.

Captions and alt text

Write the caption for each platform, not once for all of them. Check length, line breaks, hashtags, and mentions on each one, and read the opening as it shows in the feed, before anyone taps to see more.

Write the alt text for every image yourself: what’s in it, and any text on it. A caption isn’t a description.

A caption that lives in four places is a caption you check four times, and the version you checked isn’t always the one that goes out. In ContentCrew, the caption lives on the idea and flows through to every draft and the publish dialog, with a version for each platform, a character counter for each, and AI variations in a side panel for you to choose from.

Format details

Since March, Instagram lets you reorder the slides of a carousel after it’s published. You still can’t add a slide afterwards, so make sure every slide is there before you post.

For video, check the cover, the first frame, the on-screen captions, and that the client is allowed to use the music. Then check the link, the account, and the scheduled time in the client’s time zone.

The checklist to copy

Content and sign-off

• The client approved this exact version: caption, cut, cover, and slide order.
• Anything changed since then went back to the client.
• Prices, dates, names, and offer terms match what the client sent.

Originality

• The content is the client’s own, or adds something real to what it reuses.
• Edits to someone else’s content go beyond a watermark.
• For another creator’s post, a repost or a collab was considered instead of a re-upload.

AI labels

• Every AI-made image, video, or audio track that looks real is labeled on each platform.
• The client confirmed whether any asset they sent was made with AI.

Branded content and tags

• Paid or partner posts carry the platform’s branded content label.
• Every tag and collaborator is the right account on that platform.

Captions and alt text

• Each platform has its own caption, checked for length, hashtags, and mentions.
• The opening reads well before “more”.
• Every image has alt text written by a person on your team.

Format

• Every carousel slide is there and in order.
• Video cover, first frame, on-screen captions, and music are checked.
• Link, account, and scheduled time (in the client’s time zone) are right.