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A social media client onboarding checklist should establish the scope, the people responsible, access to the correct accounts, usable assets, the approval process and the reporting baseline. Mark a check complete when its evidence exists. A kickoff conversation alone does not prove that the team can publish or measure the work it has promised.
Start with the workspace model in our guide to managing multiple clients' social media accounts. Use a dedicated client workspace where practical, and grant team members access according to their work.
Use this checklist as the kickoff record
Copy the table into your project tracker and add an owner, status, evidence and next action for each row. “Waiting for client” is a useful open state; it should not be recorded as complete. The checklist is an editorial operating template, not a platform requirement or a claim that every client needs the same setup.
Check | Evidence of completion | Resolve before launch |
|---|---|---|
Objective and scope | Agreed objective, brands, channels, deliverables and exclusions. | Unpriced production, extra languages or unclear coverage. |
Client contacts | Decision maker, reviewer and backup contact recorded. | No person responsible for approving changes. |
Workspace access | Named team members assigned appropriate roles. | People invited to the wrong client's workspace. |
Channel identity | The connected account name and identifier match the client's intended destination. | A personal or test account selected by mistake. |
Feature permissions | Publishing, analytics and any comment features checked separately. | An authorization that lacks a required permission. |
Brand assets | Approved logos, fonts, examples and source files available. | Missing usage rights or unsupported product claims. |
Review process | Reviewer, feedback deadline, revisions and late-decision handling agreed. | A publication slot that can pass without a decision. |
Reporting baseline | Baseline date, included accounts and measurement gaps recorded. | Unavailable history treated as measured zero. |
Launch check | A reviewed draft and an authorized publishing check with a verified destination result. | A queued request assumed to be a live post. |
Exit and handoff | Access-removal contact and outstanding-work responsibilities recorded. | Unowned schedules or access after the engagement ends. |
Set access up with the account holder
Ask the authorized account holder to complete the provider's consent process and check the requested permissions. Keep account passwords out of the onboarding tracker. Google's account-access guidance, checked 2026-10-18, advises against sharing the Google Account password with an app and explains that the account holder can review the requested access before authorizing it.
In Uplonic's source-reviewed flow, an owner or manager can open the channel-addition dialog, choose the platform and start its authorization process. The dashboard obtains a connection URL from its server, then redirects the browser to continue the flow. After authorization, inspect the connected account's displayed identity in the workspace. These steps were checked in the dialog, OAuth hook and API authorization code on 2026-10-18; we did not complete a new live client OAuth connection for this article.
Confirm which person can reconnect access if the account's permissions change. Publishing authorization does not establish that analytics or comment features are available. Uplonic maintains separate permission requirements for those capabilities. Verify the functions included in the engagement instead of treating a successful connection as completion of the whole access checklist.
Collect assets that can actually be used
Request editable brand assets, examples of approved language, audience priorities and the correct destinations for links. Ask who confirms product facts, offers and availability. Record where the supplied material came from and who owns the permission to use it.
Distinguish client-supplied footage from footage the agency must produce. Write down who creates platform-specific versions and who can approve a changed caption or visual. Then put the first agreed content batch into the client content calendar with its reviewer and proposed publication time.
Agree on approval and a missed-slot response
Name the person whose decision releases the item and the backup when they are unavailable. Ask for specific feedback against the item under review. Agree what changes require another approval and who chooses a new publication time if a deadline passes. These are proposed operating rules; no universal response-time target is assumed.
In Uplonic, the staff-review policy can remove staff members' direct publishing permission while retaining content preparation. Staff do not have internal approval permission. Those role rules were checked by the existing API/dashboard permission test on 2026-10-18. Client review links have their own feature entitlement; a team's role permission alone does not establish access to that feature.
Set the reporting baseline before promising results
Record when usable measurements start, the channels included and the metrics that are unavailable. Agree which website or customer-system evidence is needed for traffic, leads or sales. An account connection does not create a historical baseline that the provider never supplied.
For the first report, separate a measured zero from unavailable data, and explain any lack of comparable history. Our guide to useful social media metrics helps connect the objective to the evidence you will review.
Close onboarding with an observable handoff
Have the client review a draft and confirm its destination. If a test publication is part of the agreed launch, obtain authorization, choose suitable content and verify the destination result. Keep it as an open checklist item until it is actually done. This article proposes that launch check; it does not claim to have published to a client's account.
Record how access will end. Google documents reviewing and removing linked-app access, and LinkedIn documents disconnecting permitted applications; both checked 2026-10-18. Check future schedules and workspace membership separately when ending an engagement, since removing a provider grant does not settle every outstanding operational task.
Sources & methodology
Method: official account-access documentation and first-party product-source review on 2026-10-18. The checklist is editorial guidance. The role matrix was tested; live provider authorization, browser clicks, client launch publication and account offboarding were not exercised for this article.
- Google Account Help: sharing selected access and reviewing permission requests — checked 2026-10-18.
- Google Account Help: managing and removing linked-app access — checked 2026-10-18.
- LinkedIn Help: third-party applications and disconnection — checked 2026-10-18.
- Uplonic AddChannelDialog, useStartOAuth, auth routes, oauthScopes and appPermissions: connection handoff, feature permissions and team roles; reviewed 2026-10-18. The existing role-matrix test passed.
