How to onboard a new social media client in a week

Day one: access, and only the right kind

Get access sorted immediately, because it is the thing most likely to stall everything else, and get it in the form that will not cause pain later. That means delegated access through each network’s own authorisation flow, not a list of passwords. Expect some resistance — passwords feel faster to a client who has not thought about it — and hold the line anyway.

• Connect each account through the network’s own authorisation screen
• Confirm the client can see and revoke that access themselves
• Note which accounts exist that nobody mentioned — there are always some
• Agree who has final say on publishing, in writing

Day two: the brand rules that actually bite

A brand guidelines PDF is rarely what you need. What you need is a short list of the things that will get you in trouble: words the client will not use, competitors that cannot be named, claims the legal team has restricted, the correct rendering of the product name, and whether the account says "we" or "I". Ask directly for the list of things that have caused arguments before. It is a more productive question than asking for guidelines, and it gets a better answer.

Day three: gather assets into one place

Every client will offer you a shared drive link. Accept it, then immediately move what you actually need into whatever system you will really work from, organised how you will really work. Shared drives are archives, not working libraries — and the version of the logo you need is never the one in the folder called "logos". Doing this once, properly, in week one saves an hour a month forever.

Day four: agree the cadence and the approval loop

Two questions decide most of the friction in the months ahead. How often are we posting, on which networks? And what does approval look like — everything, nothing, or the first month only? Get a real answer to the second one. "Send it over and I will take a look" is not an answer; it is the beginning of a pattern where posts sit unreviewed for four days and the calendar slips.

Day five: build the first fortnight in front of them

Rather than disappearing for a week and returning with a plan, build the first two weeks with the client in the room, or on a call with your screen shared. It surfaces the objections early, when changing the plan is free, and it demonstrates competence at the moment they are most anxious about having hired you. It also teaches them what the calendar is, which pays off every month afterwards.

Week two: publish, then review the first week honestly

Get real posts out quickly. A client who has seen you publish is a fundamentally different client from one who has only seen you plan. Then, at the end of week one, review what actually happened: what got delayed, what needed more assets than expected, what the approval loop really cost. Adjust the cadence now rather than quietly failing to hit it for three months.

The conversations worth having early

A few topics are much cheaper to raise in week one than in month six. What happens when the client wants a post published today. Whether you handle replies and messages, or only publishing. Who responds if something goes wrong publicly at the weekend. What the notice period is. None of these are comfortable, and all of them are less comfortable later, in the middle of the situation they describe.

A checklist worth keeping

Onboarding is the most repeatable process an agency has, which makes it the most worthwhile one to write down. Every client that goes sideways teaches you one more question to add. After a dozen clients you have a document that quietly prevents most of the problems your competitors are still discovering one at a time.