Count customer-content submissions and usable assets as different things. Record each received submission, identify the distinct original assets inside it, and assess each asset against the requirements of a named use. Keep technical suitability, use-scope review and actual publication separate. Five uploads do not necessarily mean five different assets, and five suitable files do not necessarily mean five files you can publish.
Start with a question the count should answer: how much arrived, how much still needs review, or how much is available for a particular placement? Define that question before copying a total from a dashboard. This article describes a small editorial counting method, not a rights-clearance procedure or a measure of sales performance.
Define what each number counts
A submission is an intake event, such as one completed upload form. It can contain several files. A distinct original asset is the underlying photo, video or text contribution, rather than every copy or edited export of it. A placement is an actual use of an approved version at a particular destination.
Keep a submission reference connected to its files and asset identities. If someone sends the same photo through two routes, preserve both receipt records without automatically counting two different photos. A crop belongs with its original; a different photograph of the same product is not automatically a duplicate. Leave uncertain matches unresolved rather than deleting files to make the total tidy.
The separate guide to naming and tagging customer content explains stable asset identifiers. Use those identifiers here so a change to a filename does not silently change the count.
Make "usable" specific to a destination
A clear landscape photo might suit a wide gallery but fail a proposed upright crop that cuts off the product. Define the intended placement and its actual requirements before assigning suitability. Do not reject an asset merely because it fails a specification borrowed from a different use.
- Technical suitability: can this version show or communicate the required information in the proposed placement?
- Use-scope review: has the responsible reviewer established that the particular proposed use is covered, with necessary conditions recorded?
- Publication: has the identified version actually appeared at a recorded destination?
These are separate questions, not three names for approved. An unanswered use-scope question is pending even when the picture looks good. A completed use-scope review does not make an inaudible video technically suitable. Only count an asset as available for the proposed use when all the required checks for that use are complete.
Operational labels do not certify legal rights. Keep consent, privacy, third-party material and claim questions with the appropriately authorized reviewers. Do not use this counting method to replace those decisions or filter out honest criticism.
Reconcile one small batch
The following example is invented. It describes no real customer submissions, rights decisions or campaign results.
During a fictional week, the team receives five submissions. The first contains photos A and B; the second contains video C; the third contains another copy of A and a new photo D; the fourth contains photos E and F; the fifth contains a crop of A. That is eight received files but six distinct original assets, A through F. The repeated copy and crop of A remain linked to A.
At the stated review cutoff, A, B, D and E meet the technical requirements of the proposed gallery. C has unresolved speech and F does not show the required product detail. The fictional use-scope review is complete for A, D and E, while B is pending. A has appeared in three recorded placements and D in one.
- Received submissions: 5. Intake events, not people or unique assets.
- Received files: 8. Includes A's repeated copy and crop.
- Distinct original assets: 6. A through F.
- Technically suitable assets: 4. A, B, D and E for this gallery.
- Assets with all required use checks complete: 3. A, D and E; B's pending review is not counted as complete.
- Distinct assets actually published: 2. A and D, regardless of repeated use.
- Recorded placements: 4. Three uses of A and one of D.
These totals answer different questions. Adding them together would not produce a meaningful grand total. If the question is how many checked assets remain unused, the answer in this example is one: E. That is different again from the three assets whose required use checks are complete.
Keep the group and cutoff consistent
Choose whether you are reporting on a received batch or the current library. For a batch, keep the same set of original assets together and state when their review statuses were checked. For the current library, count the assets meeting the stated conditions at that moment, including older arrivals where appropriate.
A file received last month but reviewed this week can belong in this week's completed-review activity without belonging in this week's arrival batch. Do not divide those completions by this week's new submissions and call the result that batch's approval rate.
If you report a percentage, put the numerator and denominator beside it. Three eligible original assets out of six original assets is different from three out of five submission events. Unknown status stays unknown; it should not become a rejection or a completed review for convenience.
Read the dashboard's definitions before comparing
Provider labels need not match your working terms. Bazaarvoice's Content Supply Chain documentation distinguishes sourced content, rights-approved content, distribution-ready content and publication. Its distribution-ready definition combines rights approval and product tagging. That does not establish that every technical or contextual check your team needs has been performed.
Yotpo's Photos Dashboard documentation separately describes collected and published photos and product-coverage measures. Check the included sources, filters and exclusions before comparing its figures with an intake log. A dashboard total is evidence for its own definition, not proof that two differently named totals should agree.
Use differences to locate a question: are duplicates unresolved, is a review pending, or are more placements being counted than original assets? Collection and review counts do not establish customer demand, conversion lift or revenue caused by the content. For that broader distinction, see what to measure beyond social media likes.
Report the count that supports the next decision
A useful report names the unit, the included group, the cutoff and the unresolved checks. Keep received files, distinct assets, use eligibility and publication visible rather than compressing them into one impressive-looking number. The result should explain what is available and what needs attention, without claiming more than the records show.
For broader intake, moderation and asset-organization planning, explore 7-Day UGC Collection System Setup. Its sample approval, conversion and return targets are not verified benchmarks for your business. Keep your own unit definitions explicit and obtain separate qualified review of its permission templates. Do not use its physical page 19 blanket claim about the illegality of publishing third-party logos as an approval or rejection rule. That assertion is unverified here; logo and trademark questions require context-specific qualified review.
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