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How to Monitor Facebook Pages
Whitney W. avatar
Written by Whitney W.
Updated this week

Welcome to our article about monitoring Facebook pages!

Please note that monitoring Facebook pages is included within our Premium Social Package (PSP), Explore Lite and Explore Unlimited packages. If you don't currently have PSP or Explore included within your Meltwater agreement and would like to know more please reach out to our team via Live Chat.

Facebook's Data Policy

Facebook has set policies for all third-party providers (Meltwater) when it comes to accessing public page content. Meltwater will continue to adhere to all of our partner’s terms of services and will make adjustments accordingly.

What does this policy mean for you?

Facebook requires you to add specific pages that you wish to monitor for competitive intelligence, industry listening or benchmarking. Expect to see less data in your search results if you do not take this action.

How do I add specific pages to monitor?

Check out our onscreen tour for these steps here! Adding non-owned Facebook pages in Meltwater in three steps:

  1. Navigate to the Monitored Connections tab

  2. Click the "+" icon under Monitored Connections.

  3. Add the public page’s URL to be monitored

Monitoring Facebook Pages

Meltwater allows users to monitor Facebook pages to track posts, comments, and engagements.

Facebook requires you to authenticate your account and add the specific pages you want to monitor for competitive intelligence or benchmarking. Each user's authenticated Facebook account/connection can add up to 100 Facebook pages for monitoring. Example: 5 users x each 100 connections = 500 monitored pages
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Due to Facebook privacy restrictions, we are not given any personal information about you or access to your personal profile. This authentication is only to collect public data on pages.

The ability for us to collect content from competitors' pages is an approved use case granted to us directly by Facebook.

What's Included?

Facebook pages that you add will collect:

  • Posts

  • All comments per post at the time of collection

  • # of reactions at the time of collection

  • # of shares at the time of collection

  • # of comments at the time of collection

'At the time of collection' refers to the time you entered the details of Facebook Pages to be tracked within your account. Please note that replies to comments are currently not captured.

Upon setting up Facebook Page monitoring we will backfill 450 days of posts and comments, replies, and metrics will be refreshed after 12 hours and then once daily for 7 days thereafter.

How to set up monitoring a Facebook Page

1. Go to Account > Social Connections in the navigation menu

2. Under the Monitored Connections tab in the Facebook Authentication section click "Add Account".

3. A pop-up will appear that will prompt you to log in to your Facebook account. Once logged into your Facebook account, the pop-up will disappear and you will have connected your account. Note: if you are already signed into your Facebook account on your browser, you will not need to log in again.

4. Select the "+" under Monitored Pages to manage monitored pages.

5. A pop-up will appear. Copy and paste the Facebook Page URL(s) you want to monitor and click "Add". Once you've finished adding the Facebook Pages you wish to track, click "OK".

Bulk Add Facebook Pages: Copy a list of Facebook Page URLs, paste them in the URL space, and click OK.
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6. Alternatively, you can also search for Facebook pages to monitor, by clicking Would you like to search for a page?

7. Type the name of the Facebook page(s) you would like to monitor, and select them from the list. Then click Add.

8. The number of pages you've added will appear in the column "Monitored Pages".

9. Engagement metrics will start collecting for this page moving forward. These metrics will be available in the content stream. If you want to search for a specific Facebook page, use the Facebook Page operator (site:"http://www.facebook.com/130416910313263/*") that's outlined in the Complete Boolean Library.

Facebook data collection and management

To be able to monitor Facebook content, Meltwater (and all other providers) are audited to ensure compliance with approved use cases and receive whitelisted permission from Facebook. Our whitelisted permission is called Page Public Content Access and grants us access to retrieve data from Facebook APIs with "tokens" to poll public Facebook pages.

(1) By authenticating your Facebook page within Meltwater, you are creating a 'token' to retrieve Facebook data. Features of this use case are:

  • With the authentication process, you identify the URL/Facebook Pages to be monitored and ensure monitoring of 100% of posts on those pages

  • We will collect metrics and comments only once per post at the time of polling/monitoring. Polling of content occurs up to 12 hours after the post was created

  • Upon setting up Facebook Page monitoring we will backfill 450 days of posts

How am I notified of disconnections?

  • When a Facebook monitored connection is about to expire, you will receive an email 10 days before the day of expiration.

  • Emails are sent to all users in the company where the connection has been made.

    • An opt-out for these types of emails will be available for all users.

  • Emails are sent when a connection has been marked ‘invalid’ based on errors returned by the native social API. This will help you avoid missing data gaps due to unforeseen connection disruptions when reconnecting.

💡 Tip

Need more help? Feel free to reach out to us via Live Chat or check out our Customer Community.

Find answers and get help from Meltwater Support and Community Experts.

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