Connecting your social accounts allows you to retrieve data for specific channels that require social account authentication.
If your subscription contains products that offer social media data, you will need to connect your accounts to gain access to this data.
Monitored Connections
These channels are used for social listening.
The Monitored Connections page allows you to connect Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter), enabling public social media posts to be tracked in your Dashboards, Searches, Monitor, Reports, and Explore. Connecting these social profiles will fuel your searches and allow you to benchmark your social media performance. You can also set up Instagram competitors and hashtags for tracking.
Here are a few things to note about monitored connections:
Connecting to Facebook or Instagram does not give Meltwater access to post, engage or modify the connected account in any way, it’s read-only access to public data.
Connections on this page last for 60 days or a year, at which time they must be reconnected. Meltwater will send users a reminder when a connection is about to expire via email and in-app banner.
This will not affect your Facebook usage on any other website or your personal use in any way.
X does not require authentication. Simply enter the name of the handle you want to track under the X section via Add Account.
Connecting Your Monitored Accounts
Select Account on the left-hand side navigation bar
Select Social Connections
Select Monitored Connections at the top of your screen.
Note: If you also post content to your social platforms via Meltwater Engage, you'll have three tabs at the top: Monitored Connections, Owned Connections, and Paid Connections.
Select Add Account under the Facebook section of the page
Follow the prompts which will direct you through Facebook's authorization process.
Once connected, your profile details will appear on your Meltwater page
Note: While you may be authenticating a personal account, due to Facebook’s privacy restrictions, we are not given any personal information about you or access to your personal profile. This authentication is only used 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.
Similar to how visiting Facebook.com or Instagram.com requires you to log in to take action or see data, Facebook requires the same via the API to share data. In order to view Facebook data, you must verify that you are a Facebook user. The same goes for Instagram. That is why you are required to connect your Facebook account to Meltwater before you can see Facebook data. It is a privacy policy set forth by Facebook directly.
Owned Connections
These channels are used for publishing, engaging, and analyzing your channels via Engage.
The Owned Connections page allows Meltwater users to connect business accounts you administer. This includes connections to Facebook pages, Instagram Verified accounts, X, LinkedIn company pages, YouTube channels, TikTok accounts, and Google Business accounts.
These channels are used in Meltwater Engage, an additional tab in the left-hand side navigation bar that allows users to schedule and publish posts and respond directly to social media comments, posts, and direct messages. They are also used in Analyze, via the reports under Owned Social Analytics, to analyze your owned channel data.
Connecting Your Owned Accounts
Learn more about Connecting Your Owned Social Accounts.
Here are a few things to note about owned connections:
Connections on this page last anywhere from 60 days (Instagram) to 1 year (TikTok and LinkedIn) at which time they must be reconnected. However, some connections do not expire at all, such as Facebook, X, YouTube, and Google Business. Meltwater will send users a reminder when a connection is about to expire
Allowing connections to expire will cause a disruption in data and insights. If a connection expires, posting or response will not work until reconnection.
Accounts may be disconnected by users at any time.
Paid Connections
These channels are used for engaging and analyzing your social media ads via Engage.
The Paid Connections page allows Meltwater users to connect ad accounts you administer. This includes connections to Facebook and Instagram ad accounts.
These ad accounts are used in Meltwater Engage, specifically within Conversations, to respond directly to inbound comments and replies on Facebook and Instagram ads.
They are also used in Analyze, via the FB & IG Paid report under the Owned Social Analytics section, to analyze your ad performance by account or campaign.
Connecting Your Paid Accounts
Learn more about Connecting Your Ads Manager Accounts.
Here are a few things to note about private social connections:
Connections on this page last for 60 days, at which time they must be reconnected.
Allowing connections to expire will cause a disruption in data and insights. If a connection expires, posting or response will not work until reconnection.
Accounts may be disconnected by users at any time.
Paid connections do not count against the total number of owned social
connections purchased.
Upon connection, 180 days of historical data will be gathered for both Facebook and Instagram. We poll updates every 6 hours after the connection has been made.
Troubleshooting
Learn more about Engage Troubleshooting and FAQs.
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