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Setting up Monitored Pages, Competitors, Hashtags, Handles, and Keywords in Account Settings (Social Connections: Monitored Tab)
Setting up Monitored Pages, Competitors, Hashtags, Handles, and Keywords in Account Settings (Social Connections: Monitored Tab)
Cheyenne V. avatar
Written by Cheyenne V.
Updated this week

Once you have authenticated your social accounts in the Monitored Tab, you can now add Facebook pages, Instagram handles, hashtags, and X (formerly Twitter) handles to track. These will be added to your Explore searches to expand your Social Listening. If you do not add these to your Explore searches, expect to see fewer results populate.

Additionally, you can mark Facebook pages and Instagram handles as competitors. Why? To benchmark against and better understand where they may fall against key industry players and your brand.

Note: Meta requires you to have a Business Facebook account in order to see Facebook data.

This article will cover

Requirements

Before adding pages, handles, and hashtags to monitor and marking them as competitors, you must first connect your social accounts in the Social Connections Monitored Tab. Learn more about Connecting your Social Accounts.

Once you’ve successfully connected your accounts, it is time to start thinking about who you may want to monitor and/or mark as a competitor. Here are a few things to think about when making this decision

  • Who are our direct competitors?

  • Who are key industry players in our industry?

  • What are brands you don’t necessarily deem as direct competitors but perhaps aspire to be like?

  • What are hashtags we are using for a specific campaign or in general?

  • Are there hashtags often used throughout our industry?

The answers to these questions, as well as existing Explore searches are all you need to get started with monitoring and identifying competitors!

Monitoring Facebook Pages

To monitor Facebook pages, follow the below steps

  1. Go to the Account drop-down in the left-hand navigation bar

  2. Select Social Connections

  3. Navigate to the Monitored Facebook section

  4. To add pages to monitor, select the + under Monitored Pages

  5. Search for a Facebook page

  6. Or switch to Paste a URL by clicking in the top right-hand corner

    Note: You can paste up to 30 URLs when adding Facebook pages.

  7. Click Add

  8. Click Ok

Note: Upon setting up Monitored Facebook page(s), 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.

Facebook Competitors

In addition to monitoring these pages in Explore searches, you can mark them as competitors to ultimately use in benchmarking reports. To mark your Facebook pages as competitors follow these steps

  1. Go to the Account drop-down in the left-hand navigation bar

  2. Select Social Connections

  3. Navigate to the Facebook section

  4. Select the + under Monitored Pages or Connections

  5. Select OK

Note: If you do not see the competitor section, please contact your account manager to learn more.

Monitoring Instagram Handles

To monitor Instagram Handles, follow the below steps

  1. Go to the Account drop-down in the left-hand navigation bar

  2. Select Social Connections

  3. Navigate to the Monitored Instagram section

  4. To add pages to monitor, select the + under Monitored Pages

  5. Copy and Paste the Instagram Page Handles(s) you want to monitor

  6. Click Add

  7. Click Ok

Instagram Competitors

In addition to monitoring these pages in Explore searches, you can mark them as competitors to ultimately use in benchmarking reports. To mark your Instagram pages as competitors follow these steps

  1. Go to the Account drop-down in the left-hand navigation bar

  2. Select Social Connections

  3. Navigate to the Instagram section

  4. Select the + under Monitored Pages or Connections

  5. On the right-hand side of the pop-up toggle the page(s) you want to mark as a competitor to reflect teal

  6. Select OK

Note: If you do not see the competitor section, please contact your account manager to learn more.

Monitoring Instagram Hashtags

Through Instagram Monitoring, you are also able to monitor specific hashtags.

Suggestions for the types of hashtags you might want to add are:

  • Your brand name

  • Campaign Hashtags

  • Ambassadors

  • Competitors

  • Industry topics

Find out more about using Instagram’s Hashtag Monitoring.

Note: You can only add 30 hashtags per business account. If you delete one, Instagram's API places a hold on that hashtag for 7 days before it clears space to add another in it’s place.

To monitor Instagram Hashtags, follow the below steps

  1. Go to the Account drop-down in the left-hand navigation bar

  2. Select Social Connections

  3. Navigate to the Monitored Instagram section

  4. To add pages to monitor, select the + under Hashtags

  5. Copy and Paste the Instagram Hashtag(s) you want to monitor

  6. Click Add

  7. Click Ok

X (formerly Twitter) Competitors

X (formerly Twitter) does not require authentication like Facebook and Instagram do. To define a competitor on X (formerly Twitter) follow the below steps:

  1. Select Add Account

  2. Enter the X (formerly Twitter) handle(s)

  3. Click Ok

Adding Monitored Pages, Handles, and Hashtags to Explore

Adding Monitored Facebook Pages to Explore

After adding Facebook Pages to monitor, it is very important to add these page names to your Explore searches. If you do not do this part, no Facebook data will be pulled into the search results. It may be easiest to compile a list of pages you want to add to your search to avoid back and forth between screens.

To add Facebook Pages to your Explore Searches, follow the below steps.

  1. Select Explore in the left-hand navigation bar

  2. Select the search you want Facebook data to pull into

  3. Add the Facebook Page name to your boolean

  4. Select Search

  5. Select Save

Your search will now include posts, comments, and engagements from the page or pages you have added

Adding Monitored Instagram Handles to Explore

Similar to Facebook Pages, you need to add these Instagram Handles to your Explore searches in order to ensure Instagram data is included. It may be easiest to compile a list of handles you want to add to your search to avoid back and forth between screens. Follow these steps to add handles to your Explore searches

  1. Select Explore in the left-hand navigation bar

  2. Select the search you want Instagram data to pull into

  3. Add the Instagram Page name to your boolean

  4. Select Search

  5. Select Save

Adding Monitored Instagram Hashtags to Explore

To ensure the Instagram hashtag data is being pulled into your Explore searches, follow the below steps

  1. Select Explore in the left-hand navigation bar

  2. Select the search you want Instagram data to pull into

  3. Add the Instagram Page name to your boolean

  4. Select Search

  5. Select Save

FAQs

Are competitor pages counted against the monitored page limit?

Competitor pages are not counted to the monitored pages limit. If you have a 10 pages limit for Facebook, only monitored pages are counted to that limit. For competitor pages there is a shared limit between Instagram, Facebook and X.

💡 Tip

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