Welcome to our guide on connecting Facebook and Instagram accounts within Monitored Connections in order to to monitor data.
The Monitored Connections page allows you to connect Facebook and Instagram enabling public social media post to be tracked in your Dashboards, Monitor, Reports, and Explore.
Connecting these social profiles will fuel your searches and allow you to benchmark your social media performance. Competitor social handles you would like tracked will need to be indicated for Competitive Benchmarking reports in Measure. There is a limit of 20 handles total across Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
When authenticating an account, we do not collect any personal information.
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, at which time they must be reconnected. Meltwater will send users a reminder when a connection is about to expire
This will not affect your Facebook usage on any other website or your personal use in any way.
Twitter does not require authentication. Simply enter the name of the handle you want to track under the Twitter section via Add Account.
Let's walk through setting up each type of monitored connection and how to connect.
How to Set Up Facebook Monitoring
Meltwater allows you 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
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.
Step by step: Setting up monitoring a Facebook Page
In order to connect your Facebook Page - follow the steps outlined below:
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. Hover over the connected account and click on the ellipsis menu on the right-hand side. Select "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.
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 (url:"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.
How to Set Up Instagram Monitoring
Let's walk through the process of connecting your Instagram Business Profile. Instagram allows you to track public content using hashtags or content published from business profiles. We will also discuss further details into each step below:
Ensure you have an Instagram Business Profile connected to a Facebook Page: How-to guide from Instagram here.
Within Meltwater, Authenticate your Instagram Business Profile: How-to guide here.
Add hashtags to bring in Instagram content: How-to guide here.
Add other Instagram Business Profiles to be monitored: How-to guide here.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Step by Step: How do I Authenticate Instagram in Meltwater?
To follow these steps within your account, follow our on-screen tour link for step-by-step instructions.
Go to Account > Social Connections in the navigation menu
Under the Monitored Connections tab in the Instagram Authentication section click "Add Account".
3. A pop-up will appear that will prompt you to login to your personal Facebook profile. Similar to adding a Facebook page, your profile will need to be an administrator of the Facebook Page. Select OK to confirm.
4. Next, select the Instagram Business profile(s) to be added. Click OK.
Note: You'll be asked to log into your individual Facebook profile used to manage your business' profile. Adding your individual profile only authorizes social listening and does not include any publishing or monitoring of individual data.
This will prompt you to log in with your personal Facebook profile which is connected to your business profiles.
After logging in with your Facebook Page credentials an authorized message will be shown.
Continue as your Facebook Page.
Select the Instagram Business Profile to be saved and then select Save.
Once your profile is connected, it will be displayed on the Social Connections page. Please note the expiry date when the profile will need to be connected again next.
Add Instagram Business Profiles to be monitored
From the options, select 'Manage Competitors' to enter the Instagram Business Profile handles of profiles you are interested in retrieving posts from for your monitoring.
Once you’ve connected your Instagram account, you need to declare the hashtags (up to 30) and Instagram Business @handles that you want to track.
Hashtag suggestions for the types of hashtags you might want to add:
Your brand name
Campaigns
Ambassadors
Competitors
Industry topics
Tips:
Make sure that all the hashtags and @handles that you declared are also included in your search terms to be sure that you are seeing all the content being pulled in from Instagram. Whenever you need to add additional hashtags you will have to do so in both Settings (which is sent to Instagram) and in your searches.
To find out more about using hashtags to monitor for posts from Instagram, please review this article here.
While you're here you might as well add your Google Analytics Authentication too - this will allow you to see how Social and PR traffic translates to website traffic - giving you a real view on media conversion.
Frequently Asked Questions:
We don't have an Instagram Business Profile, how do I set up a New Business Profile on Instagram?
Please review Instagram's help center guide on the setup process for a Business Profile on this page: https://help.instagram.com/502981923235522
Why do I have to authenticate my account to monitor Instagram?
In December 2018, Facebook—who owns Instagram—changed the information they make available to service providers such as Meltwater which has changed the way we think about Instagram monitoring. All users of monitoring platforms like Meltwater are now required to authenticate their account prior to monitoring content from Instagram.
Instagram requires re-authentication every 60 days. This is a requirement of Instagram's API that affects all third-party crawlers. So you never miss a post, pop a calendar reminder in your diary every 60 days: Add to GoogleCal.
When I follow the steps to authenticate my Instagram business profile the pop-up box requests that I provide Meltwater access to my account - what does this mean?
This means that you will allow us to gather Instagram data on your behalf. It does not provide access to your Instagram and Facebook profile. Meltwater will not be able to access your personal information or have the ability to publish posts and send messages. The data we gather for you on your behalf will only be shown in your Meltwater account.
How am I notified of disconnections?
When an Instagram monitored connection is about to expire, you will receive multiple email alerts. Emails are sent 10 days, and 1 day before the expiration date, as well as on 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
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