Overview

The TwineSocial platform is designed to acquire social media content; normalize and filter and moderate the content; approve content that best represents your brand identity; republish earned and social content on brand channels; promote official & partner social media accounts, and measure the viral performance of social media content.

What Can I Use TwineSocial For?

TwineSocial is used by brands, developers, and designers to create immersive social experiences. Common uses include:

  • Feature social testimonials on product & shopping pages
  • Micro-sites that showcase user generated #hashtag content.
  • Broadcasting social media content on websites, broadcast, and TV displays

Our native SDKs and APIs offer incredible flexibility to build the application that's right for you.

To get started, you'll need to create an account. Our free 7-day trials give you full, unlimited access to the TwineSocial Platform, our SDKs, and our APIs.

This document walks you through the features available to you after creating your platform account.


Connecting Your Social Media Accounts

After creating your TwineSocial account, you'll want to connect one or more social media accounts. This grants TwineSocial the permission to access networks (like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram) on your behalf. To connect your social account:

Tip: After connecting your social account, a default feed will be created for you. For example, if you connect the @Nike Twitter account, you'll find a @nike data feed configured for you under the Feeds tab.

 More questions? Search the Knowledge Base, or ask in the Community Forums.


Supported Social Networks & Data Sources

The TwineSocial Platform can import content from the following social data sources:

Facebook
Page

Import all items posted to a Facebook Page.

Album

Import content posted or uploaded to a specific Facebook Album.

Mention

Import content posted that @mentions a Facebook Page.

Tagged Photos

Import content posted that a Facebook Page is tagged in.

Uploaded Photos

Import content posted that were published to Facebook by a Facebook Page.

Twitter
User

Import all tweets authored by a Twitter user.

Hashtag

Import tweets that contain a specific #hashtag.

Mention

Import tweets that mentions another Twitter user.

YouTube
User

Import videos uploaded by a YouTube user.

Playlist

Import videos on a YouTube playlist.

Search

Import videos where the title, caption, or description contains a key phrase.

Channel

Import videos uploaded to a YouTube channel.

Instagram
User

Import photos and videos posted by an Instagram user.

Hashtag

Import photos and videos where the description or comments contain a #hashtag.

Location

Import photos and videos tagged to a geo location.

Tag

Import videos tagged with a specific #hashtag.

Location

Import photos and videos tagged to this geo location

SlideShare
User

Import content posted by a Slideshare user.

Tag

Import content tagged with a specific #hashtag.

Keyword

Import content containing a specific keyword

LinkedIn
Company

Import content for a LinkedIn company of which you are an admin.

Pinterest
User

Import content pinned by a Pinterest user.

Vimeo
User

Import videos uploaded by a Vimeo User.

Flickr
Gallery

Import photos and videos uploaded to a Flickr Gallery.

Group

Import photos and videos that belong to a Flickr Group.

User

Import photos and videos uploaded by a Flickr User.

Search

Import photos and videos where the metadata contains a key phrase.

Tag

Import photos and videos tagged with a key phrase.

Album

Import photos and videos that belong to a Flickr Album (a.k.a. "Photoset").

RSS
Feed

Import items from a RSS Feed. Automatically detect and support feeds in the Atom 1, RSS 1.0, RSS 2.01, and RSS 0.91 formats.


Data Feeds

After you’ve connected your first social media account, configure the TwineSocial platform to ingest your social content. You can use any combination of #hashtags, @user accounts, locations, and much more to control which content is actually displayed.

You can configure the TwineSocial platform to import content from many popular sources, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, YouTube, RSS feeds, and more.

Once you add a data feed, the TwineSocial platform will monitor that data source for new items, automatically adding them to your data store.

Creating a Feed

To create a Twitter hashtag feed, click on Campaigns in the left navigation pane. Choose your Campaign, and choose Feeds from the top navigation pane. Scroll down to Twitter. Set the feed type to Twitter Hashtag and enter the hashtag you wish to import.

Default Moderation Settings

If you choose the Moderation setting of Moderate then all your new content for this feed will get sent to a Moderation folder for you (or one of your administrators) to selectively approve. Keep in mind that no content will be displayed if you set this to Moderate and then forget to approve content. Plus, your content will only be as fresh as your most recent visit to your Moderate tab.

Data Collection Intervals

Our platform performs a regularly scheduled crawl for each of your data feeds at scheduled intervals, depending on your plan level. You can see how often TwineSocial is crawling content for your feeds from within your admin console:

Each plan offers data collection intervals designed to match your needs. Upgrade to a higher plan to get more frequent data collection, including near real-time data collection.

Recrawling Data Feeds

In some cases, you may wish to remove all content previously imported for a feed and start over. For example, you may add new filters or rules and want to apply this retroactively. To do this, simply choose Delete Posts & Start Over in the dropdown next to the respective feed:

 More questions? Search the Knowledge Base, or ask in the Community Forums.


Filtering

The TwineSocial Platform offers a variety of powerful tools to allow you to automatically and manually filter content before and after it is added to your campaign.

Basic Filters

You can automatically filter content before it is added to your campaign. Any new post that contains any username or keyword provided in the data feed filter box will be excluded.

Filters only apply to new posts; if you've previously imported posts, then they'll remain on the wall unless you moderate them out or recrawl your feed.

Muting an Author

You can also mute a specific user, so that their posts no longer appear in your campaign. Simply mouse over the offending post and choose Mute User:

Our Rules Engine offers an even more advanced technique to filter content by nearly every attribute, and to combine your filters with boolean operators.


Collections

Collections are a powerful way to group your social content items together. Once you've grouped your posts, you can then embed this collection of posts on a specific page on your website, project this collection onto a live display, or access this collection with the Javascript SDK.

What Can I Use Collections For?

  • Create a collection of posts from customers who Tweet favorable comments about your brand, and put this on your product page.
  • Create a collection of posts from people who use a specific #hashtag, and create a social hub around this #hashtag
  • Create a collection of user-generated photos of your product, and embed this collection of content on your product shopping cart.
  • Create a collection of posts from your CEO, and display this content on your About Us page.

Creating Collections

To create a collection, login to your Admin Console. Choose Campaigns from the left navigation pane. Choose Collections from the top menu. From this page, you can manage existing collections, change the display order of collections, and add new collections.

Adding Content to a Collection Manually

Posts can be manually added to a collection at any time. Assuming you are logged into your Admin Console, and have moderator or administrator privileges, simply mouse over any tile and click the Collections button:

Adding Content to a Collection with Rules

You can also create rules to automatically add content to a collection that meets a specific criteria: from a particular user, from a particular network, or with a specific hashtag. Learn how to configure rules.

Collection Visibility

When using the Web API, you can choose to have a tab-based navigation pane at the top of your campaign content, allowing visitors to navigate through your content by collection.

When creating a new collection, you can choose your default collection, indicate whether a collection is visible to the Web API, and change the sort display order of each tab.

 More questions? Search the Knowledge Base, or ask in the Community Forums.


Rules Engine

The Rules Engine lets you select content based on your chosen criteria and selectively take actions: Hide, Approve, Flag for Moderation, Add a CTA, or Add to a Collection. New rules go into effect immediately the next time we crawl each feed.

Rule Criteria

Choose multiple criteria for unlimited control over your social content. For instance, add all posts that contain images, are posted by a given user or users, and use a given hashtag to a collection.

What Can I Use Rules For?

Rules are incredibly powerful and can be used to design a data workflow that meets a large variety of business requirements.

  • Create a rule to limit collection of content to Tweets containing your specific #hashtag AND a video.
  • Create a rule to require moderation of all content that contains a specific #hashtag.
  • Create a rule to add all posts from a specific official Facebook account to a collection.
  • Create a rule to exclude Retweets from your data store.

Rule Actions

You can perform multiple actions with content for each rule. Choose to add content to a collection, flag it for moderation, automatically hide or delete it, or approve it for display. And of course you can define as many rules as you like for your social media content.

Creating Rules

To create a rule, login to your Admin Console. Choose Campaigns from the left navigation pane. Choose a campaign. Choose Rules from the top menu. From this page, you can manage and add rules.

 More questions? Search the Knowledge Base, or ask in the Community Forums.


Moderation

The TwineSocial Platform offers a variety of tools to allow you to automatically and manually manage content before and after it is ingested. There are two ways to approach content moderation.

Negative Moderation

One approach is to configure your campaign to auto-approve each new ingested item. Then, when viewing your social content (and only when logged in as a TwineSocial user with moderation privileges) you can remove individual posts and mute specific authors. Simply mouse over the offending post and click the "Hide" button or the "Mute Person" button:

Positive Moderation

When creating a data feed, you have the choice of sending all social posts from this source to a "Moderate" section, where it must be approved before being published. To access this content, navigate to the Moderate section of your campaign admin in TwineSocial:

Mouse-over each post and click "Approve" to post this item to your campaign. Convenient dropdowns above your campaign let you drill on on unapproved content by data feed, or to see items that have been moderated out.

 More questions? Search the Knowledge Base, or ask in the Community Forums.


Authoring & Uploading New Content

New content can be authored directly using the TwineSocial platform. This feature is designed for featuring content that may not existing in your social channels yet. To author a new item, login to your Admin Console, and look for the toolbar in the lower left corner:

Enter a headline, or simply paste a URL.

We’ll retrieve the page, and pull in the relevant photo, video, headline and body copy.

Editing Content

You’ll frequently discover that a few tweaks to the post content are in order. When logged into the Admin Console, simply mouse over any content item, and click the Edit button visible when hovering over the tile. From here, you can tweak most elements of your tile: embed additional HTML, format your content, change the date of the post, avatar, and much more:

 More questions? Search the Knowledge Base, or ask in the Community Forums.


Promoting & Pinning Posts

The TwineSocial platform offers tools to promote and pin specific pieces of content in your Campaigns. For example, you can feature key brand videos at the top of a social hub. You can also configure posts to repeat in your campaign at regular intervals.

Pinning a Post

The “Pin Post” feature permits you to attach any post (organic, sponsored, or user-generated) to the top of your campaign, positioning it so that visitors to social hub will see it right away. If you have a post promoting your latest social campaign, you definitely want to sponsor it by pinning it to the top:

Repeating a Post

TwineSocial’s repeating post feature is designed to automatically repeat specific posts at defined intervals. These promotional posts are often key influencers, infographics, or ads, and are designed to remind visitors about important events and other brand messages in the feed:

Enlarging a Post with Post Layouts

You may identify particular pieces of content with strong visual appeal, and want to use TwineSocial’s library of post layouts to give these posts particular emphasis.

 More questions? Search the Knowledge Base, or ask in the Community Forums.


Security & Permissions

The TwineSocial Platform supports multi-user functionality, allowing your entire marketing team to work on your campaigns with different levels to match any role: account owner, brand manager, billing administrator, analytics user, content moderator, and designer. And it’s all super-easy to set up.

Different Levels for Everyone on The Team

TwineSocial allows you to create unlimited new logins with a variety of permission levels.

  • Account Owners have full privileges to all features on your campaign. Your first TwineSocial user automatically has these privileges. Perfect for marketing producers and campaign planners.
  • Brand Managers can moderate, view and edit campaigns, and check reporting. Perfect for someone maintaining an existing social media campaign.
  • Billing Administrators can view all billing data. Perfect for accounts who don’t want to be bothered (or can’t be trusted) with the rest of your campaigns and content.
  • Analytics Users can view our in-depth reporting on your campaigns. Perfect for account managers who just want a high level view of your social media campaign.
  • Designers can add CSS to your campaigns, change layouts, and make design decisions for your campaign. Perfect for designers who want to be able to customize your campaign without changing anything else.
  • Content Moderators can moderate out or approve any of your aggregated social media content. Perfect for interns or content moderators.

Additionally, you choose which campaigns on your account each user has access to. So if you’re an agency with a large portfolio on TwineSocial, you could give your contact from each of your brands access to only their campaigns.

Incredibly Easy Setup (for Busy Social Media Marketers)

Creating logins for everyone on your social media marketing team is super-easy. Simply navigate to the users tab on the left nav (you must be a Account Owner yourself to see this) and click “Add User”. Then, enter your new user’s information, choose a permissions level, and boom! your new login has been created. You can set usernames and passwords for your social media hub users and even give them custom profile pictures.

 More questions? Search the Knowledge Base, or ask in the Community Forums.


"Call To Action" Buttons

Adding a CTA to posts in your TwineSocial campaigns is simple. CTAs may be added manually, or using our powerful, industry-leading Rules Engine.

Adding a CTA to a post Manually

Simply mouse-over any post, and press the Edit button, navigate to CTAs, and choose a Call to Action:

Adding a CTA to a post Automatically

Using our Rules Engine, you can also automatically add a CTA to posts that meet any criteria. For example, any posts that contain a product keyword could link to a product page:

Setting Up & Styling your CTA Library

You can add as many CTA actions as you like. Each CTA can point to a specific URL, and each CTA can be independently styled to match your brand look and feel.

Configure your CTAs by choosing a Campaign, then clicking Engagement Tools when logged into your Admin Console.

Reporting on CTA Engagements

Each CTA click is reported in our Advanced Analytics dashboard, as well as to your Google Analytics account, if you’ve configured it.

Accessing CTA with the Javascript API

If you consume your TwineSocial platform content with our Javascript API, you'll get full access to the CTA configuration object within the JSON represented for each content item.

 More questions? Search the Knowledge Base, or ask in the Community Forums.


Categories

Adding a Category to posts in your TwineSocial campaigns is simple. Categories may be added manually, or using our powerful, industry-leading Rules Engine.

Adding a Category to a post Manually

Simply mouse-over any post, and press the Edit button, navigate to Design, and choose a pre-defined Category:

Adding a Categories to a post Automatically

Using our Rules Engine, you can also automatically add a Categories to posts that meet any criteria. For example, any posts that contain a product keyword could link to a product page:

Setting Up & Styling your Categories Library

You can add as many Categories as you like. Configure your Categories by choosing a Campaign, then clicking Engagement Tools when logged into your Admin Console.

Accessing Category with the Javascript API

If you consume your TwineSocial platform content with our Javascript API, you'll get full access to the Category configuration object within the JSON represented for each content item.

 More questions? Search the Knowledge Base, or ask in the Community Forums.


Analytics

The TwineSocial Platform includes a comprehensive reporting and analytic system. This significantly increases visibility into the engagement and performance of your campaigns. In addition, you can choose to integrate your TwineSocial campaigns with a Google Analytics account.

Analytics Dashboard

When you login to your Admin Console, you’ll see an Analytics tab in the left navigation.

Choose your social hub and period to get quick stats on the number of hub views, engagements, volume of content acquired, popular actions, popular data sources and more.

Analytics: Engagement

This section helps you understand how users engage with your campaigns. You can drill down and answer questions like “how many times did people view videos on my social hub last week” and “how far down into my hub did users explore?”

Analytics: Content

Content Analytics reports let you analyze the content ingested by TwineSocial into your campaigns. This is an easy place to determine where your target content most frequently originates. In addition, if you embed your TwineSocial campaigns on more than one media property, you’ll be able to see which property drives the most volume.

Analytics: Visitors

Visitor Analytics help you understand your visitor profile and your traffic sources. You’ll quickly determine what your top referring domains and URLs are, the browser type and platform of your users, and geo-coded traffic patterns.

Integrating with Google Analytics

TwineSocial campaigns can be integrated with Google Analytics Event Tracking. This lets you measure how users interact with the content on your campaigns from within your Google Analytics account. For example, you might want to measure how many times an item was shared on Facebook, or how many times a particular item was retweeted on Twitter. This feature is ideal for agencies and partners who rely on Google Analytics to demonstrate social value to clients.

To activate Google Analytics Event Tracking, follow these two integration steps.


Embedding & Displaying your Content

Now that you've learned how to configure your account, you're ready to embed and display your content. Read the documentation for the Web SDK, the Javascript SDK, or REST API to publish your content.