Setting up Social module

Users can view the social media feed of their brand/organization from the brand page and either automatically or manually convert posts, messages, and @mentions into tickets.

Permission
Users with the Administrator permission profile can link social accounts in Desk.
Check Feature Availability and Limits

Key benefits of setting up social module in Desk

1. Enhanced organization: Brands simplifies the management of multiple social media accounts, providing a structured and organized approach to handle various profiles effectively.
2. Streamlined management: The unified approach allows agents and admins to view and interact with the social media feeds of their brands, facilitating more efficient management of posts, messages, and @mentions.
3. Improved engagement: By converting posts, messages, and @mentions into tickets, agents can respond promptly to customer inquiries and concerns, thereby enhancing the engagement with the audience.

For example, imagine you are managing the online presence of a growing e-commerce business across different social media platforms. With the Social module in Zoho Desk, you can create a brand for your business, consolidating its Facebook page, Instagram page, and Twitter handle into one organized unit. This not only simplifies your social media management but also allows you to access all incoming posts, messages, and @mentions in one place. Furthermore, you can enable your agents to efficiently convert these interactions into tickets, ensuring prompt response to customer inquiries and concerns. 

Creating a Brand  

Brands play an integral role in the Social module. A brand is the fundamental unit under which you can manage the Facebook page, Instagram page, and Twitter handle of a brand/an organization. 

To create a brand

1. Go to Setup > Channels > Social.
2. Click Get Started.
   
   
   
3. Click Create. 
   The Brand creation page appears. 
   
   
   
4. On the Brand Creation page, do the following:
   
1.  Upload the Brand Logo.
2. Enter the Name of the brand
3. Select the Department to link to the brand. You can link a single department to a single brand or link all departments to a single brand. 
   
4. Provide a short description of the brand.
   
   
   
5. Click Save.
   
   
   

After creating a brand, you can proceed with linking your social media accounts to the brand. 

Linking a Facebook Page to a Brand  

To link a Facebook page to your brand, perform the following steps:

1. On the panel for the brand you created, click the + symbol next to Facebook. 
   The Log in to Facebook window opens. 
   
   
   
2. Enter the Facebook account credentials to link and click Log In. 
   The list of Facebook pages created or administered by the account appears. 
   
   
   
3. Click the desired page name to link and click the Link Page button. 
   The page is linked to your brand and the individual detail screen of your Facebook page appears.
   
   
   
4. Under Auto-Conversion Settings, select the desired ticket conversion options and click Save. 
   Note: For more information on auto-conversion settings, click here. 
   
   
   
5. Click View Feed to access the posts and private messages fetched from the Facebook page linked.

Sometimes, you might not be able to link a page to your brand. When such a case arises, hover over the question mark icon that appears next to the name of the page. A tooltip appears, explaining why the page cannot be linked. Based on the reason in the explanation, perform the changes required in Facebook and try linking the page again in Zoho Desk. 

Linking a Twitter Handle to a Brand

To link a Twitter handle to your brand, perform the following steps:

1. On the panel for the brand you created, click the + symbol next to Twitter. 
   The Twitter / Authorize an application window opens.
   
   
   
2. Enter the Twitter login credentials to link and click the Authorize app button. 
   The handle is linked to your brand. 
   
   
   
3. Click Done.
   The individual detail screen of the Twitter handle appears. 
4. Under Auto-Conversion Settings, select the desired ticket conversion options and click Save. 
   Note: For more information on auto-conversion settings, click here.
5. Click View Feed to access the tweets, @mentions, and direct messages from the Twitter handle linked.

Linking an Instagram account to a brand  

To link an Instagram account to your brand, perform the following steps:

1. On the panel for the brand you created, click the + symbol next to Instagram.
   The Facebook login window opens.
   
   
   
2. Enter the Facebook/Instagram login credentials of the to link. 
   
   
   
3. Click Continue.
   You can continue to login using the same account or log in using another account.
   
   
   
4. Click the + symbol next to the account to add it to the brand.
   
   
   
5. Click Add Account.
   The Instagram account is linked to your brand. 
6.  Under Auto-Conversion Settings, select the desired ticket conversion options required and click Save.
   Note: For more information on auto-conversion settings, click here.
7. Click View Feed to access the posts, stories, and direct messages from the Instagram account you linked.

Importing a Brand from Zoho Social

If you already use Zoho Social to manage your social media accounts, you have the option of importing those brands into the Social module in Zoho Desk.

If there are no other brands in the Social module and you want to import existing ones from Zoho Social, perform the following steps:

1. Go to Setup > Channels > Social.
2. Click the Get Started button. 
   The brand creation preferences page appears. 
3. On the brand creation  page, click the Import button. 
   
   
   
4. The Choose Brands to Import page appears.
   
   
   
5. Hover over the brand to import and click the selection checkbox on the upper-right side of the brand panel. 
   
   
   
6. On the upper-right side of the Zoho Desk screen, click the Import button. 

If there are other brands in the Social module and you want to import existing ones from Zoho Social, perform the following steps:

1. Go to Setup > Channels > Social.
2.  On the upper-right side of the brand creation page, click the Import Brand button.
3. The Choose Brands to Import page appears.
4. Hover over the brand to import and click the selection checkbox on the upper-right side of the brand panel. 
5. On the upper-right side of Zoho Desk screen, click the Import button. 

Editing details of a Brand

To edit details of a brand, perform the following steps:

1. Go to Setup > Channels > Social.
   
2. Hover over the brand to edit.
   The Delete Brand and Edit Brand icons appear. 
3. Click the Edit Brand icon.
   
   
   
4.  The Edit Brand page appears. 
   
5. Make the necessary changes and click Save.

Disconnecting a Social Media Account from a Brand

To disconnect a social media account from your brand, perform the following steps:

1. Go to Setup > Channels > Social.
   
2. Hover over the social media account to disconnect.
3. The Settings and Delete icons appear on the right side. 
4. Click the Delete icon. 
   
   
   
5. Click Disconnect.  

Deleting a Brand

To delete a brand from the Social module, perform the following steps:

1. Go to Setup > Channels > Social.
2. Hover over the brand to delete.
   The Delete Brand and Edit Brand icons appear. 
3. Click the Delete Brand icon.
   
   
   
4.  Click Delete. 

Only brands created in the Social module will be permanently deleted from Zoho Desk. If you delete a brand that was originally imported from Zoho Social, it will be delinked from your Zoho Desk portal and stop appearing in the Social module. To permanently delete the brand, you must follow the brand deletion process flow in Zoho Social. 

Working with Social module

Feeds 

Once the social module is set up, you can start connecting the channels (Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram accounts) to the brands. Before that, if you need instructions on how to set up the Social module, refer to this article. 

After you connect your social media accounts to a brand, the posts, @mentions, and private messages posted or received by the accounts are automatically populated in the respective feeds. From these feeds, you can perform all basic actions, such as:

1. Commenting on a post
2. Liking or disliking a post
3. Replying to a tweet
4. Retweeting or liking a tweet
   

You can also manually or automatically convert posts and messages into tickets in your help desk portal.

Facebook Feed

Facebook Feed displays two types of posts:

1. Page Posts: Posts that you publish on your page
2. Visitor Posts: Posts made on your page by your customers/other users
   

On Facebook feed, you can perform the following actions, 

1. Convert a post into a ticket
2. Like or dislike a post
3. Comment on a post
4. Reply to other users' comments
5. Delete a post 

You can refer to the Setting up Social Handles with Zoho Desk article to connect your Facebook Handle with Desk. 

To access the Facebook user profile and view comments

1. Navigate to the Social module in Zoho Desk.
2. Open the Facebook Feed window from the left menu.
3. Click a post or the comment button in a post.
   The post window will open on the right.
   
   

In this window, you can view the comments recorded on the post and also access the profile of the user. If the user is already a contact in your help desk portal, you can view their details on the Profile tab. If the user is not a contact, you can add them to your contacts list. 

To view all Facebook posts and apply filters

You can choose to view all posts or apply filter to view posts that are converted or not converted into tickets. These filters help in performing bulk actions, such as deleting tickets or marking tickets as spam. 

1. Open the Facebook Feed window from Social module.
2. Click the Filter (  ) icon.
3. Choose the desired filter from the drop-down list.
   
   
   

Note: You can also publish new posts from this feed by clicking the New Post button.

Twitter Feed

Twitter Feed displays two types of posts made on Twitter:

1. Tweets: Tweets that you make from the handle that is connected to your brand.
2. Mentions: Tweets that your customers or other users send to the Twitter handle connected to your brand.
   

On Twitter Feed, you can perform the following actions:

1. Reply to a tweet
2. Retweet, like, or unlike a tweet
3. Convert @mentions into a ticket
4. Delete a tweet
   

 You can refer to the Setting up Social Handles with Zoho Desk article to connect your Twitter Handle with Desk.  

To access the Twitter user-profile and view replies

1. Navigate to the Social module.
2. Open the Twitter Feed window from the left menu.
3. Click a tweet or the reply button in a tweet.
   The tweet window will open on the right.
   
   

In this window, you can view the replies sent to the tweet, access the profile of the user, and follow or unfollow the user from the brand handle. If the user is already a contact in your help desk portal, you can view their details on the Profile tab. If the user is not a contact, you can add them. 

To view all tweets and apply filters

You can view all tweets or apply filter to view tweets that are converted or not converted into tickets. These filters help in performing bulk-update actions, such as deleting tickets or marking tickets as spam. 

1. Open the Twitter Feed window from the Social module.
2. Click the Filter icon.
3. Choose the desired filter from the drop-down list.
   
   

Note: 

1. You can also publish new tweets by clicking the Post Tweet button.
2. In addition, the Twitter Feed contains the Twitter search field, using which you can search for public tweets across the entire Twitter database. This search field supports all advanced search options supported in Twitter.
   
   
   

Instagram Feed

  The Instagram Feed displays the posts that you publish on your page. On the Instagram Feed, you can perform the following actions:

• Convert a post into a ticket 
• Comment on a post
• Reply to other users' comments

 

You can refer the Setting up Social Handles with Zoho Desk article to connect your Instagram Handle with Desk.

To view the comments on Instagram posts 

1. Navigate to the Social module.
2. Open the Instagram Feed window from the left menu.
3. Click a post or the comment button in a post.
   The post window will open on the right. 
   

In this window, you can view the comments recorded on the post, associated tickets, and access the profile of the user.

To view all Instagram posts and apply filters

You can view all posts or apply filter to view posts that are converted/not converted into tickets. These filters help in performing bulk actions, such as deleting tickets or marking tickets as spam. 

1. Open the Instagram Feed window from Social module.
2. Click the Filter icon.
3. Choose the desired filter from the drop-down list.
   
   

Private and Direct Messages

In addition to the feeds, you can also view private and direct messages from the respective social handles. Private and direct messages are quick modes to interact with individuals. These messages are only between the recipient and the sender. 

 

The private and direct messages that are sent by Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram end-users to the business's social handles are displayed here. Just like posts, private and direct messages can be converted into tickets. You also have the option to view all messages or filter those messages that are converted/not converted into tickets. 

Facebook - Private Messages

In Facebook's private message tab, click a message to open the private message window on the right side of the page. Messages in this feed are in sync with Facebook and get updated instantly. For example, if the user is online and replies to your message immediately, the private message window gets updated instantly. From this window, you can access the profile of the user and add them to your contacts. You can also view the user's past interactions with your page under the Interactions tab.

Twitter- Direct Messages

In Twitter's direct message tab, click a message to open the direct message window on the right side of the page. Messages in this feed are in sync with Twitter and get updated instantly. For example, if the user is online and replies to your message immediately, Twitter's direct message window gets updated instantly. From this window, you can access the profile of the user, follow/unfollow the user, and add them to your contacts. You can also view the user's past interactions with your handle under the Interactions tab. 

Instagram - Direct Messages

In Instagram's direct message tab, click a message to open the direct message window on the right side of the page. Messages in this feed are in sync with Instagram and get updated instantly. For example, if the user is online and replies to your message immediately, Instagram's direct message window gets updated instantly.

Converting Posts or Messages to Tickets

Posts or messages received on social media can be converted to tickets. For example, if a person sends a direct message to your Twitter handle about data loss, you can quickly convert the message to a ticket and help them restore the lost data. Likewise, if a customer posts about your newly launched product on Instagram, you can send them a thank you note accompanied with the brochure and a demo to increase product adoption.     

 

There are two ways in which posts and messages can be converted to tickets: 

Manual conversion

 You can manually convert posts or messages received on social media handles to tickets and assign support agents to resolve them.

 

Points to Remember

1. You can send a message to a specific social media handle member from the Desk interface. 
2. In the manual conversion of messages, the most recent 15 messages will be captured as a thread while converting the messages into a ticket. Those 15 messages should contain at least one incoming message (end-user message) for conversion. Further conversation with the end-user can be continued within the converted ticket itself.
3. In the Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram feed, once a post is converted to a ticket, further comments made on that post will be added as a separate thread within the same converted ticket.
4. In the Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram private and direct messages, once the conversion is done for a message, the new incoming messages will not be added as a thread within the same converted ticket. 

To manually convert a post or message to a ticket

1. Open the desired social media post or message.
2. Click the Convert into Ticket icon at the upper-right portion of the post or message.
   The post or message will be immediately converted into a ticket and the icon will be replaced with the ticket number with a pop-up menu appearing below. From this pop-up menu, you can assign the ticket to an agent or a team.
   
   

Clicking the ticket number opens the Ticket Peek view. In this view, you can find more details about the ticket and perform necessary actions, such as update ticket status or set due date. 

Automatic conversion  

With the auto-conversion option, you can easily configure the type of social media posts or messages that must automatically be captured as tickets in your help desk portal. In the Auto-Conversion Settings page, you can configure the automatic conversion of posts, tweets, @mentions, private messages, and direct messages into tickets. Using this functionality, you can reduce the need to convert posts or messages manually into tickets every time. 

Points to Remember

1. If you select the All Posts/Messages sub-option in the auto-conversion settings page, you can select only one department from the drop-down list.
2. If you select the Posts/Messages with specific keywords sub-option, the keyword settings option appears at the bottom of the page. Here you can select a different department for each keyword set. For example, you can configure posts/messages containing the term "zPad" to be sent to the zPad department. You can configure the desired keyword settings for Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram handles.
   
   
   
   
3. In auto-conversion of messages, only one message will be captured as a thread while converting a message into a ticket. Further conversation with the end-user can be continued within the same auto-converted ticket itself.
   

To configure auto-conversion of posts or messages to tickets

1. In the Zoho Desk portal, go to Setup. 
2. Click Social under Channels.
   The brands listing page will appear.
3. Hover over the desired Facebook/Twitter/Instagram handle and click the Settings icon. 
   The Auto-Conversion Settings screen for the Facebook/Twitter/Instagram handle will appear.
   
   
   
   
4. Click the Facebook tab to configure the auto-conversion settings for Page Posts, Visitor Posts, and Message.
   You can choose to auto-convert either all the page posts/visitor posts/messages or posts/messages with specific keywords to a ticket
   
   
   
   
5. Click the Twitter tab to configure the auto-conversion settings for @mentions and messages.
   You can choose to auto-convert either all the @mentions/messages or @mentions/messages with specific keywords to a ticket.
   
   
   
   
6. Click the Instagram tab to configure the auto-conversion settings for Posts and Messages.
   You can choose to auto-convert either all the posts/direct messages or posts/direct messages with specific keywords to a ticket.
   
   
   
   
7. After configuring auto-conversion settings as required, click Save. 
   

Related tickets tab 

Agents or Administrators can access the Tickets tab to view a complete list of relevant tickets associated with a specific post or message within their social media feeds, direct messages, or private messages. This enables users to review all linked tickets without having to navigate away from the social module.

For example, when a support agent receives a instagram direct message on Desk concerning a customer support issue, they can click on the specific message and switch to the tickets tab to instantly access a complete list of all tickets associated to that particular message.

Note: The Tickets tab will be available for all the social handles (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram).

To access the Tickets tab

1. Navigate to the Social module.
2. Open the desired post or message.
   A window will open on the right.
3. Click on the Tickets tab.
   
   
   

Append Interval

Private/Direct messages come with an additional setting called Append Interval. This setting refers to the period until which replies sent by a user are appended to a single ticket. If a reply is received after this period, the message can only be converted into a new ticket. You can set the desired append interval option for Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram handles. Please note that you can set append interval only for all posts or messages option. 

For example, if you have set the append interval time as 3 Days for Instagram direct messages, all the messages from an end-user will be appended to the same ticket for three days. After three days, the subsequent message from that end user will be captured as a separate ticket, and so on.