Your channels may become disconnected for many reasons, either from changes initiated by the native network or changes you may have made to your account(s). In this article, learn about some of the most common reasons your channels could disconnect and how to plan ahead for disconnections.
In this article:
Authentication limitations from a network
Brandwatch is able to pull content and data from your social accounts into Social Media Management after you authenticate, or “connect,” your social channels with us. Each social network we partner with has its own guidelines for maintaining authentications with third-party applications like Brandwatch, which may in turn initiate unexpected channel disconnections for a number of reasons.
For example, a network may require you to reauthenticate your account with us on a periodic basis to keep your account secure. Or, a network may detect a security concern with your account — such as your account being inactive for a certain period of time, or having multiple users using the same account login — and invalidate your authentication with us, requiring you to reconnect the channel again.
Note:
In particular, Meta has strict guidelines for authenticating Facebook and Instagram accounts and maintaining channel connections with our platform. Visit our article on Resolving Facebook and Instagram Account Disconnection in Social Media Management to learn more about the potential disconnection issues you may encounter with Meta accounts.
Native network disruptions
Brandwatch connects with social networks via an application programming interface, or “API,” which is a piece of software that allows two applications to connect to one another. From time to time, social network APIs may experience either planned or unplanned breaks in service, which can result in your channel disconnecting from Social Media Management.
While we can't account for outages on native networks, we do endeavor to notify Social Media Management Administrators via our Platform Status page when sudden API interruptions occur and when service is restored so you can reconnect your channels as soon as possible. We also strive to keep you informed about planned network changes so you can prepare for any reconnections needed to minimize the impact to your team’s daily workflow.
Password or permission changes to your social account
While it’s a good practice to update your passwords regularly for security, please note that changing your social account's password after you’ve connected it to Social Media Management may result in a disconnection. If your channel isn’t disconnected immediately after a password change, we recommend you proactively refresh the channel to prevent a disconnection in the long term.
Note:
Even if a channel does not immediately disconnect after you make a native account change, you may start to experience indexing errors in our platform, such as posts not publishing to the channel or data not syncing correctly. As a result, we highly recommend proactively refreshing a channel whenever you make a change to your native account to prevent connection issues going forward.
User changes to your social account or Social Media Management account
User role changes within Social Media Management or your social account(s) can result in a channel disconnection if that user was managing a channel for your organization. When planning to edit or delete users in either your Social Media Management organization or your social accounts, plan to add a back-up administrator to the channel so your team can prevent a channel disconnection when the original administrator leaves. We recommend that your organization have a transition plan in the event that one of your team members leaves your organization and you must transfer ownership of the social account to another user.