The purpose of automation is to take the robot out of the human. With automation in Engage, you can let Social Media Management handle the repetitive tasks such as labelling, assigning, and sending “away” messages, allowing you to spend your time on important conversations with your customers.

In this article, find out more about the available automation features in Engage and how to set them up.

Automated Labelling and Assigning

When creating a labels or assignment rule, you choose one or a few conditions, or triggers, and one action to take when those conditions are met. Once the automation rule is active, Social Media Management will review each new piece of Engage content for a match with your rule. If a match is found, it executes the action you set.

You can choose if you want the automation rule to trigger based on one of your chosen conditions (Match Any), or all of them (Match All).

Available triggers and actions

You can choose from the following triggers:

Detected language

Triggers based on the selected language detected. For more information and a full list of languages supported, please see our Language Support article.

Message content

Triggers based on one or a few keywords. You can decide if some, all, or none of those keywords should be part of the incoming content text.

Network

Triggers based on the network the content comes from. You can choose from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, YouTube, or Google Business Profile. You can either include or exclude them from the trigger.

Channel

Triggers based on the channel the content comes from. You can either include or exclude them from the trigger.

Message type

Triggers based on the message type of the content. You can choose posts, comments, replies, or direct messages, and either include or exclude them from the trigger.

You can choose from the following action types:

Assign to

Assigns the piece of content to a user or a team.

Add labels

Adds one or more labels of your choice to the piece of content.

Setting up an automation rule

You can create a rule in just a few simple steps. Please bear in mind that only Admin users in Social Media Management can create rules. Furthermore, there are a few practical limitations to the size of your automations. There is a maximum of:

• 25 keywords per condition.
• 10 conditions per rule.
• 100 rules per organization.

Here's how you can create your rules:

1. Go to the Automation tab in Engage.

   
2. Click Labels & assignments.
3. Click Add Rule in the top right.

4. Choose your if trigger and then action type options.

   Note:

   Keywords and phrases are case sensitive.

   Note:

   When adding message content keywords and phrases, be sure to press Enter after typing each keyword or phrase. That will create a card for them in the textbox, as shown below.

   
5. Give your rule a descriptive title.
6. Click Add Rule in the bottom right.

Your rule is now created and it will process any new Engage content that arrives in Social Media Management.

Automated Messages

With automated messages in Engage, you can choose to share a welcome message when customers reach out, or an away message for when the team is out of the office. You can specify the applicable channels (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or WhatsApp) for each message and also the days and times your channels will be considered “away."

Setting up a new message group

To get started setting up automated messages, you will first need to create a group of applicable channels. Please follow the steps below:

1. In Engage, click the Automation tab from the top of the page.
2. From the top left, click the Messages tab.
3. Click Create Message.
4. Provide a name for the automated message group (the group of channels for which you’d like to set up the new automated message).
5. Using the check boxes on the left, select the channel(s) you would like to include in your group.
6. Click Continue.

You will be directed back to the Messages tab with your new group visible.

To adjust the channels in your message group, click the '...' beside the message group name, followed by Edit channels. Here, you can also delete the message group and any messages by clicking Delete channels and messages.

Setting up an away message

1. Once you have created a new message group, beside Away message, click + Add.
2. Select the applicable times and days of the week for your automated message, adjusting the time zone if needed. You can add more times by clicking + Add time or delete a selection by clicking the trash icon.
3. Under Message text, type your away message.
4. Click Save.

You will be directed back to the Messages tab. Click the Away message toggle option to activate your away message.

Setting up a welcome message

1. Once you have created a new message group, beside Welcome message, click + Add.
2. Under Message text, enter the message you would like to send (600 character maximum).
3. From the top right, click Continue.

You will be directed back to the Messages tab. Click the Welcome message toggle option to activate your welcome message.

Once enabled, welcome messages will be sent each time a user private messages a channel in your message group. If a welcome message has been enabled and sent out to a new customer private message, the message will remain unread until handled in Social Media Management.

If a user in your organization manages to reply to an incoming private message before the welcome message is sent, the welcome message will no longer be sent.

Editing automated messages

Once you have successfully created an automated message, you can choose to temporarily switch it off or edit the times, dates, and the message.

To temporarily switch off an automated message, click the toggle option beside Welcome message or Away message.

By clicking the '...' beside Away message or Welcome message, you can choose to edit the message (including the times and dates if applicable) or delete the message.

FAQ

What will happen if I also have reply automation running outside of Social Media Management?

Social Media Management does not sync with any automations which were set up externally or natively on a network (it is not supported by the network's APIs). For this reason, if you have active automated messages running both in Social Media Management and externally, both messages may be sent out to customer inquiries. Please make sure that only one form of automation is active.

When an automated message is sent from Social Media Management, will my incoming messages stay unread?

Yes, any incoming message which triggers an away or welcome message from Social Media Management will remain unread, whether the sent message was an away message or a welcome message.

How will automated messages impact the Team Performance Report?

Automated messages will not affect the results of a Team Performance Report. Incoming messages will remain unread if an automated message is sent. For this reason, inquiries will not be considered handled, marked as read, or replied to until action is taken from a Social Media Management user.

If my customer reaches out for the second time, will another welcome message be sent?

No, welcome messages will only be sent when the customer reaches out for the first time. If the customer reaches out again at a later date, they will not receive another welcome message.

I'm creating a new message group. Why can't I select some of my channels?

While creating a new message group, you cannot select channels which already exist in another message group. This is to avoid multiple welcome/away messages from being sent.