Facebook and Instagram are two of the largest sources of global consumer opinions. In this article, learn how to set up your Facebook and Instagram content sources for tracking in Consumer Research and how you can use the data in the platform.
Please follow our checklist below to ensure the successful setup of your content sources and maximize your data coverage.
- Collecting Facebook and Instagram data
- Checklist: Tracking content sources in five steps
- Tracking owned Facebook Pages and Instagram accounts
- Tracking non-owned Facebook Pages and Instagram accounts
- Tracking Instagram hashtags
- Using tracked Facebook and Instagram sources in your queries
- Best practice for maximizing coverage
- Industry lists
- FAQs
Collecting Facebook and Instagram data
What data can I access?
From the moment you begin to use Consumer Research, you automatically have access to posts from around 200,000 non-owned, public Facebook Pages (not including comments). Any queries you run in the platform will utilize data from these Facebook Pages by default, unless you filter them out of your search.
Tracking data from additional sources will require some setup and authentication of your personal Facebook and/or Instagram account(s). The types of Facebook and Instagram sources you can track after authentication include:
- Comments on the above mentioned non-owned Facebook posts
- Data from owned Facebook Pages
- Data from owned Instagram Business/Creator accounts
- Data from specific non-owned Facebook Pages
- Data from non-owned Instagram Business/Creator accounts
- Instagram hashtags
In Consumer Research, you can use two different methods to track Facebook and Instagram data:
- Tracking Facebook and Instagram content sources to use those sources in your queries.
- Adding Facebook and Instagram channels to track account-level metrics for specific pages or profiles and view channel-specific components in a dashboard.
The method of data collection you choose will likely depend on your use case and account type. For more information, please see our article on Tracking Content Sources vs. Adding Channels.
To set up channels, please refer to our dedicated channel setup articles by network:
For a full breakdown of our coverage for Facebook and Instagram data, please see our Facebook and Instagram Data Coverage article.
About content source tracking
When tracking a new content source, you will be asked to authenticate (i.e. log in) with your Facebook credentials. Doing so allows Brandwatch to request data from Facebook and Instagram, which will then be available within your Brandwatch account as a private pool of data.
Once you have tracked all of the pages and accounts you want to collect data from, any query you write will check within your private pool of data for mentions matching your query search. In simple terms, this means once setup is complete you are able to collect data from the Facebook and Instagram accounts that you have requested to track, using query searches.
Tip:
Private pool of data: The Facebook and Instagram data which only you (and those within your project) have access to.
Query: A type of search used to specify exactly what you are looking or not looking for, also known as boolean.
To learn more about query writing, check out our article on Creating a Query or our Academy video course.
Checklist: Tracking content sources in five steps
We recommend following the five setup steps in the order below for successful and thorough setup of your Facebook and Instagram content sources.
Note:
You must track/authenticate your owned Facebook Page(s) and Instagram account(s) before you are able to track:
- Non-owned pages and accounts outside of the publicly available Facebook Pages
- Post comments on publicly available Facebook Pages
- Instagram hashtags
Essential first steps:
1. Track your owned Facebook Pages
2. Track your owned Instagram Business/Creator accounts
Accessing more Facebook and Instagram data:
3. Track non-owned Facebook Pages
4. Track non-owned Instagram Business/Creator accounts
Tracking owned Facebook Pages and Instagram accounts
An owned Facebook Page is a page that is owned by a verified business or organization. To track an owned Facebook Page, you will first need to authenticate by logging into your personal Facebook account, which will grant Brandwatch permission to track the page.
If you aren't the page owner, you will still be able to authenticate an owned Facebook Page as long as you have been assigned a role on the page by the Facebook Page admin.
Note:
To track an Instagram Business/Creator account, it must be linked to a Facebook Page. Please follow these instructions from Facebook’s help center to connect your Instagram account to a Facebook Page.
Tracking owned accounts
To track owned Facebook Pages and Instagram accounts:
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Navigate to Content Source Settings directly from My Brandwatch, or from within Consumer Research by clicking Manage settings (gear icon) > Content source settings in the lower-left corner of the screen.
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In Content source settings, Select Facebook and Instagram from the menu on the left.
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Click Track New in the top right of the page.
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Under Owned Facebook pages and Instagram accounts, click Connect Facebook Account.
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In the following screen, select who is connecting the account (you or someone else).If you are the page owner or have a role on it, choose You and click Next. (If you are not the page owner, please see the steps below).
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A pop-up window will appear and allow you to enter your Facebook login information.
Note:
If you've previously linked Brandwatch to Facebook you will be asked if you would like to continue with your previous login settings. -
After authenticating, you will have the option to link any Instagram Business/Creator accounts or Facebook Pages associated with your Facebook account.
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The following screen will list the permissions you will grant Brandwatch access to. For a seamless experience, we recommend checking off and granting Brandwatch all of the listed permissions to avoid channel disconnections with your Facebook account. For more information, visit our article on Resolving Facebook and Instagram Account Disconnection in Consumer Research.
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The final screen allows you to review the Facebook Pages and Instagram accounts you have chosen to track with Consumer Research. Click Confirm and Start Tracking. New pages or accounts will start tracking straight away.
Asking someone you know to authenticate their account
If you don't have access to the Facebook Page you want to track, you can either track it as a non-owned page, or you can ask someone you know who has a role on the page to authenticate it with their account.
To ask someone to connect their account, select Someone else during the initial account connection and you will be given for you to share with the page owner to link them to the authentication process.
Note:
Brandwatch won't ever post or make changes to the owner’s Facebook account. We will only use the authentication tokens provided to us to collect data from the account to analyze in Brandwatch. Visit our article on Facebook Coverage for more information.
Video: Tracking owned accounts
Tracking an owned ad account for Instagram ads and Facebook dark posts
- Navigate to Content Source Settings directly from My Brandwatch, or from within Consumer Research by clicking Manage settings (gear icon) > Content source settings in the lower-left corner of the screen.
- In Content source settings, select Facebook and Instagram from the menu on the left.
- Click Track New in the top right of the page.
- Under Owned ad accounts > Facebook pages and Instagram accounts, click Connect Facebook Account.
Note: An owned ad account means that you have an admin or an editor role on the Meta ad account used to post Instagram ads. - In the following screen, select You under Who is connecting this account?, then click Continue with Facebook.
Note: Currently, it is only possible to connect an owned ad account yourself. - A pop-up window will appear and allow you to enter your Facebook login information.
Note: If you've previously linked Brandwatch to Facebook you will be asked if you would like to Reconnect with your previous settings. - After authenticating, you will have the option to select and link your ad account. Before clicking Confirm and Start Tracking, be sure to expand both the Facebook and Instagram and the Ad accounts tab to review all of the owned Facebook Pages and Instagram accounts you are choosing to track with Consumer Research.
Video: Tracking owned ad accounts
Reauthenticating a disconnected Facebook account
You will need to reauthenticate your owned Facebook Page periodically as required by Meta’s security policies. Please visit our article on Resolving Facebook and Instagram Account Disconnection to learn more about Meta’s authentication policies.
The user who connected their Facebook account to Consumer Research will be sent an email informing them that their connection will expire soon and that they should re-connect it as soon as possible to avoid an interruption in data collection. Click on the Log In link within the email to reauthenticate your account.
If the account is not reauthenticated within a certain period, an email will be sent to the main admin of your organization, informing them that the Facebook connection has now expired and that we have stopped collecting data from some Facebook Pages and Instagram accounts. Click on the Log In link within the email to reauthenticate your account(s).
You can view the status of your content source connections and reauthenticate your pages and accounts by having the relevant person connect their account under the Who's Connected tab within Content source settings.
Note:
If there is no main client contact information for the client, an email will be sent to a random client admin. Please be alert to these emails and take action accordingly.
