The LiveSocial element allows you to embed the feed from your social networks in your email campaigns and is a great way to gain followers and create brand awareness. Following social networks are supported: LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Spotify, Youtube, Bazaarvoice, Curalate, Olpaic, Powerreviews, Pinterest.
Examples of use are Spotify playlists, hashtags, facebook and X feeds.
In this topic, we will discuss the different configuration options specific for the LiveSocial element as well as the preview and embed codes. Check out the topic Create a new campaign first for more information on how to initially create a campaign.
Once a LiveSocial campaign is created, a series of steps need to be followed:
Configure the LiveSocial
Configure basic settings
The settings configured in the Basic settings section apply to all the different versions of the element, if these exist.
Linking — In the basic settings you can define if a clickthrough URL is required or only the embedded image, without the possibility to click through. If the option is selected to add a clickthrough URL, you will have to define the URL further down in the configuration of the element.
Alt text — This is the text that will be displayed when the feed cannot be rendered. It is recommended to always set an alt text in case openers have disabled image rendering in their email clients or for openers that use screen readers. The alt text is appended to the embed code of the element.
Click Save and Next, to continue to the next step: the configuration of the elements.
Further configuration of LiveSocial
When a LiveSocial campaign is created, there is always a default LiveSocial that will be the fallback when the targeting rules do not apply to the opener of the email or when no targeting rules have been defined.
Start by configuring the default LiveSocial:
1. Start by defining the dimensions for the social feed or use the default ones. You can choose between a fixed width and height or a fixed with and dynamic height.
Note: It is recommended to use the fixed width with dynamic height in order to ensure that the height of the images in your LiveSocial campaigns adjusts according to the post content. In cases where your post includes an image or a longer copy, setting a fixed height could risk valuable content being cut off, so be sure to use this option to avoid that altogether.
2. Next, select the source for the social feed from the LiveSocial drop-down. If you don't have any social networks connected yet, click the Gear icon next to LiveSocial source to start configuring one.
3. Depending on the selected source, different options need to be configured. We will explain these here per type of social source. Go straight to the details for your selected source by clicking the links below:
Spotify
Select if the playlist ID is static or personalized.
-
Static - Manually enter the playlist ID from where the tracks will be displayed.
-
Personalized - Choose an ESP field from the drop-down to use for the playlist ID.
When done, go to step 4.
Youtube
No further settings are required when selecting Youtube as your channel.
Note however, that Liveclicker's integration with Youtube's API will display content by date uploaded. Due to how YouTube truncates the time/date stamp, if multiple videos were uploaded in a short time-frame, YouTube may not send them to Liveclicker in the order they were uploaded. Please reach out to our support team with any questions or concerns.
When done, go to step 4.
Instagram
When selecting Instagram, the following additional settings can be configured:
Hashtag - When using a hashtag to filter the Instagram feeds, the hashtag symbol (#) does not need to be included, only include the corresponding word(s) (in the example above in the red box, the word is "snow").
Include posts from others - When including a hashtag, you can select if you want the feed to include only your posts, or to include posts from other users by selecting the corresponding option. Take into account that a post from another user related to the hashtag will only be shown if it was published within 24 hours of opening the email (limited by Meta's API).
If there are no posts in the account related to the hashtag, no results will be displayed in the preview and the fallback image will be received via email.
When done go to step 4.
PowerReviews
When selecting PowerReviews as the source, the following additional settings need to be configured:
-
Choose between static or personalized Product ID
-
Static - Manually enter the product ID you would like to pull your PowerReviews ratings and reviews from.
-
Personalized - Choose a custom ESP field to pull in a product ID based on the opener's profile information.
-
You also have the option to Only show 5 star reviews.
Note: By default, all reviews are pulled in chronological order showing the most recent first.
When done go to step 4.
Olapic
When selecting Olapic as the source, you can select a specific stream of content by clicking on the drop-down menu and choosing an option.
When done go to step 4.
Bazaarvoice
-
Choose between static or personalized.
-
Static -Manually enter the product ID you would like to pull your Bazaarvoice ratings and reviews from.
-
Personalized - Choose a custom field to pull in a product ID based on the opener's profile information.
-
You have the option to Only show 5 star reviews.
By default, all reviews are pulled in chronological order showing the most recent first.
When done go to step 4.
4. Choose the appearance of the social feed. Following options are available:
- Post character limit - Limits the length of the post to the set number of characters.
- Posts to show - Limits the number of posts to the set number.
- Choose from one of the appearances available - Choose between Complete, Simple, Minimal, or create a custom css. (Example Pinterest. Complete will display all available info on a pin. Simple displays the image, the name of who pinned it and how long ago. Simple only displays the image and the name.)
- Font - Select the font for the feed.
- Alignment - Choose between horizontal or vertical, respectively showing the posts next to each other or below each other.
- Font size , Body font, Title font
- Background color
- Padding
5. If you have activated the option to use a clickthrough URL in the basic settings, enter a Clickthrough URL here. This will allow viewers of the feed to click it and go straight to the set URL.
Tip: If conversion is your goal, it’s best to include a clickable link that goes to your website. However, if you are looking to gain more followers, you should instead include a clickable link to your social media website and then measure how many additional followers you get.
Note: You can use a regular clickthrough link or a mobile deeplink. Mobile deeplinks are URLs that the mobile device will interpret as an instruction to open the app if it is installed, and go to a specific location in the app. If the app does not exist, in general it will take the opener to the location where the app can be downloaded.
Note 2: Clickthrough URLs can be personalized with ESP tags. Please check out our dedicated topic on this subject if this is something you consider doing.
6. A fallback image needs to be provided in case the LiveSocial element cannot be shown in the email, or, when account overages occur.
Upload an image from your local device or from the Media Library.
7. Define a fallback URL.
8. If you want to add more versions of the LiveSocial feed, click the Add Alternate LiveSocial button at the bottom and execute the same steps for each new version added.
Else, click Next and continue with the targeting rules.
Define targeting rules and AB tests
1. In this last step, you can decide which subscriber should get a specific version of the LiveSocial element through the use of targeting rules. A targeting rule will split up the audience and only target a segment of the audience with a specific version. There are 2 options:
-
Define targeting rules from scratch.
-
When you have already defined targeting rules for a different element in this campaign, you can re-use these targeting rules for the current element.
For more details on targeting rules, please check out the dedicated topic.
2. In addition, you can also set up AB testing for this element. With A/B testing the final version of the social feed shown to the remainder of the audience, is determined by the A/B test.
3. When done, click Continue. You are taken to the next element to configure, if any. Otherwise, you are taken to the Preview.
Preview and test
The Preview tab for your campaign becomes available when all elements in your campaign have been configured. It provides you with the ability to test the look and rendering of the elements in your campaign, either as a static preview or as a dynamic preview, simulating an opener. You can also send yourself or others an email preview.
For more details on how to test your elements using preview, please read the corresponding topic.
Retrieve the embed codes
In this last step, you need to provide some estimated campaign details, such as expected opens, launch date and expiration date, as well as the Subscriber ID field.
All this information will be used by Liveclicker to optimize resources but also to create the embed code.
For more details on the Embed codes, check out this topic.
