Higher Logic Vanilla (Vanilla) community managers are often monitoring several social channels, including their Vanilla community forums. Hootsuite makes this task easier by providing a social-media management dashboard.
Vanilla's integration with Hootsuite lets you create streams in that dashboard that display posts from your Vanilla community.
This article guides you through the three primary steps to set up the integration, and it assumes that you have:
- Administrator permissions in Vanilla,
- a Role that has the Staff permission,
- a Vanilla cloud account,
- a Hootsuite account.
📝 NOTE: You will have to access both accounts in order to set up the integration.
Step 1 - Enable the Hootsuite Addon in your Vanilla Account
1. Access the Dashboard.
2. Navigate to Settings > Addons.
3. On the Vanilla Addons page, locate the Hootsuite addon and slide the toggle to the right (ON) to enable it.
📝 NOTE: If the addon is not listed on the Vanilla Addons page, scroll to the top of the page and confirm that you're viewing the All list. If the addon still doesn't display, contact your CSM or Vanilla Support.
Step 2 - Install the Vanilla App in Hootsuite
Access your Hootsuite account.
- Click the plus icon (+) to add a stream.
- Click on Apps and then Get More Apps.
- Search for Vanilla.
- Click install.
Alternately, you can navigate to the Hootsuite App Directory from the left menu and search for Vanilla and then click install.
✔️ TIP: You will have to do this multiple times if you want to have multiple streams on the go. You can monitor multiple instances of Vanilla or have streams that display a search based on a keyword or a category in your community.
Step 3 - Connect your Vanilla Community
1. Open your Vanilla community in a dedicated browser tab.
2. Log in with a Role that has been granted the Staff permission.
3. Specify the URL of your Vanilla community, such as https://www.vanillademo.com, and click Connect.
The stream should load a list of recent discussions from your Vanilla community.
The Vanilla integration with Hootsuite is successful.
Monitor Vanilla Activity from within Hootsuite
Now that you're integrated with your Hootsuite account, you can monitor and manage your Vanilla community discussions in a stream right in the Hootsuite dashboard!
For example, you can:
- View discussions and expand them to view the comments
- Reply to discussions and comments
- Assign discussions and comments to users within Hootsuite
- Mark assignments as resolved
- Search your Vanilla community discussions
View Discussions & Comments
Discussions display in the stream from the top down, based on the most recent activity. (Most recent activity includes new discussions and new comments; both will earn the top spot.) An "old" discussion that receives a new comment will supplant a more recent discussion.
Discussions display a title and body text.
✔️ TIP: Check the Hootsuite Help Center for information on streams.
- Click the Refresh All icon in the stream title bar to refresh the stream.
- Click the speech-bubble icon to expand the discussion and see the comments.
- Click a discussion title to link to the discussion in Vanilla in a new browser tab.
Reply to a Discussion
You can reply to a discussion from within Hootsuite and the reply will display in the discussion in your Vanilla community.
To reply to a discussion:
1. Expand the discussion to reveal the comments and scroll to the bottom of the stream.
2. In the text field, type your reply and click Comment.
Assigning & Resolving
You can assign a discussion to a team member who might be more qualified to answer a question or help with an issue.
To assign a discussion:
1. Click the Assign icon below the discussion/comment that you want to assign.
2. In the Assign to dialog, select a Team and Team member. You can also add a note (information and/or instructions).
3. Click Assign.
A confirmation message displays above the discussion.
View assignments
All discussions and comments that get assigned are listed on the Hootsuite Assignments page.
- To view the assigned discussions and comments, navigate to the Hootsuite Assignments page.
📝 NOTE: Assigned items from third-party apps (such as Vanilla) might not display in the new Assignments Manager. You might have to switch to the old Assignments Manager, using the link shown below, in order to see assigned items from Vanilla.
Resolve an item
To resolve an item, click on the resolve icon and then click Resolve.
📝 NOTE: When marking an item as resolved, the Resolve dialog might not close as expected after Resolve is clicked. The item status will update but you might have to refresh the page in order to clear the dialog. Hootsuite is tracking this issue.
Search Vanilla Discussions
You can search your Vanilla community discussions from within Hootsuite.
To search your Vanilla discussions:
1. Click the search icon.
2. Specify Keywords for your search and, optionally, select a Category.
3. Click Search.
Your stream will display Vanilla community discussions that match the search criteria.
Permanent monitor
If you would like to permanently monitor your Vanilla community based on the search criteria, you can create a new stream by repeating the installation steps above and filtering the stream using search.
Advanced Actions Limitations
Advanced actions, such as editing a comment, applying a warning, and using Reactions cannot be done in the Hootsuite dashboard; you must click through to the discussion in Vanilla to perform the action.
