Filtering Messages
Filtering allows you to easily navigate through messages that you are managing within a selected column. By default, when you first open Engage, only the Inbox column is displayed. Based on your needs, you can add more filtered columns to your view. This topic explains the available criteria that you can use to create and modify columns in Engage.
Important Note: This documentation describes the Engage User Interface in its new form. For equivalent documentation describing the Engage User Interface in its classic form, refer to Filtering Messages - Classic.
In this article:
- About Columns
- About Folders
- About Column Filtering Criteria
- Adding Columns
- Modifying Column Settings
- Deleting Columns
Click a link above to get directly to that section, or scroll down and start reading.
About Columns
You can add new columns to your Engage view at any time. When adding a column, you have filter options that allow you to curate exactly what you will see in your column. You can customize your experience easily by adding filtered columns to view precisely the messages you want.
About the Inbox Column
The first and default column in Engage is the Inbox column. Your Inbox column contains all your messages, read and unread. By default, this is the only filtered column for your messages, when you first open Engage.
About Folders
You can modify your Engage view criteria at any time. One criterion that you can modify is the folder from which the messages are displayed. By default, the Inbox folder is selected; however, that folder can be changed to the Archived, Hidden, Deleted or Unread folders.
For more information about modifying folders in columns, see Modifying Column Settings
About the Archived Folder
The Archived folder contains messages you have chosen to archive, so they no longer appear in your Inbox.
About the Hidden Folder
There are two types of messages that can appear in the Hidden folder: Hidden messages and Unpublished messages. When you hide a message or comment, it is hidden on Facebook and the message is moved from the Engage message Inbox to the Hidden folder. You can find those messages in your Hidden folder.
Unpublished messages are used to create ads on Facebook, and since they are not published to your regular Newsfeed and Timeline, by default do not appear in Engage. While Unpublished posts are not visible by default, the functionality can be enabled. To enable Unpublished posts for your account, your administrator must check the appropriate box in the Account section of Workflow & Automation. For more information on enabling unpublished posts, see The Account Tab section.
Once Unpublished posts have been enabled for your account, they will appear in your Hidden folder. Also, an Unpublished label appears on the upper right side of the message text for each unpublished message in the column. Hidden messages display a Hidden label.
About the Deleted Folder
When you delete a message, it is deleted from Facebook and your message inbox. You can find those messages in your Deleted folder.
About the Unread Folder
When new messages arrive, they remain unread until you select them. You can find those messages in your Unread folder.
About Column Filtering Criteria
You can control what messages appear in a column my specifying the following column filtering criteria:
Content Type
Content Types are the social networks and other data sources your messages are coming in from. This includes your owned Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts, as well as Listen sources, including Google+, YouTube, RSS feeds, News sites, consumer reviews, and message forums.
Channels
Channels are the social properties you have added through Workflow & Automation and Listen topics you added to Engage from Listen. You can filter to only see messages from a specific channel by clicking on that channel from the list - it will be highlighted to show that you have selected it. You can select multiple channels to display at once. To remove a channel, just click on it again and the highlight will be removed.
Message Filters
Filtering by an authorized Facebook channel lets you view public (timeline) messages, private messages (the envelope button), or all messages for the channel. Depending on the Channels you select, you might be able to further configure the column by selecting message filters by type: All, Posts, or Direct Messages.
Note: Message filters appear only when you select a single content type. Message filters are available only for Facebook, Twitter, and Sina Weibo.
Adding Columns
Customize your Engage experience by adding columns that reflect your needs.
To add a column:
- Navigate to the Engage.
- Click Add New Column.
- Select the content type to include.
Note: To include messages of all content types, select the All option.
- Select the channels to include in the Select Channels drop-down list.
Note: To include all channels, select the All Channels option.
- (Optional) Select the message filter(s) to include in the Select Message Filter drop-down list.
Note: Message filters appear only when you select a single content type. Message filters are available only for Facebook, Twitter, and Sina Weibo.
- (Optional) Enter a name for the column in the text box at the top of the column.
- Click Save.
Modifying Column Settings
You can modify the settings of an existing column to further refine your needs.
To modify the settings of an existing column:
- Navigate to the Engage.
- From the column in which you want to modify the settings, click the Options Menu, then select Column Settings.
- (Optional) Click the Folder arrow to modify folder options, then apply you edits.
- (Optional) Click the Channels arrow to modify channel options, then apply you edits.
- (Optional) Click the Labels arrow to modify label options, then apply you edits.
- (Optional) Click the Date Range arrow to modify the date range, then apply you edits.
- (Optional) Click the Assignment arrow to modify the assignment, then apply you edits.
- Click Save.
Deleting Columns
You can delete columns from your Engage view when the column is no longer needed.
To delete an existing column:
- Navigate to the Engage.
- From the column in which you want to delete, click the Options Menu, then select Delete Column.
- In the Delete this column and its settings? dialog, select Yes.
The column is deleted.