Sharing is the centerpiece of Dynamic Signal’s member experience. Members need to be able to quickly connect their social channels and efficiently share content. Dynamic Signal supports a number of social channels for sharing content and integrates with most social providers through OAuth.
What is OAuth?
OAuth is a secure open standard for access delegation supported by all major social networks to grant a third -party access to some aspects of a user’s account without requiring the user to share a username password. Certain providers, such as LinkedIn, expire their access tokens every 60 days, and any provider’s tokens may be arbitrarily invalidated by the user (for example, by a reset password). For some social providers, the Dynamic Signal program proactively detects invalid tokens and asks the user to renew the token.
An email will be sent with a list of feed channels that have expired and needs to be re-authenticated.
Clicking on Edit will direct you to the feed that needs to be reconnected.
These emails will be sent if you have chosen to subscribe to notification Expired Feed under Settings>Notifications
Q: What happens if we don't reauthorize our accounts / feeds?
This will prevent content from being imported, as well as prevent any members who have not reauthorized LinkedIn from sharing to that service.
Q: I tried to reconnect a LinkedIn Feed and it failed. What happened?
A: You may not be an admin in LinkedIn for that page. LinkedIn requires the account you connect with to be an admin of the LinkedIn Page before we are allowed to import its content. Please have a Manager with admin rights to the page reauthorize the Feed.
Q: What do my Members need to do?
A: If a Member's LinkedIn account expires, it will be shown with a red exclamation mark when they go to share. Clicking the exclamation mark will prompt them for their LinkedIn account credentials and allow them to reauthorize.
What does Dynamic Signal see, do, and collect?
By granting Dynamic Signal access to their social accounts, members can take certain actions in the platform user interface and the app will in turn collect related information from the member’s profile and activity feed on the connected social channel. Refer to the table below for details about user actions in the program and what data is collected in the Dynamic Signal program standard configuration.
Standard Configuration Member Actions and Data Collected
- Any Post made through the Dynamic Signal platform is tracked for 30 days to ensure it is not deleted.
- All reactions made in response to the post are counted (e.g., Likes, Retweets, Favorites, Comments, Re-shares)
- The user name of the account (e.g., the Name on LinkedIn, or the Twitter username) and profile photo
- A friend/follower count to calculate the reach of each post made from the platform.
Please note that in the standard configuration, all monitoring and cumulative reactions counts (such as Likes, Shares, Comments, etc.) on member social channels are captured only for the posts which have been shared from the Dynamic Signal Platform.
Hashtag Tracking
Some communities ask their members to include specific hashtags or keyword mentions on their social channels as part of a campaign. Members can create these posts on Twitter directly, rather than via the Dynamic Signal platform. When (and only when) this feature is enabled, Dynamic Signal monitors member feeds for instances of the specified hashtag or keyword. When a post containing the keyword(s) is found, the Dynamic Signal app imports the post, track reactions against it on the social provider, and optionally award points to the member.
OAuth Access Permissions
The OAuth standard provides a uniform method for users to grant some level of access to their social accounts without sharing their username and password with Dynamic Signal. However, each provider (e.g., LinkedIn, Twitter) provides proprietary permissions types and levels.
When a user connects his or her social account, the provider opens a separate browser window (i.e., OAuth Dialog) which summarizes the permissions and data access required by Dynamic Signal. The user can then review the requested permissions and grant access or cancel the action.
There are two key points about OAuth permissions:
- Each provider defines its own access levels. Any integrator (including Dynamic Signal) must choose between the available access levels and select the one that has the best fit. Because the access levels are defined for a wide variety of integrators, there is not a perfect fit for Dynamic Signal. As a rule, Dynamic Signal asks for the minimal permission set available and required for the service to function. However, even the minimal access level will include permissions beyond what is required. Regardless of the access level, Dynamic Signal does not access information and perform actions other than those described above.
- Each provider is in full control of its own OAuth dialog. LinkedIn, Twitter, and the other OAuth providers have designed their own OAuth dialog with their own branding and their own language. Dynamic Signal does not control any aspect of the OAuth dialog. Rather, the OAuth dialog lists the permissions requested by Dynamic Signal and represents them to the user in a fashion determined by the provider.
Below is a summary of the permissions/access levels and OAuth Dialog on Twitter and LinkedIn. Dynamic Signal does not store the user passwords of the following social network accounts.
A user grants Dynamic Signal permission to access to the following account information:
- Read Tweets from the timeline
- See who you follow, and follow new people
- Update profile
- Post Tweets for you
Dynamic Signal only stores and uses the following data:
- Likes – number of times a tweet was marked as favorite
- Shares – number of retweets
- Followers – number of Followers
- Following – number of people the user is following
Channel Authorization Screen
Below is the screenshot of the Twitter OAuth Dialog. Note that Twitter controls the appearance and language on the dialog.
A user grants Dynamic Signal permission to access to the following account information:
- Profile overview – Name, photo, headline, and current positions
- Connections – Your 1st and 2nd degree connections*
- Network Updates – Retrieve and post updates to LinkedIn as you
- Group Discussions – Retrieve and post group discussions as you
In spite of the permission scope, Dynamic Signal only stores and uses the following data:
- Likes – number of likes on a post
- Shares – number of times the post was shared further
- Comments – number of comments the post received
- Friends – number of connections
* Dynamic Signal estimates reach of shared content based on the number of connections. We do not use or contact any individual connection.
Channel Authorization Screen
Below is the screenshot of the LinkedIn OAuth Dialog. Note that LinkedIn controls the appearance and language on the dialog.
Non-OAuth Providers
While most major social networks employ OAuth for integrations like Dynamic Signal, some older and smaller providers do not. For these providers, members must enter their username and password to connect. Dynamic Signal stores the username and password in an encrypted format.
Note that non-OAuth providers can be completely disabled for your Community, in which case Dynamic Signal will never collect username/password data from the member.
Non-OAuth providers include:
- WordPress
- Drupal
- LiveJournal
- Movable Type