Facebook CRM Integration: 5 Ways to Connect Your CRM to Facebook

At 3 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most ubiquitous social platform in the world. It’s also no longer just a platform for sharing cat pictures with friends. A lot of business gets conducted on Facebook. That information needs to be reflected in your CRM.

A Facebook CRM integration lets you record and manage business conducted on Facebook. Porting important Facebook data into your CRM does two primary things:

  • It keeps your team from having to manage multiple platforms
  • It ends the process of manual data entry

Here’s how to keep your team running fast and lean by connecting your CRM to Facebook:

Why You Should Connect Your CRM to Facebook

Most businesses use Facebook for two things:

  1. Paid advertising
  2. Facebook Pages

In both of these instances, there is a lot of important business information being handled by Facebook. That information could be anything from a new lead that converted from an ad or a customer that sent your page a message.

It’s all too easy to lose track of that data unless you sync it with your CRM.

A Facebook CRM integration makes sure that your team never forgets to take action on the business opportunities being created on the social network. It also eases their workload. Sales teams are often overwhelmed with calls, emails, and meetings. The last thing they need to worry about is staying on top of Facebook messages or page posts as well!

Connecting your CRM to Facebook also saves time by automatically handling tasks that would otherwise add up to hours every week. Below, I’ll cover some of my favorite Facebook CRM automation that you can set up with Close.

Connecting Facebook + Close

Close connects to Facebook through Zapier. Their free plan and grow-with-you model of pricing make them a great option for most businesses.

To get started, create a Zapier account and select the two or more apps you’d like to connect. For this guide, we’ll be using Zapier to connect Close to one of the following four Zapier apps:

  1. Facebook Lead Ads
  2. Facebook Pages
  3. Facebook Messenger
  4. Facebook Custom Audiences

Zapier automation starts by choosing an app and a trigger. Zapier waits for a trigger to be set off and then runs the automation that you built (called zaps).

The next step is selecting a second application to perform an action. For most of this guide, you’ll be using Close as the app where an “Action Event” will be performed.

There are many different Facebook CRM automations that you can create through Zapier, but this guide will cover the few that I think are most practical for sales and marketing teams.

Note: You’ll need to be an Admin on your company’s Facebook page to set up most of these automations.

Potential Facebook CRM Use Cases

Add New Leads from Facebook to Close

When you get a hot lead from a Facebook Lead Ad you’ll want them to be immediately imported into your CRM so that sales reps can take action on it. Responding to a lead quickly could be the difference between a won or lost opportunity.

Here’s how you can automate the process so that new Facebook leads get handled right away:

In Zapier, create a new zap, select Facebook Lead Ads as the first app, and “New Lead” as the trigger event. Connect your Facebook account, and under the “Customize Lead” tab, select Page and Form that you would like to pull in new leads from.

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Test that step so that Zapier can pull in one of the leads that has already submitted that Facebook Lead Ad form. If it’s a new form, use the Facebook Lead Ads Testing Tool to create a new test lead and then retest this step in Zapier.

Nex, select Close as the app you’d like to connect and choose “Find Lead” in the “Choose Action Event” dropdown. Connect your Close account and choose the field from your Facebook Lead Ad Form that you’ll use to search in Close and see if the Lead already exists.

If your form contains fields for the company name or email address, you can search using those. If searching for an existing Lead by email address, select “Exact Match” in the “Exact Or Partial Match?” dropdown.

Click the checkbox next to “Create Close Lead if it doesn’t exist yet?”. Input all of the relevant info you have about your new lead from the Facebook Lead Ad Form into the appropriate fields.

If all you want to do is create a new Lead in Close from every Facebook Lead, then you’re done! If you’d like to assign those new leads to someone on your team and make sure they take action on it, follow the steps in the next section.

Assign New Leads from Facebook

To assign leads to users you’ll need to first set up a Lead Owner Custom Field in Close. Instructions can be found in our Help Center.

In the Zap we created above, add another step to the end of the workflow and select Close as the app and “Select Random User” in the “Choose Action Event” dropdown. In the “Customize User” tab, select “User” under the “Role(s) To Select From” dropdown.

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Select Close again as the next app and “Update Lead” in the “Choose Action Event” dropdown. In the “Customize Lead” tab, select the “Lead ID” dropdown, click “Custom” and select “ID” from step 2.

Look for the Custom Field called “Lead Owner” that you created earlier and select “ID” from step 3 in the dropdown.

You can finish the zap here or assign a new Task to that user to make sure that they follow up on this new Facebook lead. To do that, add another step to the Zap, select Close, and choose “Create Task” under the “Choose Action Event” dropdown.

In the “Customize Task” tab, go to the “Assigned To” field and select “Custom” and “ID” under the Step 3 tab. Under the “Lead” field, select “ID” under the Step 2 tab. Input a due date and text under the respective fields.

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Now, the right rep will be reminded to send important information before the meeting or to follow up once the meeting is done.

Notify Your Team of New Facebook Messages

Many prospects or customers now opt to send questions to your business through its Facebook page rather than email. It’s easy to miss these types of inquiries when they’re coming in from multiple channels, so it’s best practice always to ensure they’re imported into your CRM.

Create a new zap, select Facebook Messenger, and choose the Facebook Page you’d like to use for this automation.

Select Close as the second app to connect and select “Select Random User” under “Choose Action Event.” Under the “Customize User” tab, select the role types from which you want to pull a random user.

This random user will be the person on your team assigned to reply to the Facebook message. If you’d like a particular person always to be tasked with replying to all Facebook messages, then ignore this step.

Select Close as the next app to connect and select “Find Lead” under the “Choose Action Event” dropdown. Under the “Customize Lead” tab, navigate to the “Or Use A Custom Search Query” field and input the following:

Contact_name:"1. Sender Full Name"

This uses the name of the person who messaged you to try to find an existing Contact in Close. Select “Exact” in the “Exact Or Partial Match?” dropdown.

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Click the checkbox next to “Create Close Lead if it doesn’t exist yet?”. Input all of your relevant information about this new lead. At a minimum, we recommend selecting “Sender Full Name” under the “Contact Name” field and creating a Note with the following text:

Inbound Facebook message from 1. Sender Full Name:

1. Message Text

Select Close in a new step of the zap and choose “Find Task” under “Choose Action Event.” Under the “Customize Task” tab, enter the following description:

New Facebook message from 1. Sender Full Name

Select “Incomplete” under the “Is Complete” dropdown. Enter the “ID” from step 3 under the “Lead ID” dropdown. Click the “Create Close Task if it doesn’t exist yet?” checkbox.

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Enter some text for the Task. We recommend something like this:

Reply to Facebook message from 1. Sender Full Name: 1. Message Text

Select “False” under the “Is Complete” dropdown.

Under “Assigned To,” select “Custom” and “User ID” from step 2. Under “Lead,” select “Custom” and “ID” in step 3. Under the due date, enter “today.”

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Automatically Reply to Facebook Messages with the Right Info

One of the benefits of a Facebook CRM integration is that you can use information from within Close to send more brilliant automated replies on Facebook Messenger. One use case would be automatically checking if a Facebook message is from an existing customer.

If it is, then you can automatically reply and let them know that the customer support team will be in contact soon. If it’s not an existing customer, your automated reply might ask them to email a general account like info@yourcompany.com.

Create a zap, select Facebook Messenger, and select the Facebook Page you’d like to use for this automation.

Select Close as the second app and “Find Lead” under the “Choose Action Event” dropdown. Under the “Customize Lead” tab, navigate to the “Or Use A Custom Search Query” field and input the following:

Contact_name:"1. Sender Full Name"

Select “Exact” in the “Exact Or Partial Match?” dropdown. Click the checkbox next to “Create Close Lead if it doesn’t exist yet?”

Select “Paths” as your next step in Zapier. This will create a branch in the automation that we’ll use to treat messages that come from existing customers differently from all other messages.

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Name the first branch path “Existing Customers” and add the following rule:

Zap Data Was Found (Text) Contains true
+and
Status Label (Text) Contains customer

This filter does two things. It checks if the person who sent the Facebook message was already a Lead in Close and looks at their Lead Status to see if it contains the word “customer.”

If you have different Status Labels in place to indicate that someone is a customer, then you should use that label instead of “customer” in the filter above.

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Continuing down that same path, add Facebook Messenger as your next app to act. Under the “Customize Message” tab, select the page from which you’ll send the message and the recipient ID from step 1.

Next, you’ll enter the Facebook message that you’ll send back to this existing customer. Here’s a sample message you can use:

Hi 1. Sender Full Name, thanks for your message! We noticed that you're already an existing customer (thank you!), so our customer support team will be in touch with you soon via email.

Thanks!
[Your Company Name]

Ps. If you're not an existing customer and this was a mistake, please reply here.

Your next step in this path depends on how your Customer Support team wants to be notified of this customer’s message. Many support teams rely on a shared inbox, so you can choose to send an email automatically.

To do that, select Email by Zapier as your next app in the path. Input the customer support email address in the “To” field. Create a relevant subject line and then customize the body of the email. Here’s a sample email template you can use:

Hi Support team,

We have received a new Facebook message from an existing customer: 1. Sender Full Name

Message content: 1. Message Text

Please reply to them by email. You can find this Lead in Close here: 2. HTML URL

This is an automated email. Please do not reply.

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Exit out of this path in the zap and start editing path B. You can name this path “Not a Customer.” Use the following filter in the “Rules” tab:

Status Label (Text) Does not contain customer

This filter checks if the Lead found/created in Close has the Status Label of “customer.” Again, if your company uses different Status Labels for customers, use that nomenclature instead here.

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Add a new step to that path and choose Facebook Messenger as your next app. Under the “Customize Message” tab, select the page from which you’ll send the message and the recipient ID from step 1.

Enter the Facebook message that you’ll send back to this person. Here’s a sample message you can use:

Hi 1. Sender Full Name, thanks for your message! This page is not monitored 24/7, so please send us an email at info@companyname instead.

Thanks!
[Your Company Name]

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That’s it! When a customer messages your company page on Facebook, your customer support team will be notified.

If the message comes from someone who isn’t a customer, they’ve been instructed to email you instead. This frees up someone from having to watch multiple inboxes on different platforms.

Add Leads or Customers to a Custom Facebook Audience

Facebook Custom Audiences are a powerful tool for your marketing team to target Facebook ads to certain groups of people. Using this Facebook CRM integration, you’ll be able to automatically add new Close Contacts to your team’s Custom Audiences.

This can be helpful for a few different scenarios. You could set up a custom audience that specifically targets potential customers that you’re currently prospecting to.

You could also set up a separate custom audience and have Close automatically add your customers to it in case you want to run Facebook ads about a new feature or to use as a black list so that customers don't see your ads.

For this example, we’ll add all new prospects to a custom audience so that the marketing team can target them with ads.

To get started, create a new zap, select Close and “New Lead” under “Choose Action Event,” and under the “Customize Lead” tab, use the “Status ID” dropdown to select the appropriate status for leads that you’re currently prospecting.

If you have multiple lead statuses for different types of prospects, do not use the “Status ID” dropdown. Instead, use the Filter by Zapier app and add the appropriate status labels to the filter:

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Next, select Facebook Custom Audiences as the next app in your zap. Select “Add Email to Custom Audience.” If you don’t already have a Facebook Custom Audience set up in your Facebook advertiser account, you should do that now using these instructions.

Select the existing custom audience that you want to add this lead to and then use the email address from step 1 in the “Email” dropdown.

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That’s it!

If you have multiple Custom Audiences to build up, you can create a path after the first step of this zap to filter for prospects versus existing customers and add them to different custom audiences.

Pro Tip: Setup lookalike custom audiences in your Facebook ad account and add customers and prospects to them to be able to market your product to similar types of people.

Add a Note to Close When a Lead Posts on Your Page

Your CRM is meant to record EVERY interaction you have with a prospect or customer. If they post on your Facebook page, you’ll want to have a record of it. Whether that post is a compliment, complaint, or question, it will inform your next interaction with them.

Start a new zap, then select Facebook Pages and “New Post to Your Timeline” under the “Choose Action Event” dropdown.

Select Close as the next app and choose “Find Lead” under the “Choose Action Event” dropdown. In the “Customize Lead” tab, navigate to the “Or Use A Custom Search Query” dropdown and input the following:

Contact_name:"1. From Name"

Select “Exact” in the “Exact Or Partial Match?” dropdown and leave the checkbox next to “Create Close Lead if it doesn’t exist yet?” unchecked.

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Select Close as the third app you want to connect, and choose “Create Note” in the “Choose Action Event” dropdown.

Under the “Customize Note” tab, go to the “Lead” field and select “Custom” and “ID” from step 2. Under “Text”, select the Facebook message from step 1.

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When a lead posts on your Facebook Page, a note will be added to your CRM.

Facebook CRM Integration: Centralizing all Communication

Centralizing your communication and data using a Facebook CRM integration optimizes workflows and keeps your team focused on what’s important - closing deals!

With the automation flows described above, data entry and manual processes to accommodate Facebook are a thing of the past.

Connect your Facebook activity to the CRM designed for high-growth teams. Start your 14-day free trial of Close now.

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