We've made some enhancements to Social for both admins and advisors/agents.

Longer image description (alt text) character limit on LinkedIn

The limit for the image description (alt text) has increased from 120 characters to 300 characters for LinkedIn. To add an image description when publishing a post in either the admin Suggested Post Library or the advisor/agent Post Library, click the edit (pencil) icon in the image thumbnail.

In the admin view on the Content Tags page, a new confirmation message pops up when deleting a tag to avoid accidental tag deletions. After clicking X on a tag, click Confirm to finish deleting the tag, or Cancel.

Updated lexicon violation message in the Publisher

When publishing a post that contains a lexicon violation, advisors/agents receive a message about the violation. The current message doesn’t indicate that they are still allowed to submit the post for approval despite the lexicon violation and instead implies they are not allowed to publish the post at all. We’ve updated the message to more clearly communicate that the post can still be published, but must first be approved. 

Old text: The term does not comply with corporate policy.

New text: The term is not allowed without approval.

Here's what to look for in the May 15th release. 

The guidance in this document is offered for early planning purposes and is subject to change up to the time of release. 

Platform

Improved Navigation Experience

Problem Solved: The current Hearsay Desktop application is organized by product (Sites, Relate, Social, Actions) and the tasks for each project are siloed from one another even though many customers rely on using a combination of products to suit their needs. It is difficult for advisors/agents to complete tasks and find what they need when the application is organized by product instead of by outcome or workflow. The decreased usability leads to an unfavorable user experience and a reluctance to use Hearsay.

Expected Value: When advisors/agents can find information quickly and intuitively, they will be able to spend less time studying training materials to learn how to use Hearsay and more time engaging with clients to build their brand. The changes we’re implementing help them complete their tasks more efficiently and effectively.

Expected Solution: We’ve made major changes to how things are organized and named in Hearsay Desktop by conducting extensive user testing to find the most effective navigation and naming conventions. In our testing, we used a measure called the “success rate” to determine how often users could successfully navigate to the correct place in Hearsay to achieve their most essential tasks. With the new experience, users found their way to important tasks at a rate 2x better than with the legacy navigation. The changes improve how advisors/agents will be able to search for information, navigate across the Hearsay platform, and complete tasks.

Here are a few key highlights of what’s changing:

• Product names are being removed.
• Most tasks will be able to be completed in fewer clicks. 
• Main navigational items are moving to a panel on the left side of the screen.

For more information on how the product navigation is changing, including additional screenshots and a list of all the new navigation paths, please read our Improved Navigation Experience - User Guide.

Note: These changes will be on for all organizations and cannot be disabled.

Homepage:

Social Post Library:

Conversations:

Websites:

Who is impacted: All
Archiving and Compliance Implications: N/A
Availability: On for all organizations.

Increased API security after creating a token

Problem Solved: API tokens/keys are always visible in the admin view, under Settings > Integrations, which makes them easy to copy and misuse.

Expected Value: Better token security improves the safety of customer data.

Expected Solution: The API Token value will only be shown immediately after it is created. After that, it will be hidden in the list of tokens on the Integrations page. If access is needed for a new application, a new token will need to be created.

Where the token will appear:

Who is impacted: Integrator and Program Admin
Archiving and Compliance Implications: N/A
Availability: On for all organizations.

Improved Navigation Experience - Social changes

Problem Solved: The current Hearsay Desktop application is organized by product (Sites, Relate, Social, Actions) and the tasks for each project are siloed from one another even though many customers rely on using a combination of products to suit their needs. It is difficult for advisors/agents to complete tasks and find what they need when the application is organized by product instead of by outcome or workflow. The decreased usability leads to an unfavorable user experience and a reluctance to use Hearsay.

Expected Value: When advisors/agents can find information quickly and intuitively, they will be able to spend less time studying training materials to learn how to use Hearsay and more time engaging with clients to build their brand. The changes we’re implementing help them complete their tasks more efficiently and effectively.

Expected Solution:

• We’ll be moving the Facebook Ads menu page (including Promotable and Promoted tabs) into the advisor/agent Post Library as a new tab.
• The Activity menu page will be sunsetted and pages will be moved to the other parts of the navigation menu and system.
• The Sites menu page in Social will be sunsetted. Events and the Sites Posts Library will only be available under Web Media in the main side menu.
• Feeds feature will be sunsetted.

Who is impacted: Advisor/Agent
Archiving and Compliance Implications: N/A
Availability: On for all organizations.

Admin Suggested Posts Library refresh

Problem Solved: The design of the admin Suggested Posts Library doesn’t allow for quick and easy content searches, and the designs between the advisor/agent Post Library and the admin Suggested Posts Library are mismatching.

Expected Value: When admins have a smoother and faster experience finding and selecting content, they can add a higher volume of quality posts that support their social media programs.

Expected Solution: The Suggested Posts Library and Post Cards will be refreshed with a more contemporary look that more closely matches the look and feel of the recently redesigned advisor/agent Post Library.

Before changes: 

Data & Analytics

Social Insights for Advisors

Problem Solved: Advisors/agents do not get actionable business insight data about their social media publishing activities, performance, and connections. They would like to understand how they perform versus their peers, and they want to receive guidance on what to do differently to improve their use of social media.

Expected Value: Providing key business metrics for advisors/agents will give an insight into their professional social media presence and performance. These metrics include data on social media publishing, engagements, connections, top interest categories for the advisors and their audience, top-performing posts, as well as benchmark figures for advisors/agents’ peers. Alongside these metrics, advisors/agents will also receive personalized recommendations on how to improve their business performance using Hearsay Social.

Expected Solution: A new advisor/agent dashboard called Social Insights will be implemented that provides workspace-level business metrics that are calculated for the past 30 days. These metrics include: 

• Number of published posts 
• Number of impressions
• Number of likes, comments and shares 
• Number of clicks on links 
• Number of connections and followers 
• Top interest categories for the advisor/agent (based on publishing history) 
• Top interest categories for the advisor/agent’s audience (based on engagement history)

The numerical metrics will also include hierarchy-level benchmarks, which will provide comparison figures of how the advisor/agent is performing versus their peers.

Below these metrics, advisors/agents will be presented with personalized recommendations based on individual, group and organization-level measures.

This new Social Insights dashboard will replace the existing Metrics page and provide a more appealing user interface and better functionalities. 

Who is impacted: Advisor/Agent
Archiving and Compliance Implications: None
Availability: This feature is expected to be on for all organizations using Hearsay Social.

Relate

Star conversations in Relate

Problem Solved: Advisors/agents face difficulties with differentiating between important and unimportant conversations. They would like to flag important conversations, so that they can respond more quickly and effectively. They would also like to remove flags from conversations whose priority decreases.

Expected Value: Allowing advisors/agents to star and un-star conversations will simplify prioritization and follow-up tasks. Being able to mark important conversations will improve user experience, customer engagement, collaboration, and productivity 

Expected Solution: Advisors/agents will be able to star and un-star conversations. They will also be able to filter their conversation to view starred conversations. 

This functionality will only be available on the Relate web platform at present.

Who is impacted: Advisor/Agent, Client, Program Admin
Archiving and Compliance Implications: None
Availability: This feature is expected to be on for all organizations (subject to change).

Three additional countries getting local phone number support

Problem Solved: Relate has limited support in the international market, leaving users in many countries without access to a local phone number for compliant texting and calling.

Expected Value: Productivity in international teams will increase because agents and advisors in additional countries will be able to communicate with prospects and clients in their local market in a compliant, timely, and effective manner.

Expected Solution: As the third part of our continued effort to Relate access globally, we will add local phone number provisioning support for the following countries that were previously not supported:

• Argentina
• Bahamas
• Brazil

Who is impacted: Advisor/Agent, Client, Program Admin, Compliance, Integrator
Archiving and Compliance Implications: None
Availability: This feature will be disabled by default. To enable this feature, contact your Customer Success Manager. 

View and respond to all conversations in the Conversation widget in Salesforce Embedded Relate

Problem Solved: There is no centralized interface for advisors/agents to view and respond to all text message conversations in Salesforce Embedded Relate.

Expected Value: The Conversation widget will allow advisors/agents to view and access all of their text message conversations in one place, so it’s easier for them to reach out to their contacts and manage their ongoing conversations.

Expected Solution: The Conversation widget will provide a centralized interface where advisors/agents can view and respond to all conversations. The Conversation widget will provide the ability to: 

• List all conversations and show the conversation type, contact name or phone number, date of last message, as well as a preview of the message. When selecting a conversation, the corresponding texting page will load
• Filter conversations by unread messages, unanswered messages, attestation status (opted-in, needs opt-in, pending opt-in, opted-out), hidden conversations, spam, and broadcast messages.  
• Mark as spam, allowing advisors/agents to mark a conversation as spam, so they don’t have to see it in the conversation list anymore. Conversations that are marked as spam remain removed from the primary conversation list forever unless manually restored by the user.
• Hide conversations, allowing advisors/agents to remove conversations from their view anymore. Hidden conversations can be reverted. If a hidden conversation receives a new inbound message, it will be restored to the primary conversation list. 

Group conversations are not yet supported in Salesforce Embedded Relate. To view group conversations, advisors/agents need to use the Relate web platform or the Relate mobile app. 

Who is impacted: Advisor/Agent, Client
Archiving and Compliance Implications: - 
Availability: This feature is expected to be on for any customers using Salesforce Embedded Relate.

Send the same message to several people at once using Broadcast Message in Salesforce Embedded Relate

Problem Solved: Advisors/agents cannot send Broadcast Messages, or messages carrying the same content to several people at once, in Salesforce Embedded Relate. 

Expected Value: Advisors/agents will be able to quickly communicate with several people by sending a Broadcast Message to selected contacts. This will save time and create efficiency in communication because advisors/agents will not have to send individual messages. This feature can be especially useful for communicating urgent, time-sensitive announcements like changes in business hours, changes in availability and scheduling, etc.

Expected Solution: The Conversations widget will feature a Broadcast Message button that will allow advisors/agents to compose and send the same message to several people at once. The Broadcast Message button will be displayed if it is enabled in Admin Setup.

 Who is impacted: Advisor/Agent, Client
Archiving and Compliance Implications: -
Availability: This feature is expected to be on for any customers using Salesforce Embedded Relate. 

Conceal a Message in Salesforce Embedded Relate

Problem Solved: There is currently no way in Salesforce Embedded Relate to conceal messages to protect the confidentiality of sensitive information and to comply with regulatory requirements. 

Expected Value: Advisors/agents will be able to remain in compliance with their company’s rules and government regulations by being able to conceal messages containing sensitive information. 

Expected Solution: Salesforce Embedded Relate will give the ability to select and conceal specific messages. Concealing a message will remove it from the advisor/agent’s workspace view. When a message is concealed, a warning text will be shown instead of the message in the conversation view. Messages that are concealed cannot be reverted to being viewable.

Who is impacted: Advisor/Agent, Client
Archiving and Compliance Implications: -
Availability: This feature is expected to be on for all customers using Salesforce Embedded Relate. 

We have improved the way in which the differences can be reviewed in Sites profile changes. These improvements make it easier to discern the specific changes that are being requested, and they reduce the load time of the change request summary. 

This feature is on for all Sites customers.

Stories and Reels posted on Instagram Business profiles can now be supervised and archived on Hearsay Social.  

Instagram Stories

Hearsay can supervise stories past their 24-hour limit. Content posted as Stories up to 25MB in size or within the archive vendor-determined email size limit can be archived, whichever is lower. Content that is larger in size will not be archived. Stories cannot be posted via Hearsay. However, Stories posted natively on Instagram are captured by Hearsay for supervision and archiving. Stories are filterable in Supervision through a new type called Story.

After the Story has been crawled by Hearsay and archived, an alert will be created in Supervision. We run a lexicon check on any text in the Story that is provided by the Meta API. The Meta API is inconsistent in its treatment of onscreen text like user-added text, polls, and hashtags; when they are provided to us as text we will run the lexicon check, but when they are only included as part of the image or video files we are unable to do so. Stories with no lexicon violations can still be sampled. 

Stories are viewable within Supervision for at least 120 days. Links to the Story will not be available.

Comments on Stories are available for supervision and archiving as direct messages. We currently do not support supervision and archiving for emoji reacts to Stories. 

Instagram Reels

Following changes within Instagram itself, our February 2023 product release changed how we handle video Posts on Instagram. Now, all video Posts that are not published as Stories are treated as Reels, and Reels are available for supervision and archiving on Hearsay. This release further clarifies how we handle Instagram Reels. Content posted as Reels up to 25MB in size or within the archive vendor-determined email size limit can be archived, whichever is lower. Content that is larger in size will not be archived. Reels can be posted via Hearsay. Moreover, Reels published natively on Instagram are captured by Hearsay for supervision and archiving. Reels are now filterable in Supervision through a new type called Native Network Video Post.

We run a lexicon check on any text in the Reel that is provided by the Meta API and create alerts for any violations. The Meta API is inconsistent in its treatment of onscreen text like user-added text, polls, and hashtags; when they are provided to us as text we will run the lexicon check, but when they are only included as part of the image or video files we are unable to do so. Reels with no lexicon violations can still be sampled. 

Reels are viewable from Supervision and have links to their corresponding published version on Instagram. 

Supervision alert for an Instagram Reel 

Supervision and archiving of Stories is off by default. To enable it, contact your Customer Success Manager.

Supervision and archiving of Reels is enabled for all organizations that also have video Posts enabled.

Here's what's in the March 27th release:

Social

• AI-Powered Content Recommendations 🔷 

Relate

• Access LinkedIn direct messaging via Relate 🔷
• Advisors/agents cannot disconnect their Relate phone number 🔷
• Attestation in one workspace applies to the whole organization
• New message notification for Salesforce Embedded Relate 🔷

Mobile

• Relate Mobile App includes Post Library and AI-Powered Recommendations (can preview in Testflight)

Sites

• Sites Post Library design matches the Social Post Library design 🔷
• Preview changes on Sites

Platform

• Desktop notifications appear in a drop-down list 🔷

Data & Analytics

• Breakdown by Actions Workspaces report shows if advisors/agents receive daily emails and push notifications
• New Sites Content Performance report monitors pre-approved content usage in Sites 🔷
• New Sites Overview dashboard shows aggregate business measures for all Sites

🔷 Sandbox preview available. Contact your Customer Success Manager for more information.

Social 

AI-Powered Content Recommendations

Using data related to advisor/agent interests and behavior like keyword searches or post dismissals, as well as audience engagement, we created an AI solution that provides personalized and automatic Post Library content recommendations for each advisor/agent, similar to recommended lists in popular apps like Spotify or Netflix. The more advisors/agents use Hearsay Social, the more content recommendations are tailored to their preferences and their audience’s interests. Advisors/agents are more likely to post content when it is relevant to them.

Recommended posts are on the new Recommended tab in the advisor/agent Post Library, which supports both 3rd party and admin-created posts, depending on your organization’s configuration. New recommendations are processed in batches and sent to advisor/agent workspaces once per day. Posts can only appear if they are released or pre-released and active, and not yet published by the advisor/agent. All posts are included in recommendations except campaign-only posts, or posts that are part of a campaign the advisor/agent is subscribed to.

Some recommendations use our in-house content recommender engine. The engine algorithm recommends posts based on the post topic and whether the contents of the post match the interest profile of either the advisor/agent (Based on your interests) or the audience (Recommended for your audience). Interest profiles are based on advisor/agent behavioral data (keyword searches or post dismissals), advisor/agent historical publishing data (excluding campaigns), and audience engagement, which are collected from the first day an advisor/agent was connected to Hearsay.

There are six sections of content in the new Recommended tab, as follows:

• Highlights at : Content recommended by content creators/admins using the Pinned Posts feature. For this section to appear, at least one pinned post must be available to the workspace.

• Recommended for your audience: Posts about topics the advisor’s/agent’s audience is engaging with the most, as determined by our in-house recommender engine. For this section to appear, the following must be true:

  • There are posts in English available for the workspace
  • There are link type posts available for the workspace.
  • There is at least one audience engagement on posts published from the Post Library by the workspace.

• Based on your interests: Content based on the advisor/agent search and publishing history, as determined by our in-house recommender engine. For this section to appear, the following must be true:

  • There are posts in English available for the workspace
  • There are link type posts available for the workspace.
  • The workspace has accomplished at least five activities, which can be either publishing a post or performing a search in the Post Library.
• Most recent: The newest content added by content creators/admins. For this section to appear, at least one post must be available in the Post Library for the workspace. 
• Most engaging: Content receiving a lot of audience engagement when posted by the advisor’s/agent’s peers. For this section to appear, at least one post must be available in the Post Library for the workspace. 
• Popular with your peers: Content being published a lot by the advisor's/agent’s peers.  For this section to appear, at least one post must be available in the Post Library for the workspace. 

The regular Post Library still exists in the new Browse tab.

The feature is on by default but can be disabled in the Admin view, under Organization Settings > Workspace & Emails > Recommended in Post Library.

Relate 

Access LinkedIn direct messaging via Relate

LinkedIn Direct Messaging functionality is available in the Relate web platform. Advisors/agents can now send and receive LinkedIn direct messages on Relate in Hearsay Desktop, as they would a Relate text message. 

Relate will frequently crawl LinkedIn direct messages between 8:00 AM Eastern Time and 9:00 PM Eastern Time to check for new messages. To port/view LinkedIn conversations in Relate there must first be an existing conversation in LinkedIn, i.e. the user has sent or received at least one direct message to/from another person on LinkedIn native platform. Messages received via LinkedIn direct messaging are marked with a blue LinkedIn icon in the Conversations tab in Relate.

For advisors/agents to see LinkedIn DMs in their Relate messages, their LinkedIn account has to be connected to the Hearsay workspace and the account has to be “opted in” for Hearsay to crawl and collect data. This happens automatically as part of the process to connect the account to Hearsay. 

Integrating LinkedIn direct messages with Relate meets compliance guidelines, providing a better unified direct messaging experience on the Relate platform and reducing delays in communication. 

This feature is only available to users who have both Hearsay Social and Hearsay Relate enabled.

This feature is off by default. To enable it, or to enable the sandbox preview, contact your Customer Success Manager.

LinkedIn direct messages in Relate

Advisors/agents cannot disconnect their Relate phone number

Agents/advisors will no longer be able to disconnect or remove their Relate phone numbers. 

Disconnecting a Relate number leads to a violation of regulatory requirements because it creates an audit trail gap, resulting in a lack of transparency and accountability for communication. Restricting advisors/agents’ ability to disconnect their Relate phone number provides assurance to regulators and our users that their communication is compliant, secure, and accountable. By maintaining a complete audit trail of communication, Relate reduces the risk of regulatory fines and damage to company reputation that may arise from non-compliance.

Attestation in one workspace applies to the whole organization

An organizational opt-in model is replacing the individual advisor/agent opt-in model so that all advisors/agents from an organization can text clients who agree to receive messages from that organization. This reduces the need for multiple opt-in approvals, increases opt-in approval rates, improves client satisfaction through faster communication, and increases the number of conversations that drive business.

This new organizational attestation model is based on 4 rules: 

• When a client has opted-in (by responding YES) to texting with an advisor/agent at an organization, their number is added to the allow list and all advisors/agents at that organization can text that client without additional opt-in requirements. 
• If a client opts-out (by responding STOP), their number is removed from the allow list and added to the deny list. Their number is blocked and nobody from the organization will be able to text them.
• If a client responds with UNSTOP, they are automatically removed from the deny list and added to the allow list for the organization, and advisors/agents can send text messages to their number.
• Attestation in one workspace propagates to the whole organization almost in real-time.

This feature is currently only available for organizations whose Relate attestation settings are set to Explicit Consent.

This feature is off by default. To enable it, contact your Customer Success Manager.

New message notification for Salesforce Embedded Relate

A new Hearsay messaging hub has been added to Salesforce's utility bar. This hub provides advisors/agents with real-time alerts when new messages arrive, enabling them to respond promptly to customer inquiries. The messaging hub can be added to any lightning app within Salesforce, allowing agents to quickly navigate to the relevant record page to view the message and respond, without having to manually check for new messages. 

In addition, the messaging hub includes a new feature that allows agents to create new Salesforce records directly from the navigation flow when a message comes from a phone number that has not been captured in the system before. This streamlines the record-creation process and eliminates the need for agents to switch between applications to manage their customer communications.

This feature is available for organizations using Salesforce Embedded Relate. 

Hearsay notifications in the Salesforce utility bar

---

Mobile 

Relate Mobile App includes Post Library and AI-Powered Recommendations

In a continued effort to transform the Relate app into a unified mobile experience that encompasses both Relate and Social functions, advisors/agents can now browse, filter, and post suggested content within the Relate mobile app on the new Post Library tab. This change helps advisors/agents efficiently promote their brand by quickly publishing compliant content they are interested in while on the go using a single mobile app.

The new AI-Powered Content Recommendations enhancements for Social, also in this release, is included on the Recommended page of the mobile Post Library and enables advisors/agents to quickly find the most relevant posts within the six recommended categories. 

Advisors/agents can still view the library of approved posts on the Browse page, where they can sort available posts by Most Recent, Most Engaging, or Most Popular and filter by the post type, channel, and tags to quickly find the right content.

The new Post Library tab is located in the bottom right of the mobile app and replaces Settings, which has moved to the upper right of the Home tab.

This feature is on for organizations that both have Social and use the Relate mobile app. To preview the changes in Testflight, use this link: https://testflight.apple.com/join/PTz76hWO

Sites 

Sites Post Library design matches the Social Post Library design

The Sites Post Library now has the same look and feel as the Social Post Library, creating a consistent user experience and reducing confusion for advisors/agents who use both libraries to share content.

Here are the changes in the Sites Post Library:

• The sidebar has been removed, and second-level menu items are now in tabs at the top. 
• Filters have been removed from the sidebar and are hidden by default, but appear when you click Filters.
• Sort by options are now in a dropdown.

Post library before release

Preview changes on Sites

The newest version of Sites now has a way for advisors/agents and compliance admins to preview changes to see how the website will look after the changes are made. This helps advisors/agents save time and effort going through multiple compliance revisions and helps compliance admins reduce the risk of accidentally approving something problematic.

For advisors/agents, there is now a Preview button on the Profile Editor page. 

Sites Profile Editor Page

For compliance admins, the Preview button appears on the Approval Request page in supervision.

Compliance Approval Request Page

To enable this functionality on the newest version of sites please contact your Customer Success Manager.

Platform 

Desktop notifications appear in a drop-down list

Notifications on Hearsay Desktop now appear in a drop-down list rather than in a separate tab, which prevents the interruption of existing workflows.

After clicking the notification bell icon, a scrollable list of read and unread notifications from the past 30 days appears below the icon. Clicking on an individual notification from the list navigates to the page that corresponds with the activity in the notification. For example, clicking on a content suggestion takes you to a page to publish the piece of content. 

Notifications are marked “read” after hovering over the notification and clicking Mark as Read, or by selecting Mark all as Read. Read and unread notifications are different colors, and toggling Unread Only shows only notifications that haven’t been marked “read”. A circular badge still appears near the bell icon indicating that there are unread notifications. 

Hearsay Desktop notifications don’t currently include missed Relate calls and texts. 

Data & Analytics 

Breakdown by Actions Workspaces report shows if advisors/agents receive daily emails and push notifications

Admins can now monitor if advisors/agents receive daily emails and push notifications for every workspace. The Breakdown by Actions Workspace report now has two additional fields:

• Receive push notification
• Receive daily email

Breakdown by Actions Workspace report with new Receive Push Notification and Receive Daily Email columns

New Sites Content Performance report monitors pre-approved content usage in Sites

The new Sites Content Performance report provides data on pre-approved content usage, including content types being used and the number of Sites using the content, making it easier to assess the value of each piece of pre-approved content and determine which pre-approved content organizations should remove, replace, or add more of. 

The Sites Content Performance report will contain the following fields:

• Content category
• Content item
• Number of uses
• List of Sites using the content

The report will be filterable by content categories and hierarchy.

Sites Content Performance Report

New Sites Overview dashboard shows aggregate business measures for all Sites

A new Sites Overview dashboard replaces the existing overview dashboard, and provides aggregated business measures for all available Sites solutions (legacy custom Sites, Library Sites, NextGen Sites, and the newest version of Sites). This dashboard measures the following: 

• % of visitors converted to lead
• Number of total leads (calculated based on the number of contact submission forms)
• Number of Sites publishes
• Number of Events publishes
• Number of active Sites
• Number of total visitors
• Number of new visitors (not available for NextGen Sites, all visitors to NextGen Sites are considered new)
• Number of returning visitors (not available for NextGen Sites, all visitors are considered new)
• Number of Page Views (not available for Legacy Sites)
• Session Time (not available for Legacy Sites)
• Bounce Rate (not available for Legacy Sites)

The new Sites Overview Report

To allow tighter control over how and where agent/advisor contacts are created, there’s a new option that disables the Add Contacts button in Hearsay Desktop at the hierarchy level. Advisors/agents can still create a contact for a new phone number they send a text to or receive a text from, but they cannot manually create a contact using the Add Contacts button.

Note: this feature is currently only available in Hearsay Desktop.

This feature is off by default. To enable it, contact your Customer Success Manager.

Clients are more likely to respond to a message containing specific information directly linked to an inquiry, for example, a car make and model. To increase the likelihood a client will respond to a message, there are several new variables that can be included in an outgoing message using the Actions workflow. Admins can include the new variables in message templates, and external CRMs or Lead Management Providers then send the corresponding values that match the variables to be included in the message via API. If a value is missing for a variable, Actions doesn’t send a message.

The new variables that can be included in message templates are as follows:

• Dynamic Agent's Nick Name: @{dynamicAgentNickName}
• Dynamic URL: @{webUrl}
• Contact's Vehicle Year: @{contactVehicleYear}
• Contact's Vehicle Brand: @{contactVehicleBrand}
• Contact's Vehicle Model: @{contactVehicleModel}
• Contact's City: @{contactCity}
• Contact's State: @{contactState}
• Contact's Zip Code: @{contactZip}
• Policy ID: @{policyId}

To add new variables to the API requests that trigger the start of Action workflows, contact your Customer Success Manager. After that, the new variables can be included in message templates.

Time zones are now visible next to the event time in event RSVP emails. This time zone is based on your preferences in the User Settings. 

This feature is on for all Sites customers.

Event RSVP email with time zone information

Here's what to look for in the March 27th release. 

The guidance in this document is offered for early planning purposes, and is subject to change up to the time of release. 

Social

AI-Powered Content Recommendations

Problem Solved: There’s currently no way for Hearsay Social to remember content preferences of advisors/agents and their audience, which makes finding content difficult and time consuming. 

Expected Value: Better content recommendations based on individual preferences increases advisor/agent engagement with Hearsay Social and makes it more likely they will post the content to their social media pages.

Expected Solution: Using data related to audience engagement, advisors/agent interests, browsing history, and behavior, we’ll implement an AI solution that provides personalized Post Library content recommendations for each advisor/agent, similar to recommended lists in popular apps like Spotify or Netflix. The more advisors/agents use Hearsay Social, the more content recommendations are tailored to their preferences. 

There will be six sections of content in the Recommended tab, as follows:

• Highlights at : Content recommended by content creators/admins.
• Recommended for your audience: Content the advisor/agent’s audience is engaging with the most. 
• Based on your interests: Content based on the advisor/agent search and publishing history. 
• Most recent: The newest content added by content creators/admins.
• Most engaging: Content receiving a lot of audience engagement when posted by the advisor’s/agent’s peers.  
• Popular with your peers: Content being published a lot by advisors/agent’s peers. 

The regular Post Library will still exist in the new Browse tab. 

Relate 

Access LinkedIn direct messaging via Relate

Problem Solved: Advisors/agents aren’t able to access LinkedIn direct messages on Relate. LinkedIn direct messages represent a high-volume prospect/client engagement opportunity for advisors, but Relate isn’t able to leverage the potential outcomes of the channel. 

Expected Value: Integrating LinkedIn direct messages with Relate will allow advisors/agents to access LinkedIn direct messages using Relate, providing a better unified direct messaging experience on the Relate platform and reducing delays in communication. 

Expected Solution: Advisors/agents will be able to send and receive LinkedIn direct messages on Relate in Hearsay Desktop, as they would a Relate text message. Relate will frequently crawl LinkedIn direct messages between 8:00 AM Eastern Time and 9:00 PM Eastern Time to check for new messages. In order to port/view LinkedIn conversations in Relate there must first be an existing conversation in LinkedIn, i.e. the user has sent or received at least one direct message to/from another person on LinkedIn. Messages received via LinkedIn direct messaging will be marked with a blue LinkedIn icon in the Conversations tab in Relate.

This feature is only available to users who have both Hearsay Social and Hearsay Relate enabled.

Advisors/agents won’t be able to disconnect their Relate phone number

Problem Solved: Advisors/agents have the ability to disconnect their Relate phone number. Disconnecting a Relate number leads to a violation of regulatory requirements because it creates an audit trail gap that results in a lack of transparency and accountability for communication, which can lead to regulatory fines and damage to the reputation of the organization. 

Expected Value: Restricting advisors/agents’ ability to disconnect their Relate phone number provides assurance to regulators and our users that their communication is compliant, secure, and accountable. By maintaining a complete audit trail of communication, Relate ensures that all communication is fully transparent and compliant with regulatory requirements, which reduces the risk of regulatory fines and other legal consequences that may arise from non-compliance.

Expected Solution: Agents/advisors will no longer be able to disconnect or remove their Relate phone numbers.

Attestation in one workspace applies to the whole organization

Problem Solved: If an organization’s Relate attestation settings are set to Explicit Consent, Web Opt-In, or Personalized Opt-In, each advisor/agent has to send individual opt-in requests to their contacts, and the contact’s communication channel gets opened only with those advisors/agents with whom they have specifically opted-in to receive messages. This results in communication delays as well as lost opportunities for adoption and growth because only a limited number of agents/advisors in an organization are able to communicate with prospects and clients. 

Expected Value: An organizational opt-in model will replace the individual advisor/agent opt-in model so that all advisors/agents from an organization will be able to text clients who agree to receive messages from that organization. This will reduce the need for multiple opt-in approvals, increase opt-in approval rates, improve client satisfaction through faster communication, and increase the number of conversations that drive business.

Expected Solution: A contact’s attestation in one workspace will apply to the whole organization. This new attestation model will be based on 4 rules: 

• When a client has opted-in (by responding YES) to texting with an advisor/agent at an organization, their number is added to the allow list and all advisors/agents at that organization will be allowed to text that client without additional opt-in requirements. 
• If a client opts-out (by responding STOP), their number will be removed from the allow list and added to the deny list. Their number will be blocked and nobody from the organization will be able to text them.
• If a client responds with UNSTOP, they will be automatically removed from the deny list and added to the allow list for the organization and advisors/agents will be able to send text messages to their number.
• Attestation in one workspace propagates to the whole organization almost in real time.

This feature is currently only available for organizations whose Relate attestation settings are set to Explicit Consent.

Mobile

Relate Mobile App includes Post Library and AI-Powered Recommendations

Problem Solved: Publishing content from the Post Library using the Hearsay Social mobile app is limited and outdated, and advisors/agents need to use two separate apps to browse the Post Library and communicate using Relate on mobile.

Expected Value: Advisors/agents can efficiently promote their brand by quickly publishing compliant content they are interested in while on the go using a single mobile app.

Expected Solution: In a continued effort to transform the Relate app into a unified mobile experience that encompasses both Relate and Social functions, advisors/agents will be able to browse, filter, and post suggested content within the Relate mobile app. The new AI-Powered Content Recommendations enhancements for Social, also in this release, will be included in the mobile Post Library and will enable advisors/agents to quickly find the most relevant posts. Advisors/agents will also be able to browse the library of all approved posts and filter by the post type, network, and tags to find the right content. 

SITES

Sites Post Library design matches the Social Post Library design

Problem Solved: Advisors/agents who use both Sites and Social can access the Post Library in two different ways: Via Sites (Sites > Posts) and Social (Social > Content). However, the look and feel of the Post Libraries are different, which can be confusing.

Expected Value: A consistent look and feel across the platform improves user experience and enables us to release Post Library improvements for Sites and Social users at the same time.

Expected Solution: The Sites Post Library will be modeled after the newer and more streamlined Social Post Library.

Current Sites Post Library (pre-release)

Social Post Library, and how the Sites Post Library will look after the release

Preview changes on Sites

Problem Solved: In the newest version of Sites, advisors/agents and compliance admins can’t preview changes to the website to see how they look.

Expected Value: When advisors/agents or compliance admins can preview Sites changes before submitting or approving them, they can more clearly see the changes and proactively address potential issues. This helps advisors/agents save time and effort going through multiple compliance revisions and helps compliance admins reduce the risk of accidentally approving something problematic.

Expected Solution: Advisors/agents will be able to preview the website before they submit to compliance, and compliance admins will be able to preview the website before they approve the changes. A Preview button will appear both when submitting and approving changes. 

Sites Profile Editor 

Supervision

PLATFORM

Desktop notifications appear in a drop-down list

Problem Solved: Clicking on the notification bell in the desktop application opens a new tab, forcing users to switch between pages to view notifications.

Expected Value: Users can view their list of current notifications without interrupting their workflow.

Expected Solution: After clicking on the notification bell in the web application, a scrollable list of read and unread notifications from the past 30 days will appear below the bell icon. Clicking on an individual notification from the list takes the user to the corresponding page they need to attend to the activity in the notification. For example,  clicking on a content suggestion takes you to a page to publish the piece of content. Notifications will be marked “read” after the user either clicks on the notification or selects Mark all as Read.  Read and unread notifications are in different colors and users can toggle Unread Only to view only notifications they haven’t read yet. A circular badge will still appear near the bell icon indicating that there are unread notifications.

Data & Analytics

Breakdown by Actions Workspaces report will show if advisors/agents are receiving daily emails and push notifications

Problem Solved: Program admins are not able to monitor which advisors/agents are receiving daily emails and push notifications and which advisors/agents have these emails and push notifications turned off. This has created a barrier to seeing every agent/advisor’s notification settings for every workspace, and better understanding each advisor/agent’s efficiency.

Expected Value: Program admins will be able to monitor if advisors/agents are receiving daily emails and push notifications for every workspace. 

Expected Solution: The Breakdown of Actions Workspaces report will be extended with two additional fields each with binary (yes/no) possible values:

• Receive daily email
• Receive push notification

New Sites Content Performance report to monitor pre-approved content usage in Sites

Problem Solved: Sites admins can’t monitor if advisors/agents are using pre-approved content, such as homepage hero images, services articles, specialists to add to “our team” pages, and default images that appear if they don’t have their own image for their custom articles. This has made it difficult to determine which content organizations should remove, replace, or add more of.

Expected Value: Providing data on content usage, including content types being used and the number of Sites using the content, makes it easier to assess the value of each piece of pre-approved content.

Expected Solution: A new Sites Content Performance report will be created with the following fields:

• Content category
• Content item
• Number of uses
• List of Sites using the content

This report will be filterable by date range and hierarchy.

New Sites Overview dashboard will show aggregate business measures for all Sites

Problem Solved: There is no single dashboard that provides aggregated business measures for all available Sites solutions (legacy custom Sites, Library Sites, NextGen Sites, and the newest version of Sites).

Expected Value: Program admins will have a new dashboard showing the aggregated business measures for all of their Sites, regardless of the underlying technology they are using.

Expected Solution: A new Sites Overview dashboard will be implemented that shows the aggregated business measures from all Sites types in use. The measures on the dashboard will be:

• Number of active Sites
• Number of total visitors
• Number of new visitors
• Number of returning visitors
• Number of leads (calculated based on the number of contact submission forms)
• Lead conversion rate %
• Number of Sites publishes
• Number of Events publishes

We’ve made four enhancements to our Relate desktop notifications:

• Desktop notifications no longer expire. Users must click to dismiss them. 
• Clicking on a desktop notification will open the conversation that generated the notification, if Relate is open in a browser tab. If Relate is not open in a tab, then clicking on the notification will open the Hearsay homepage.
• Browser tabs display the number of conversations with new unread messages.
• Notifications for unread messages in Relate change to read only when the user clicks on the message or anywhere in its conversation window.