Salesforce integration

The Salesforce integration connects your Vista Social inbox to your Salesforce org. Your social team can send the people they talk to into Salesforce as contacts, open support cases straight from a message, and attach a conversation to a case that already exists. Your Salesforce team gets the full social context on the customer record, and your social team sees who they are talking to without switching tools.

Why connect Salesforce

Social and Salesforce usually hold two halves of the same story. Vista Social knows the conversation: what someone said on Instagram, Facebook, X, LinkedIn or in a review, and how they felt about it. Salesforce knows the customer: who they are, which account they belong to, who owns the relationship and what support history they have.

When the two are connected, a DM about a broken order becomes a Salesforce case in a couple of clicks, the case is linked to the right contact, and anyone in Salesforce can see that it started on social. Nobody has to copy and paste messages between tabs, and nobody has to guess whether a complaint has already been logged.

What you can do

Before you start

• Plan: Salesforce is available on the Enterprise plan.
• Salesforce account: the person who connects needs a Salesforce user that can sign in to your org and has API access. API access is included in most Salesforce editions, such as Enterprise, Unlimited and Developer. On other editions, check with your Salesforce admin.
• Permissions in Salesforce: Vista Social acts as the Salesforce user who connected. To create contacts and cases, that user needs permission to create and edit contacts and cases. Fields that user can't edit won't show up in Vista Social.
• One org per profile: each Salesforce connection is one org. If your company uses more than one org, connect each one separately.

Connect your Salesforce org

Salesforce connects the same way as any other profile in Vista Social.

1. Go to Settings > Profiles and click Add profile.
2. Choose Salesforce.
3. Sign in to Salesforce with the account you want Vista Social to use, and approve access.
4. You're brought back to Vista Social, and Salesforce shows up in your list of profiles.

Once it's connected, give your team access to the Salesforce profile the same way you share any other profile. Only people with access to it can send contacts and cases to that org.

Tips for a smooth connection

• Use a Salesforce user that will stay around, such as a shared integration user, rather than one person's account. If that user leaves or loses access, the connection stops working until someone reconnects it.
• If you see Please reconnect Salesforce, reconnect from Settings > Profiles and sign in to the same org as before. Signing in to a different org won't reconnect it.

Send people from the inbox to Salesforce

Everyone who messages you in the Vista Social inbox has a person profile. Click the person's name in a conversation to open their details. With Salesforce connected, you'll see a Salesforce section there.

If the person isn't in Salesforce yet

1. Open the person's details and find the Salesforce section. It says This person is not in Salesforce yet.
2. Click Send to Salesforce.
3. Review the form. Vista Social fills in what it already knows about the person, such as their name, email and social handle. You can change anything and fill in other contact fields from your org, including custom fields.
4. Optionally, choose a Campaign to add them to.
5. Click Create contact.

Vista Social doesn't create duplicates. If the email matches a contact that already exists in Salesforce, that contact is updated and linked instead of a new one being created.

Once the person is linked

The Salesforce section shows the linked contact, with their title, account, owner and the campaigns they belong to. From there you can:

• Open in Salesforce to jump to the contact record.
• Edit to change contact fields without leaving Vista Social.
• Update in Salesforce to push the latest details from Vista Social, such as a new email you added in the inbox.
• Unlink to remove the link in Vista Social. The contact stays in Salesforce.

Good to know: an email is what ties a person to a Salesforce contact. If someone hasn't shared an email yet, add it to their details in the inbox first, then send them to Salesforce.

Optional social fields on the contact

If your Salesforce admin adds these custom fields to the Contact object, Vista Social fills them in automatically when it sends a person over. They're optional. If your org doesn't have them, contacts are still created with the standard fields.

Create a Salesforce case from a message

When a message needs follow-up from support, sales or another team, turn it into a Salesforce case without leaving the inbox.

1. In the inbox, hover over the message and open its menu.
2. Click Create a Salesforce case.
3. On the New case tab, check the subject and description. The description already includes the message.
4. Set the Priority and fill in any other case fields your team uses. Click More Salesforce fields to see every field you can fill in for your org.
5. Click Create case.

Here's what happens next:

• The case is linked to the contact. If the person is already linked to a Salesforce contact, the case goes on that contact. If they aren't linked but have an email, Vista Social sends them to Salesforce first and puts the case on the new contact. If there's no email, the case is created without a contact, and you can add one later.
• The case is marked as coming from social. The case origin is set to Social, so your Salesforce reports can tell these cases apart.
• The message shows the case. A case badge appears on the message with the case number, so your team can see at a glance that it's been logged. Click it to open the case in Salesforce.
• No accidental duplicates. If a message already has a case, Vista Social tells you before you create another one. Create a second case only if it's a separate issue.

Attach a message to an existing case

Customers often follow up on social about an issue that's already open. Instead of opening a new case, attach the message to the existing one.

1. Open the message menu and click Create a Salesforce case.
2. Switch to the Existing case tab.
3. Pick a case from Cases for this person, or search by case number or subject.
4. Leave Add this message to the case as an internal comment checked to copy the message onto the case. Uncheck it to save only the link.
5. Click Attach to case.

The message now shows the case badge, and the case in Salesforce has the message as an internal comment, so whoever is working the case sees the latest from the customer.

Keep Vista Social up to date from Salesforce

Changes made in Salesforce flow back to Vista Social automatically, so your social team never works from stale information.

• Case status: when someone updates or closes a case in Salesforce, the case badge on every linked message in Vista Social shows the new status.
• Contact details: when a contact's name, email or phone changes in Salesforce, the linked person in your Vista Social inbox is updated.

There's nothing extra to set up. Sync starts as soon as your Salesforce org is connected.

Important notes

• Vista Social only sends people and cases to Salesforce when someone on your team chooses to. Nothing is created automatically in the background.
• Vista Social acts as the Salesforce user who connected the org. Records it creates show that user as the creator, and Salesforce sharing rules and field permissions for that user apply.
• Unlinking a contact or disconnecting Salesforce never deletes anything in Salesforce.
• If a linked contact is deleted in Salesforce, the person's Salesforce section lets you know. Send them again to create a new contact.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Which plans include the Salesforce integration?

A: Salesforce is part of the Enterprise plan. To add it to your account, contact your account manager.

Q: Will sending someone to Salesforce create duplicate contacts?

A: No. If the email matches an existing contact, Vista Social updates and links that contact instead of creating a new one.

Q: Can I send someone to Salesforce without an email?

A: An email is needed to create or link a contact. You can still create a case from their message, and it will be created without a contact.

Q: Can I fill in our custom Salesforce fields?

A: Yes. The contact and case forms load the fields from your org, including custom fields, as long as the connected Salesforce user can edit them.

Q: Do replies in the Vista Social inbox show up on the Salesforce case?

A: When you attach a message to a case, you can add it to the case as an internal comment. Messages aren't copied to the case automatically.

Q: Can I connect more than one Salesforce org?

A: Yes. Connect each org as its own profile. When you create a case or send a contact, you choose which org to use.

Q: What happens if the person who connected Salesforce leaves our company?

A: If their Salesforce user is deactivated, the connection stops working. Reconnect from Settings > Profiles with another user in the same org. We recommend using a shared integration user from the start.

Need help?

Reach out to our support team, and we are happy to help.

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