Use this link to share with your colleagues:
How to Set Up Post to Facebook / Meta: https://help.pm.leapevent.tech/a/1595031
When you complete the steps in this article, patrons will be able to share their online ticket purchases with their Facebook friends by clicking a button on the confirmation screen of your Public Ticketing Site (PTS). The resulting Facebook post links directly back to your PTS, helping you expand your audience.
Facebook requires you to build an app to permit posting to Facebook from sites like the PTS. It's a little complex, but this article will help you through! To complete the steps outlined here, you will need admin-level access to your organization's Facebook / Meta business account.
Completing the steps below should take around 45 minutes. Ready? Let's jump right in!
What's the end result?
After you set this up, patrons will see an option on the PTS confirmation page to share their purchase to Facebook / Meta:
When they click that link, a pop-up will appear with a Facebook post for them to complete and publish. It will link back to your PTS, and will include the Large Event Image from that Ticketable Event, plus the name of the Ticketable Event and Event Instance.
If the patron purchases multiple things in the same Ticket Order, the post will pull content from the first Event Instance in their cart.
First things first: let's build an app!
You'll want to have a couple things handy before you begin:
- The link to your organization's privacy policy
- The link to your Public Ticketing Site (hint: you can find it at the top of the PatronTicket Hub!)
Heads up: this section happens within your Facebook / Meta business account. We do our best to keep documentation like this up to date, but of course we don't control Facebook / Meta.
We cannot guarantee that the process below will continue to work as-is, and your account may look a little different than the screenshots outlined here as Facebook / Meta updates their UI frequently.
1. Log in to your organization's Facebook / Meta account
Don't have access? Check with your marketing team and/or IT department.
2. Go to Meta for Developers
3. Click on "My Apps"
4. Select "Create App"
5. Select "None" for the app type, then click "Continue"
6. Fill in details, then click "Create App ID"
- App Display Name: enter the name of your organization
- App Contact Email: enter an email address for an admin at your org that will remain active - you'll need to be sure you receive notifications from Facebook to keep your app working in future.
7. Click Settings > Basic in the sidebar and fill in settings as follows
- Expand "Settings", then click "Basic"
- In "App Domains", enter the link to your Public Ticketing Site
- Add a link to your organization's Privacy Policy or website
- Choose "Business and Pages" for the category
- Save Changes!
Make sure to click the little popup of the site url when adding the link to the App Domain box. Otherwise it won't save.
You can leave all other non-required fields blank. The connection we're making for this app doesn't allow it to see or store any data (it's not really an app in the traditional sense), so most fields aren't relevant.
8. Scroll down and click "Add Platform"
9. Click "Website"
10. Enter the link to your Public Ticketing Site
You entered it earlier under App Domains; enter it again here.
11. Make your app public
Slide the "In development" toggle over to "Live":
12. Confirm
13. Copy the App ID
You need the string of numbers to connect it to PatronManager.
14. Nice job, you made an app!
Now it's time to connect it up to PatronManager!
Connect your app to PatronManager
You built the Facebook / Meta app as outlined above! Now it's time to hook it up to PatronManager so your patrons can start posting about their ticket purchases.
1. Log in to PatronManager and click the App Launcher
2. Search "patronticket" and click on PatronTicket Settings
3. Click "Edit"
4. Paste your Facebook App ID into the corresponding field and click "Save"
You'll find the Facebook App ID field down in Public Site Settings, here:
5. You're done!
Great! Now your patrons can click to post to Facebook from the confirmation page on your PTS. Hurrah!
Ongoing maintenance
Remember when you had to enter an email address to build the app? Keep an eye on that email! Facebook periodically requires review and maintenance for all apps.
For example, you'll sometimes have to complete a simple questionnaire to confirm that your app doesn't violate Facebook / Meta guidelines - if you fail to complete it, your app might be permanently deactivated. Also, if patrons don't use the Post to Facebook / Meta option regularly, your app might get deactivated due to lack of use - if that happens, Facebook / Meta will tell you, and you can easily reactivate it within a period of time.
Frequently Asked Questions
Unfortunately, yes. This is Facebook / Meta's policy - if you want a "Post to Facebook" button that can pre-populate content in a post based on the patron's completed purchase, this is the only option we've found.
Alternatively, you could include a link to Facebook / Meta with a call to action ("Don't forget to tell your friends about the awesome show you're getting ready to see!" etc) on the Order Confirmation Page. This is the simplest option, but then it'll be up to your patrons to create a post from scratch and paste in a relevant link.
Since this Facebook / Meta app is tied to your organization, it needs to live under your organization's Facebook account, which only your team should be able to access. PatronManager is not able to assist with third-party tools like Facebook.
Not currently, but this is a great idea! Suggest a Product Idea in the Client Community if this is something you'd like to see.
Facebook / Meta requires apps to comply with specific guidelines for data handling and privacy - most of those things don't really apply here, since this app doesn't collect any patron data. All it does is permit a user to post to Facebook / Meta with a link you provide (the link to your PTS).
You'll still have to fill out Facebook / Meta's periodic policy questionnaires, but don't stress too much about them.
It's not uncommon for apps to be deactivated, either because you missed a deadline for a policy compliance review, or because your app went for more than 90 days with no usage (no posts from patrons). If you catch this relatively quickly, it's easy to fix:
- Log in to your organization's Facebook account
- Go to Meta for Developers https://developers.facebook.com
- Click on My Apps
- Click your app
- Follow on-screen instructions to complete the compliance questionnaire and/or reactivate your app
If Facebook / Meta deactivates your app, they typically give you a grace period to address any issues and reactivate it.
If you miss that window, we recommend you start over from scratch and make a new app, rather than attempt the Facebook / Meta appeal process.
You may wish to delete the old app first (look under settings > advanced for this option) to avoid confusion.
So do we - but we don't have the answers, unfortunately, because we're not Facebook / Meta. We encourage you to reach out to Facebook / Meta support or talk to your marketing experts for the best guidance.