Why do I have to reconnect my social channels?
In this article:
Occasionally, you’ll need to reconnect your social channels to Gain, and this is a standard procedure social networks require of all third-party apps to keep your accounts safe.
Connections between Gain and your social channels require access tokens, which can expire for multiple reasons depending on each social network’s policies. When an access token expires, you must reconnect that social account. For the most part, social accounts only require a simple reconnection.
Important: Only workspace admins, account admins, and the account owner can connect or reconnect new social channels in Gain.
Reconnect your social channels
You can find social channels connected in an individual workspace in the Social Channels section under Workspace Settings or see all the social channels in your account in the Social Channels in Account page. 
You'll see a red indicator next to any channels that require reconnection. Click Reconnect and follow the onscreen instructions.
When do access tokens expire?
Each social network has different policies on when and why access tokens can expire. Take a look at each one below:
Facebook and Instagram
Facebook and Instagram accounts require reconnecting more often than LinkedIn and Twitter. According to Facebook, access tokens last around 60 days, but there are several reasons why they might expire earlier:
- Changes in Admin access for Facebook Pages
- Publishing identical posts to several accounts at the same time
- Logging into your account from many different IP addresses (for example, if several people have the email and password login information for an account)
- Logging in and out of several different accounts
- Any activity considered “not secure” by Facebook’s AI-based algorithm.
In some instances, your social accounts will need to be fully reconnected. You’ll need to check Gain’s permissions in Facebook’s Business Integrations, see more details here.
LinkedIn access tokens expire every 60 days, and we’ve seen this is mostly the case; however, other instances where tokens might expire are:
- Changes in Admin access for Company Pages
- Publishing identical posts to several accounts at the same time
Twitter will suspend your accounts if their AI-based algorithm detects spam or malicious behavior. If Twitter suspends your account, the connection to Gain will be temporarily disabled as well. Other than that, we haven’t seen any other instances where users need to reconnect Twitter accounts.
Best practices to keep your access token from expiring early
- Have only one person assigned to reconnect channels in Gain
- Do not log in to Facebook as another person to reconnect channels.
- Please reconnect channels with your personal login.
- You can turn on two-factor authentication in your Facebook accounts.