June 20, 2017

To start building automated conversational workflows, make sure that you grant proper permissions to those on your team who will be creating and managing chatbots. Users with Full Publishing permissions will be able to create, edit, activate or delete a chatbot for a given Twitter profile.

1. HOW TO:
2. Go to Settings > Users & Profiles and update users’ permissions as needed.
3. Users with Full Publishing permissions will be able to create, edit, activate or delete a chatbot for a given Twitter profile.
4. Users with Read Only, Needs Approval or Can Reply permissions for a Twitter profile can view an existing chatbot card in the Settings > Bots screen but they cannot create new chatbots or take action (i.e. edit, activate or delete).

Sprout’s Bot Builder makes it easy for you to add a new chatbot to an existing Twitter profile. You can also enter a brief description that can be used to describe the bot internally.

1. HOW-TO:
2. Select Bots from the Settings menu in the upper righthand corner (available to Enterprise accounts only).
3. Click Add a Chatbot.
4. Enter a brief Chatbot Description (optional).
5. Assign your chatbot to a specific Twitter profile by choosing from the list.
6. Click Next.

The Custom Avatars feature enables you to give your chatbot a unique identity and name. To set a custom avatar, either select from Sprout’s pre-designed options or upload your own. In order to take advantage of the Custom Avatar feature, you must agree to a short legal disclaimer provided by Twitter.

1. HOW-TO:
2. To select a custom avatar, first read the legal disclaimer and click Agree.
3. Select from one of three options to customize your avatar:
4. Select Profile Avatar to keep the avatar associated with your Twitter profile and move on to the next step.
5. Select Pre-designed Avatars to choose from one of three Sprout designed avatar options.
6. Select Upload Avatar to choose an image from your own library.
7. Click Next.

Sprout’s simple wizard allows you to setup your chatbot conversation based on a set of rules. For Twitter chatbots, you can setup, manage and operate three unique conversational components within the Direct Message channel including: Welcome Messages, Quick Replies and Auto-Responses to Quick Replies. You’ll be able to preview the chatbot conversation in the Live Previewer.

1. HOW-TO:
2. Type your Welcome Message into the text box.
3. Click Next.
4. Click the + Add Quick Reply button and type your first Quick Reply into the text field.
5. Add an Auto-Response to your first Quick Reply.
6. Click the + Add Quick Reply button to add your second Quick Reply.
7. Add an Auto-Response to your second Quick Reply.
8. Add up to 6 unique Quick Replies and Auto-Responses.
9. Use the up or down arrows in the upper right corner of each box to quickly reorder your Quick Reply / Auto-Response pairs.
10. Click the Quick Reply buttons on the Live Previewer to watch the chatbot conversation unfold.
11. When you’re done, click Finish to save and return to the Bots home screen.

Once you’ve built your chatbot, you’ll be able to manage the settings from the Bots home screen. Activate, edit, delete or view your chatbot using the toggle or menu within each chatbot card. The toggle will turn green once it is activated. If you click the toggle again, it will deactivate the bot and return to its gray state. The View Your Chatbot option in the “…” menu will take you to a Direct Message chat with the profile on Twitter.com so you can see your live chatbot.

1. HOW-TO:
2. Activate / Deactivate your chatbot by clicking the toggle in the upper lefthand corner of the card.
3. Click the (…) in the upper right corner to open the menu to Edit, Delete or View Your Live Chatbot on Twitter.com.
4. Click directly on the any chatbot card to re-launch the wizard and continue editing the chatbot.

As users interact with Quick Replies and respond to your chatbot’s questions, all messages will stream into the Smart Inbox. You can easily reply, task, mark as complete and tag just as you would all other Direct Messages. In the Twitter Contact and Reply View, all chatbot interactions will appear in a user’s History giving you full context of the conversation.

1. HOW-TO:
2. From the Smart Inbox, check or isolate the Direct Messages message type in the right bar.
3. View Direct Messages in the message stream and click to reply, task, tag or mark as complete.
4. When replying, view all chatbot interaction in a user’s History.