Direct Messages and Direct Conversations in Community Widgets

In Unified Analytics and Dashboard, some Community widgets se metrics based on the number of direct conversations, some use metrics based on the number of direct messages, and some use both.

Direct conversation vs. Direct message

• A direct conversation is a body of messages exchanged between two accounts on a social media platform. In the context of an Emplifi account, a direct conversation is a body of messages exchanged between you (represented by one of your owned profiles) and a customer’s social media account.
  A direct conversation is the entire thread between the two parties, regardless of how many messages are sent and received or over how many days.
  Conversations are, technically speaking, endless. For example, imagine that your customer sent you a direct message on Facebook 10 years ago. You replied, and that was it. If this customer sends you another message tomorrow, the new message will be a part of the conversation that started 10 years ago. It is still going to be the same direct conversation.

• A direct message is an individual message within a direct conversation that was sent by the customer’s social media account or by you (one of your owned profiles). A direct message is a single “unit” of a direct conversation.

How direct messages and direct conversations are counted

Imagine that you (represented by one of your owned profiles) exchanged messages with a customer (represented by their social media account).

• July 1

  • The customer sent one message.

  • You replied with one message.

• July 3

  • The customer sent one message.

  • You replied with one message.

  • The customer sent two more messages one after another.

  • You replied to both messages with one message.

• July 10

  • The customer sent one message.

  • You replied with one message.

Counting direct conversations

How a Community widget counts direct conversations depends on the widget’s configuration.

• If the widget counts the total number of direct conversations during a specified date range and there is no breakdown by date added to the widget, the whole message exchange between you and the customer is counted as one direct conversation.
  This is because it is still the same direct conversation regardless of how many days it spanned and how many messages were sent and received.
  That is, if the date range in the widget is set to July 1-July 31, the total number of direct conversations that the widget would return is one.

• If the widget has a breakdown of “Date: Aggregated by Day/Week/Month/Quarter/Year” configured, the whole message exchange between you and the customer is counted as one direct conversation towards each breakdown unit during which at least one message belonging to this conversation took place.
  Each direct conversation is counted towards a breakdown unit only once regardless of how many messages took place during this unit.
  That is, the widget would count direct conversations per date as follows:

  • July 1 - one direct conversation (the customer sent one message)
    …

  • July 3 - one direct conversation (the customer sent three messages)
    …

  • July 10 - one direct conversation (the customer sent one message)

Counting direct messages

When a Community widget counts direct messages, each individual message sent by you or by the customer counts as one direct message.

That is, a widget that counts incoming direct messages (the direct messages sent by the customer) per date would count them as follows:

• July 1 - one incoming direct message (the customer sent one message)
  …

• July 3 - three incoming direct messages (the customer sent three messages)
  …

• July 10 - one incoming direct message (the customer sent one message)

The total number of incoming direct messages would be calculated as five.

If a widget counts outgoing/sent direct messages (the direct messages sent by you) per date, it would count them as follows:

• July 1 - one sent direct message (you sent one message)
  …

• July 3 - two sent direct messages (you sent two messages)
  …

• July 10 - one sent direct message (you sent one message)

The total number of sent direct messages would be calculated as four.