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Use Scheduled Threads with Twist

Scheduled Threads is an integration you can use to automatically schedule thread posts in Twist.

Setting up the integration

  1. Open Twist.
  2. Click your team icon in the top-left corner.
  3. Click Settings & members.
  4. Select Integrations in the left-hand menu.
  5. Open the Browse tab.
  6. Search for Scheduled Threads.
  7. Click Add and select whether you want to add only for yourself or for everyone on your team.
  8. Under Scheduled Threads, click Manage.
  9. Click Log in to Twist. A new browser window will open where you will be asked to authenticate access to Twist.
  10. Click Continue after login once authenticated.

Schedule types

You can schedule two types of posts: Team Check-in and Auto-Report.

Team Check-in

Team Check-in is a type of scheduled post with fixed content, including a thread subject and a post. 

This post is handy if you need to post the same thread at regular intervals, such as if you want your team to share their goals every Monday, or if you want to collect feedback from your team on a specific date every month.

How to create a new schedule for Team Check-in

  1. Open Twist.
  2. Click your team icon in the top-left corner.
  3. Click Settings & members.
  4. Select Integrations in the left-hand menu.
  5. Search for Scheduled Threads. 
  6. Click Manage.
  7. Click Create new schedule.
  8. Enter the name for your new schedule.
  9. Choose which channel to post it in.
  10. Choose who you want to notify. You can select between notifying Everyone in channel, No-one, or you can select one of your team’s groups.
  11. Choose Team Check-in in the schedule type field.
  12. Add a subject for the thread.
  13. Add content for the thread.
  14. Choose how often you want to post.
  15. Click on Add action if you want to add an action button to your post. See this section to learn more.
  16. Click Save.

Auto-Report

Auto-Report is a scheduled post that collects content from an external source and includes a thread subject and a content URL.

This type of post is especially handy if you need to share regular updates where the content of the post might change, such as a weekly sales report.

How to create a new schedule for Auto-Report

  1. Open Twist.
  2. Click your team icon in the top-left corner.
  3. Click Settings & members.
  4. Select Integrations in the left-hand menu.
  5. Search for Scheduled Threads. 
  6. Click Manage.
  7. Click Create new schedule.
  8. Enter the name for your new schedule.
  9. Choose which channel to post it in.
  10. Choose who you want to notify. You can select between notifying Everyone in channel, No-one, or you can select one of your team’s groups.
  11. Choose Auto-Report in the schedule type field.
  12. Add a subject for the thread.
  13. Add the content URL for the thread.
  14. Choose how often you want to post.
  15. Choose if you want to add an action button to your post. See this section to learn more.
  16. Click Save.

How to remove a schedule

  1. Open Twist.
  2. Click your team icon in the top-left corner.
  3. Click Settings & members.
  4. Select Integrations in the left-hand menu.
  5. Search Scheduled Threads. 
  6. Click Manage.
  7. Search for the schedule you want to remove.
  8. To remove it, select Delete on the right.

How to edit a schedule

  1. Open Twist.
  2. Click your team icon in the top-left corner.
  3. Click Settings & members.
  4. Select Integrations in the left-hand menu.
  5. Search Scheduled Threads. 
  6. Click Manage.
  7. Search for the schedule you want to edit.
  8. To edit it, select Edit on the right.

Action buttons

You also have the option to create and add an action button to one of your scheduled posts. 

Action buttons perform a specific action set by you, such as adding a template, a link, or a piece of text to your post.

You have two options when creating an action button:

Prefill reply

This option enables you to create a button with a set piece of text. This means that when you click the button, the associated text will automatically get added in the Twist composer.

When choosing this option you need to provide the following:

  • Button text: A title for the button.
  • Reply to prefill: The text that will populate the composer when the button is clicked.

Open URL

This option enables you to create a button that will open a specific link in a new browser window.

When choosing this option you need to provide the following:

  • Button text: A title for the button.
  • URL to open: The URL that will open when the button is clicked.
  • Don’t forget to select Save after filling in the required fields.
  • The action buttons can be managed when editing any schedule.
  • A scheduled job can have multiple action buttons.

FAQ

How can I remove the integration?

If you no longer want to use Scheduled Threads with Twist, please follow the instructions in this article to remove the integration.

Why isn’t my scheduled post working?

If you’re not seeing your scheduled posts, please check the following:

  • If it's an auto-report, check if there’s a problem with fetching the data from the URL provided. This could be caused by the following reasons:
    • A problem communicating with the URL provided.
    • The data provided has zero content.

If the issue persists after meeting the above requirements, report it to our Customer Experience team as a technical issue and include the following info in your request:

  • The name of the scheduled job.
  • The email you use to access Twist.

How can I log out of Scheduled Threads from within Twist?

  1. Open Twist.
  2. Click your team icon in the top-left corner.
  3. Click Settings & members.
  4. Select Integrations in the left-hand menu.
  5. Search Scheduled Threads. 
  6. Click Manage.
  7. Click the small profile icon on the right of Your schedules.
  8. Click Log out.
If you choose to log out the integration from within Twist, the integration will stop posting. You’ll need to log in again to Twist if you wish to resume your scheduled posts.

How to log in again if you need to reconnect the extension with Twist?

  1. Open Twist.
  2. Click your team icon in the top-left corner.
  3. Click Settings & members.
  4. Select Integrations in the left-hand menu.
  5. Open the Browse tab.
  6. Search for Scheduled Threads.
  7. Under Scheduled Threads, click Manage.
  8. Click Log in to Twist. A new browser window will open where you will be asked to authenticate access to Twist.
  9. Click Continue after login once authenticated.

What are content URL reports?

URL Content Reports are a way for integrations like Scheduled Threads to retrieve real content from an external source via a POST request and send it into Twist.

During the integration setup, the user provides a Content URL, which will be called based on the configuration of the integration (e.g., every week). The data the remote URL returns will then be posted into Twist.

When combined with the Schedule Threads feature, it can automatically post updates from external sources into Twist.

The URL endpoints the user defines can return two types of content:

  • JSON
  • Plain text

JSON

If the remote endpoint response contains the Content-type: application/JSON header, Twist will interpret the response as JSON. Two fields are supported:

title - Twist will use this field for the title of the newly created thread.

content - Twist will use this field for the content of the newly created thread. The content field supports Markdown.

Note that if you can use <date> in the title, and this will be converted it to the current date.

Plain Text

If the remote endpoint response doesn't contain the Content-type: application/JSON header, Twist will interpret it as plaintext content for a new thread. In this scenario, Markdown is also supported.