sales-skills/sales-vistasocial

Vista Social Platform Help

Step 1 — Gather context

If references/learnings.md exists, read it first for accumulated platform knowledge.

1. What do you need help with?

   • A) Publishing & scheduling posts
   • B) Unified inbox (comments, DMs, reviews, mentions)
   • C) Analytics & reporting
   • D) Social listening setup
   • E) Review management
   • F) DM automations / lead collection
   • G) Employee advocacy
   • H) API or Zapier/Make integration
   • I) Vista Page (link-in-bio)
   • J) Something else — describe it

2. Which plan are you on?

   • A) Professional ($79/mo — 15 profiles, 3 users)
   • B) Advanced ($149/mo — 30 profiles, 6 users, Zapier/Make/n8n)
   • C) Scale ($349/mo — 70 profiles, 10 users, white-label)
   • D) Enterprise (custom)
   • E) Not sure / evaluating

3. Which social networks?

   • A) Instagram + Facebook
   • B) LinkedIn + X/Twitter
   • C) TikTok + YouTube
   • D) All major + niche (Reddit, Threads, Bluesky)
   • E) Specific — name them

Skip-ahead rule: if the user's prompt already contains enough context, skip to Step 2.

Step 2 — Route or answer directly

If the request maps to a strategy skill, route:

• Social media management strategy or tool comparison → /sales-social-media-management [question]
• Social listening strategy or tool comparison → /sales-social-listening [question]
• Employee advocacy strategy → /sales-employee-advocacy [question]
• Review management strategy → /sales-customer-reviews [question]
• Online reputation management → /sales-online-reputation [question]
• Influencer marketing → /sales-influencer-marketing [question]

Otherwise, answer directly using the platform reference below.

Step 3 — Vista Social platform reference

Read references/platform-guide.md for the full platform reference — capabilities, pricing, data model, integration recipes, code examples.

Answer the user's question using only the relevant section. Don't dump the full reference.

Step 4 — Actionable guidance

1. Publishing — optimize posting workflow, content calendar, scheduling strategy
2. Engagement — inbox triage, response priorities, automation rules
3. Analytics — key metrics, custom reports, white-label setup
4. Integrations — Zapier/Make setup, API usage, CRM sync patterns
5. Listening — keyword setup, sentiment filters, alert configuration

If you discover a gotcha, workaround, or tip not covered in references/learnings.md, append it there.

Gotchas

Best-effort from research — review these, especially items about plan-gated features and integration gotchas that may be outdated.

• Zapier/Make/n8n require Advanced ($149/mo) or higher. Professional plan has no automation integrations. Zapier and Make do NOT need the separate API add-on (unless you make custom API calls), but n8n always requires the API add-on because it uses direct API calls. The direct API and MCP server also require the paid API add-on and account provisioning by your Vista Social rep.
• MCP server is the AI-assistant integration. Vista Social exposes 47 MCP tools (publishing, analytics, inbox, Vista Pages, etc.). Add the Remote MCP Server URL from integrations settings as a connector in Claude/ChatGPT with "No authentication" — the API key is embedded in the URL. 60 req/min limit.
• API auth is the api-key header, NOT Authorization: Bearer. OAuth 2.0 (Authorization Code + PKCE S256) is also supported. Direct-API rate limit is 60/min (3,600/hr) — watch the x-vs-rate-limit-remaining header; exceeding the limit >10 times/hour deactivates your key.
• Social listening is a $75/mo add-on. Own-profile listening is free; full web + news + social monitoring requires the paid add-on.
• Employee advocacy is $199/mo add-on. Only 3 advocates are included free. 25 employees cost $199/mo extra.
• Instagram is limited to 10 images per post. This is a Meta API restriction, not Vista Social's fault. Native Instagram allows 20.
• X/Twitter is a separate $29/mo add-on. Available across all tiers but costs extra due to X API pricing.
• Listener results refresh every 4-6 hours. Not real-time — expect delays in mention capture for both internal and external listeners.
• Premium Zapier actions cost more. Reply, Get Daily Metrics, Get Inbox, Get Post Metrics, Create/Edit Profile Group are all premium Zapier endpoints.
• Sentiment detection on messages is Enterprise-only. Lower tiers get sentiment in listening but not in the inbox.

Related skills

• /sales-social-media-management — Social media management strategy — publishing, scheduling, engagement, analytics, tool comparison
• /sales-social-listening — Social listening strategy — brand monitoring, sentiment analysis, competitive intelligence, crisis detection
• /sales-employee-advocacy — Employee advocacy strategy — content curation, gamification, compliance
• /sales-customer-reviews — Product review collection and management strategy
• /sales-online-reputation — Online reputation management strategy
• /sales-vistaprint — VistaPrint, the unrelated design/print platform people confuse with Vista Social by name
• /sales-do — Not sure which skill to use? The router matches any sales objective to the right skill. Install: npx skills add sales-skills/sales --skill sales-do -a claude-code

Examples

Example 1: Set up Zapier integration to push leads to CRM

User says: "I want to send DM automation leads from Vista Social to HubSpot automatically" Skill does:

1. Confirms user is on Advanced plan or higher (required for Zapier)
2. Walks through Zapier trigger selection (Watch Scheduled Posts or use Make's Watch module)
3. Notes that Get Inbox is a premium Zapier action
4. Shows how to map Vista Social fields to HubSpot contact properties Result: Working Zapier automation pushing DM leads to CRM

Example 2: Fix posts failing to publish

User says: "Some of my scheduled posts aren't going live and I don't know why" Skill does:

1. Checks common causes: expired profile connections, platform API changes, content policy violations
2. Recommends reconnecting affected social profiles
3. Sets up "Post Failed to Publish" Zapier trigger for alerts (if on Advanced+)
4. Suggests checking Vista Social's activity log for specific error messages Result: Diagnosed publishing failures with monitoring in place

Example 3: Compare Vista Social to current tool

User says: "I'm on Hootsuite and it's too expensive. Is Vista Social a good alternative?" Skill does:

1. Compares pricing: Hootsuite $249-499/user vs Vista Social $79-349/mo bundled
2. Highlights what Vista Social adds: review management, DM automations, Vista Page
3. Notes what to watch: listening is a $75/mo add-on, X/Twitter is extra
4. Recommends starting with a free trial to test publishing workflow Result: Clear migration assessment with cost savings and feature tradeoffs

Troubleshooting

Posts failing to publish silently

Symptom: Scheduled posts don't go live but no error notification appears Cause: Profile connection expired, content violates platform policy, or video quality rejected Solution: Reconnect the affected social profile in Settings. Check the activity log for specific errors. For video issues, ensure the file meets platform requirements (resolution, duration, format). Set up the "Post Failed to Publish" Zapier trigger on Advanced+ for real-time alerts.

Profile connection errors during setup

Symptom: Connecting social accounts throws errors or requires repeated attempts Cause: Browser permissions, cached sessions, or platform-side OAuth issues Solution: Clear browser cache and cookies for the social network. Log into the social network directly first, then connect in Vista Social. Use a private/incognito window if issues persist. For Facebook Pages, ensure you're granting access to all Pages you manage during the permissions flow.

AI Assistant suggesting irrelevant content

Symptom: AI-generated hashtags or captions don't match your brand or industry Cause: AI doesn't have enough context about your brand, or your business is niche (events, artists, B2B) Solution: On Advanced+ plans, use the AI Training & Knowledge feature to teach the AI your brand voice, industry terms, and preferred hashtags. On Professional, manually curate a hashtag library and saved captions instead of relying on AI suggestions.