Overview
The Discovery feature in ActiveComply's SocialShield product automatically identifies and surfaces social media profiles associated with your organization's employees and contacts. Discovery uses a combination of social media platform APIs, company branding signals, and NMLS licensing data to locate relevant profiles and bring them into your compliance monitoring workflow.
This article explains how Discovery works and outlines the key factors that determine whether a social media profile can be successfully pulled into Discovery.
How Discovery Works
When Discovery runs, typically daily, it performs automated queries across supported social media platforms using several types of identifiers:
• Company branding signals (e.g., company name, DBAs, company NMLS ID, company email domain)
• Individual branding signals (e.g., individual NMLS ID)
Profiles that match these signals and meet platform accessibility requirements are automatically added to SocialShield for users to review. These "Assets" may be Enabled for monitoring by Admin users.
Supported Platforms & Profile Limitations
SocialShield supports automated Discovery & monitoring across the platforms listed in a particular SocialShield account in the Platforms tab under Settings. However, not all account types on every platform are accessible or Discoverable via API. The following caveats apply:
Platform Accessibility Limitations |
Facebook Business (Meta): Only Facebook Business Pages can be monitored. Facebook Personal Profiles are not accessible via API. |
Facebook .php Bug (Meta): There is a known bug in Facebook's API where the system internally categorizes a business page as a personal profile. The tell is in the URL — if a page's web address contains “profile.php” rather than a named handle or clean page URL, that page has likely been affected. See this article for more on how to resolve this issue. |
Instagram Professional (Meta): Only Instagram Professional accounts (Business or Creator) can be monitored. This Instagram settings toggle must be enabled by the account holder for monitoring to be possible. |
LinkedIn: LinkedIn accounts do not appear in Discovery, as permissions must be received for monitoring. The LinkedIn Invitation Link should be utilized instead. |
Coverphotos: Coverphotos are not referenced in the Discovery process and are only reviewed for Prifle Compliance standards after enablement. If a profile only has Discoerable terms in the coverphoto, the profile will not populate in Discovery. |
Why a Profile May Not Appear in Discovery
If a social media profile is not being pulled into Discovery, one or more of the following factors may be the cause. Use these as a checklist when troubleshooting.
1 | The Profile Is Not Monitorable |
| The account may be private or of a type that is not accessible through the platform's API. Private accounts are not visible to third-party providers regardless of platform. On Meta platforms specifically, only Facebook Business Pages and Instagram Professional accounts are supported. Note: ◦ Ask the contact to confirm their account is a public businss page ◦ For Facebook: confirm the account is a Business Page, not a personal profile. ◦ For Instagram: confirm the account type setting is set to Professional (Business or Creator). |
2 | The Profile Lacks Discoverable Terms |
| Discovery relies on recognizable branding signals to connect a profile to your organization or a specific contact. If none of these terms appear in the profile, it will not be surfaced. Note: ◦ Company branding: company name, company NMLS ID, or company email domain. ◦ Individual branding: the contact's individual NMLS ID. ◦ If none of these signals are present in the profile's bio, username, or about section content, Discovery will not identify it as a match. |
3 | The Account Was Recently Created |
| Newly created social media accounts may not yet be fully indexed or accessible through a platform's API. There can be a delay between account creation and when the platform makes that account available to third-party providers like ActiveComply. Note: ◦ Allow additional time (typically a few days to a few weeks) for newly created accounts to become discoverable. ◦ If the account remains absent after this period, review the other factors in this list. |
4 | The Account Was Recently Converted to a Professional Profile |
| On Meta platforms (Facebook and Instagram), only Professional or Business account types are accessible via API. If a contact recently changed their account from personal to professional, there may be a delay before the profile becomes discoverable. Note: ◦ This transition can be difficult to identify directly, but a recent shift in the type of content being posted may indicate an account type change. |
5 | The Contact Was Recently Hired |
| ActiveComply uses NMLS licensing data, in part, to power Discovery queries. If a new contact's licensee record was recently added or updated in NMLS, there may be a delay before their information is used to trigger Discovery queries. Note: ◦ This delay is related to the weekly cadence of NMLS data synchronization. ◦ For recently onboarded contacts, allow adequate time (typically a week) for their NMLS data to be ingested before expecting their profiles to appear in Discovery. |
Troubleshooting Quick Reference
Below is a quick reference matrix for potential Issue Causes and recomendations on next actions:
Possible Cause | Indicator | Recommended Action |
Profile is private or wrong type | Account is personal/private on Meta platform | Ask contact to switch to Business/Professional account |
No discoverable terms present | Bio/username has no company or NMLS references | Ask contact to add NMLS ID or company name to their profile |
Account recently created | Profile is brand new | Wait a few days, then recheck Discovery |
Recently converted to professional | Content type recently changed | Wait for API to reflect account type change |
Contact recently hired | New employee, recently added to NMLS | Allow time for NMLS data sync to complete |
Need More Help?
If you have reviewed all of the above factors and a profile is still not appearing in Discovery, please contact ActiveComply Support ([email protected]) with the following information:
• A link to the social media profile in question
• The contact's name and NMLS ID
• The date the contact was added to your system
• A brief description of what troubleshooting steps have already been taken
Our support team will investigate and work with you to resolve the issue.