Blocked Words in Advocacy

Overview

Ensure a Consistent Brand Voice

You can use Blocked Words to maintain the quality of every message sent out, automatically stopping any language that is off-brand, unsafe, or non-compliant before it's posted. This gives your team better control over your brand's presence on social media, building trust and credibility with your audience at every interaction.

How it works: 

Admin Experience: Blocked Words Settings in Sprout

Admins manage blocked words lists in Sprout Settings under Guardian > Blocked Words. They can enable lists for Employee Advocacy by selecting "Shares" in the App Area dropdown for any keyword list.

 

Admin Experience: Re-authentication Required Banner

If the API key becomes invalid, admins see a warning banner with instructions to reconnect their Sprout app with Employee Advocacy.

 

Employee Experience: Share Story Flow with Blocked Word Error (Desktop)

When an employee attempts to share content containing blocked words, they see a banner notification identifying the blocked words and must remove them to continue.

 

Employee Experience: Share Story Flow (Mobile)

The blocked words validation is also enforced on mobile web, with the same inline error experience.

 

Steps to Enable Blocked Words in Advocacy

Prerequisite: Connecting Employee Advocacy to Sprout: How do I connect my Sprout and Employee Advocacy accounts?

 

1. Navigate to Blocked Words Settings 
   • In Sprout Social, go to Settings > Guardian > Blocked Words
2. Create or Select a Keyword List
   • To create a new list: Click Create list, enter a name and description, then add your blocked words/phrases
   • To use an existing list: Find the list you want to enable for EA
3. Enable for Employee Advocacy
   • In the App Area column, click the dropdown for your keyword list
   • Check the Shares option under Employee Advocacy
   • This applies the blocked words to all EA shares

Audit Trail: Sprout admins can see any changes made to their blocked words settings in the Audit Trail Log, including the email address of the user who attempted to use blocked words in EA.

 

Reader Experience

1. Reader Opens Share Story Modal
   • Reader selects a story to share from their EA feed
   • The Share Story modal opens
2. Reader Composes Their Message
   • Reader writes or edits the caption for their share
   • They can personalize the message as usual
3. Reader Clicks Post/Send
   • The system validates the message against all enabled blocked word lists
4. If Blocked Words Are Detected:
   • A warning banner appears: "Your message contains blocked word(s) set by your admin(s). Remove [word] to continue."
   • The Post button remains disabled
   • Reader must remove the flagged words to proceed
5. Reader Removes Blocked Words
   • Reader edits their message to remove the blocked words
   • Once removed, the warning clears and the Post button becomes active
6. Reader Successfully Posts
   • With blocked words removed, the share is posted to the selected network(s)

Blocked Words in Advocacy FAQ

Q: What happens with Blocked Words if my API key in Sprout is invalid?

A: The Blocked Words feature will be automatically disabled, and an error message will appear on the Blocked Words settings page. Please make sure your API key remains valid.

Q: Why might my API key become invalid?

A: The most common reason is if someone regenerates a new API key. The old one immediately becomes invalid. We do provide a warning about this impact, and regenerating the key is a very rare action.

Q: Does Blocked Words validation work for content drafted directly on personal social network profiles?

A:  Blocked Words can only control messaging drafted within the Advocacy platform. Content drafted directly on the social network itself will not be checked against your blocked words list.

Q: What types of content will be blocked by enabling this setting? 

A: Blocked Words only applies to shares. 

Q: Why can't I change the setting to allow shares with blocked words to be approved?

A: Blocked words approval is only available for Sprout Social Compose and Replies at this time.