Set up your Lumen project

Aug 19, 2026
Knowledge

Procedure Steps

Article updated: June 23, 2026

Set up your Lumen project

Lumen gives you access to a vast library of data sources, including online news, newsletters, podcasts, blogs, and more. However, to get social media mentions in your search results, you need to add one or more access tokens to your project to authorize Lumen to gather data from those platforms on your behalf, and then specify which Pages and profiles you want to monitor.

You must have Hootsuite administrator permissions to connect social accounts and add channels for monitoring.

This article describes the new Social OS experience. If you haven't switched yet, select the Classic tab for instructions. Learn more about the Social OS experience.

About access tokens and channel monitoring
Connect your social accounts
Add channels to monitor
Select data sources

About access tokens and channel monitoring

Lumen uses access tokens to gather social mentions from platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Access tokens can be your own or tokens from another user who has approved access to the social media platform for Hootsuite.

When you connect a social account to Lumen, a token is created that allows Hootsuite to access data from the social platform on your behalf.

Once you have connected your social accounts, you need to add channels to your Lumen project so that Hootsuite can monitor specific Pages for mentions that match your searches. For more information on the kind of data that Lumen collects, see Lumen data sources and social media coverage.

Keep the following requirements in mind for social media monitoring in Lumen:

Facebook: Your personal Facebook account must have full access rights to the public Facebook Page you want to monitor.
Instagram: The Instagram Business account you want to monitor must be linked to a public Facebook Page for which you have full access rights.
LinkedIn: You must have Super Admin access rights on the LinkedIn Company page you want to monitor.

Connect your social accounts

You must have Hootsuite administrator permissions and administrator permissions on the social account to connect it to Lumen.

Go to Lumen, and then select Settings .
Select the Connected Accounts tab.
Select the social media platform you want to add. You can select from the following platforms:
- Facebook and Instagram
- X
- LinkedIn
- Vimeo
- Threads
- TikTok
In the authentication window, enter your credentials to log in to the social platform.
Review and confirm the permissions that you are granting to Hootsuite on your behalf.
Note: It's important that you grant all permissions shown by the social platform to ensure that Hootsuite can retrieve the content you want to monitor. Hootsuite won't post or edit content, or access any of your personal information or conversations.
Once the platform authenticates your credentials, close the window.

Go to Listening and then select Settings .
Select the Connected Accounts tab.
Select the social media platform you want to add. You can select from the following platforms:
- Facebook and Instagram
- X
- LinkedIn
- Vimeo
- Threads
- TikTok
In the authentication window, enter your credentials to log in to the social platform.
Review and confirm the permissions that you are granting to Hootsuite on your behalf.
Note: It's important that you grant all permissions shown by the social platform to ensure that Hootsuite can retrieve the content you want to monitor. Hootsuite won't post or edit content, or access any of your personal information or conversations.
Once the platform authenticates your credentials, close the window.

Invite another user to authenticate a social account

If you don't have access to the social account that owns the Page you want to monitor, you can invite the account admin or another person with access to the account to authenticate for you, either by sharing a link with them or inviting them to authenticate the account by email.

For example, if you need insights from a client's Instagram page, you can ask them to generate an access token that allows you to collect data for them. They don't need to have Lumen to authenticate the social account. They can connect their account by following the instructions in the email or by clicking on the link you share with them.

Go to Lumen, and then select Settings.
Select the Connected Accounts tab, and then select Invitations.
Choose one or more platforms from the Social media channels list.
Choose the way you want to invite them to authenticate:
- By shared link: Select Generate a link. In the Generate a link window, select Copy link, then share the link with the person who can authenticate the account.
- By email: Enter an email subject, and one or more email addresses (separated by commas). Customize your message or use the default message, then select Send invitations.

Go to Listening and then select Settings.
Select the Connected Accounts tab, and then select Invitations.
Choose one or more platforms from the Social media channels list.
Choose the way you want to invite them to authenticate:
- By shared link: Select Generate a link. In the Generate a link window, select Copy link, then share the link with the person who can authenticate the account.
- By email: Enter an email subject, and one or more email addresses (separated by commas). Customize your message or use the default message, then select Send invitations.

Add channels to monitor

Add up to 100 channels to your Lumen project so that Hootsuite can gather mentions that match your topic from specific social accounts and Pages. You can add public Pages and accounts as well as Pages and accounts that you own.

The data available from the channel may vary depending on the social network and its specific restrictions. See Lumen data sources and social media coverage for more information.

Lumen uses its own Facebook catalog and Instagram catalog to automatically track Facebook and Instagram results that match your search queries. Lumen collects organic posts from public Facebook Pages, as well as public Instagram Business and Creator accounts, but does not collect comments or replies on those posts. If you want to monitor specific Facebook Pages or Instagram accounts, add them as channels.

The following table lists the types of channels you can monitor in Lumen.

Types of channels for monitoring in Listening
Channel type	Type of monitoring
Facebook	Public Facebook Pages.
Facebook Insights	Owned Facebook Pages for which you are an administrator.
Instagram	Public Instagram Business or Creator accounts or hashtags.
Instagram Insights	Owned Instagram Business or Creator accounts for which you are an administrator.
YouTube	Single video, videos from a specific channel, or results from a keyword search.
LinkedIn	Company Pages for which you Super Admin access rights.
TikTok Insights	Owned TikTok Business accounts and public TikTok hashtags.
Threads Insights	Owned Threads accounts for which you are an administrator.
Snapchat	Public Snapchat profiles (where data-sharing is enabled).
Pinterest	Account or board.
Vimeo	Single video, videos from an album, a channel, or a group, videos liked or uploaded by a specific user or in which that user appears, or results from a keyword search.

Add a channel

You must have Lumen administrator permissions to add channels. If you or someone on your team requires administrator permissions in Lumen, contact our Customer Support team for help.

Go to Lumen, and then select Settings.
Select the Public Channels tab, and then select Add a new channel.
In the Add a new channel window, select the type of social channel you want to monitor.
If there is no account for the social platform already connected to Lumen, you need to authenticate with the platform to add the channel. Select the authentication link to proceed.
For Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or TikTok, Lumen displays a list of owned accounts that the connected token(s) have access to. Select the channel you want to add from the list. Otherwise, enter the URL of the channel or video (for example, YouTube) you want to monitor, or enter a keyword or hashtag.
Select a channel in the Suggestions list, and then select Add channel.

Go to Listening, and then select Settings.
Select the Public Channels tab, and then select Add a new channel.
In the Add a new channel window, select the type of social channel you want to monitor.
If there is no account for the social platform already connected to Lumen, you need to authenticate with the platform to add the channel. Select the authentication link to proceed.
For Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or TikTok, Lumen displays a list of owned accounts that the connected token(s) have access to. Select the channel you want to add from the list. Otherwise, enter the URL of the channel or video (for example, YouTube) you want to monitor, or enter a keyword or hashtag.
Select a channel in the Suggestions list, and then select Add channel.

Set up TikTok hashtag monitoring

TikTok hashtag monitoring extends your TikTok Insights channel to ingest and monitor posts associated with brand and brand-related hashtags validated by TikTok.

Note: Make sure you have an active TikTok Business Account token connected to an Insights channel. The connected profile must be a Business Account correctly linked in TikTok Business Center.

Go to Project Settings, and then select Connected Accounts.
Select a TikTok account to open the Token Details page.
Select Add hashtags or Add branded hashtags , and then enter a hashtag to match it against the TikTok catalog. You can select up to 50 hashtags per TikTok business account from TikTok's validated hashtag list.
Tip: Branded hashtags must include the full business handle. Non-branded hashtags must appear in at least three posts published by the business account, or in at least three posts that mention the account.
Select Add to confirm your selection.

Go to Project Settings, and then select Connected Accounts.
Select a TikTok account to open the Token Details page.
Select Add hashtags or Add branded hashtags , and then enter a hashtag to match it against the TikTok catalog. You can select up to 50 hashtags per TikTok business account from TikTok's validated hashtag list.
Tip: Branded hashtags must include the full business handle. Non-branded hashtags must appear in at least three posts published by the business account, or in at least three posts that mention the account.
Select Add to confirm your selection.

Results can take up to 48 hours to appear after a hashtag is enabled. You cannot remove any hashtags until seven days after their initial configuration.

Select data sources

You can choose which media platforms to include or exclude from data from in your project.

Go to Lumen, and then select Settings.
Select the General Settings tab.
In the Project data criteria section, select Media Types, and then select the media types you want to include in results for your project.
Select Save to save your changes.

Go to Listening, and then select Settings.
Select the General Settings tab.
In the Project data criteria section, select Media Types, and then select the media types you want to include in results for your project.
Select Save to save your changes.

Learn more

Title

Set up your Lumen project

URL Name

set-up-listening