Tags save data. You create tags for your team and can choose which ones to add to your campaigns. Tags can be added to canned responses so that tag data automatically saves whenever the canned response is sent. They can be also added to a sidebar for texters to select and save manually.

When a conversation is tagged, the saved data will appear in your campaign data exports and on your campaign's data display page. You can also sync tags back to NGP VAN. 

Tagged conversations can be easily found within Spoke by using Message Review to filter to just tagged conversations or just specific tags. You can also remove tags from conversations in Message Review. 

How to create tags for your team

To create a new tag, select “Tags” in the left hand navigation bar on the admin side of Spoke. 

The “Tags” page can be found on the left-hand admin menu.

Note: Tags are team-specific. If your Spoke has multiple teams, you’ll need to create tags for each team.

From there, select the “Add New Tag” button.

To add a new tag, click the “Add New Tag” button on the “Tags” page.

Clicking the “Add New Tag” button will open a tag creation window.

 The tag creation window allows you to name your tag and customize its properties.

At minimum, you must give your tag a name. The name is what your texters will see and what will be saved in your campaign data exports. 

The only mandatory step to create a tag is to give it a name.

Click on the “Tag Name” field, then type in the name of your tag.

Type in the name of your tag in the “Tag Name” field.

Once your tag has a name, you will be able to select the “Create” button to save the tag.

Reassignment Protection (Optional)

For every tag you create, you have the option to enable “reassignment protection”. If you are using Assignment Management features in your campaign to manage replies, this feature may be useful to you.

Reassignment protection is a way to ensure that sensitive conversations are not automatically released or circulated to other texters when assignment management features are turned on. Basically, it's a way to make sure conversations needing special handling aren’t getting reassigned to texters without the context or ability to respond to them.  

When “reassignment protection” is enabled for a specific tag, conversations with that tag will not be affected by the “Release unhandled replies” feature. If the conversation is released by the texter or unassigned in Message Review, it will also be kept out of the pool of replies accessible to texters using the dynamic assignment link for replies. Reassignment protection does not affect your ability to reassign or unassign these conversations from Message Review.

To turn on reassignment protection for a tag, slide on the toggle at the bottom of the tag creation window.

Turn on reassignment protection using the toggle at the bottom of the tag window.

Spoke will show you which of your tags have reassignment protection enabled on the Tags page.

The tags table shows you which of your tags has reassignment protection enabled.

Map VAN statuses to tags

You can map tags to Survey Questions, Activist Codes, or Canvass Responses in My Campaign or My Voters from the "Tags" page. Whenever a campaign is connected to that VAN key, and the tag is applied in that campaign, the data you have mapped to the tag will automatically sync back to VAN. You also have the ability to override any default mappings on the campaign level, or to only map tags to VAN on a per-campaign basis.

Add an API Key to Spoke

Before you can map tags to VAN, you will first need to have added a VAN API key to your Spoke team. Read more about this step here.

Mapping tags to VAN on the Tags page

To create a default VAN mapping for a tag, click on the “VAN Integration” field of the tag creation window.

Click on the “VAN Integration” field to start the process of mapping a tag to a VAN status.

Next, select a VAN key. You will be setting the status you want the tag to map to whenever a campaign is connected to that particular key.

Select a VAN key from the dropdown menu. You can repeat this process for each key you have added to Spoke.

Next, click on the “Action” field. 

Click on the “Action” field to start the process of selecting a VAN status.

This will let you search for the status you want the tag to correspond to in VAN. Start typing into the field to begin your search.

When you type into the “Action” field, you will bring up matching statuses in VAN.

Select the status you want for your tag on that key.

After you select a VAN status from the dropdown for your search, it will appear in the “Action” field.

To add another default status for a different key, select “+ ADD A VAN INTEGRATION MAPPING”.

Click “Add a VAN Integration Mapping” to map the tag to a status on another key.

To add another key, click on the “VAN Integration” field.

Click on the “VAN Integration” field to access another key selection dropdown.

Select the key you want to use for the mapping from the dropdown.

Select the key you want to map to from the dropdown.

Then, repeat the process of typing into the “Action” field and selecting the status you want mapped from the dropdown.

Start typing, then select the status you want mapped from the dropdown.

Create campaign-specific VAN mappings

If you need to override a VAN mapping that you set on the “Tags” page, or if you want to add VAN mappings on a campaign-specific basis, you will do so in the campaign itself. Note that you can only map tags to VAN Event status in this manner. Read more about how to do this in the “Adding campaign-specific tags” section below.

Adding tags to canned responses (conversation tags)

What are conversation tags?

Conversation tags are tags added to canned responses to save data. When texters select a canned response that has had a tag attached, they will see the data that is being saved in the sidebar.

After a texter selects a tagged canned response, they’ll see the tag in the “Conversation Tags” sidebar.

When texters send the canned response, the data will be saved, and they will see the data they have saved in the “Conversation Tags” sidebar.

Conversation tags that have been saved appear in white.

How to tag a canned response

To enable conversation tags, go to the “Canned Responses” section of a campaign. 

Tagging a canned response is as easy as applying the tags you want to be saved when that canned response is sent. Go to the canned response, then start typing in the “Apply tags” field. 

To add a tag to a canned response, start typing in the “Apply tags” field, then select the tag from the dropdown.

Select the tag you want from the dropdown menu. You can add as many tags to a canned response as you like, following the same principles: type in the name of the tag, then select it from the dropdown. You can also remove tags by clicking the “x” next to the tag.

Example of a canned response with more than one tag.

To save the canned response, hit “Save”. 

Note: You must create tags in advance on the “Tags” page in order to add them to a canned response. Tags cannot be added to canned responses using the Google Doc upload feature; they must be added in the “Canned Responses” section of the campaign.

Adding campaign-specific tags (manual tags)

What are manual tags?

Manual tags are campaign-specific tags that texters can click to save data manually. In Spoke, they are often used to track conversations that need additional attention. 

When manual tags are enabled for a campaign, texters will see them in the “Manual Tags” section of the sidebar. 

When a texter clicks on a manual tag, they will get visual feedback showing they have selected it, in the form of a checkmark in the tag.

Manual tags that have been clicked appear with a checkmark next to them, but remain gray until they have been saved.

Texters can click “Save Manual Tags” to save the tags they have selected, or choose to navigate away and not save the tags they clicked. When a manual tag is saved, it appears to the texter in white.

When a manual tag has been saved, it turns white.

When to use manual tags 

Manual tags are commonly used for three reasons: 

• to let texters mark conversations that need additional attention, 

• to sync tags to a VAN Event status or create campaign-specific VAN mappings for tags, 

• to save data without using scripts.

Marking conversations needing additional attention: A good use case for manual tags is a conversation that needs to be moved to a specific person or team. Let’s say you have a conversation that has to be handled by a staffer, or Spanish speaker, or a voter protection team. By having texters add a manual tag to a conversation, you ensure that conversation won’t get lost in the shuffle. Tagged conversations can easily be found in Message Review and then moved to the right person.

Syncing to VAN Event statuses or creating campaign-specific VAN mappings: Currently, the only way to sync a tag to a VAN event status is to add it to the campaign and map it to the VAN Event status from the campaign. Similarly, if you want to override a VAN mapping you set for a tag on the “Tags” page, or create a campaign-specific VAN mapping for a tag, you need to enable manual tags. Note that you can add any tag with campaign-specific mapping to a canned response, but it will also appear as a Manual Tag to the texter.

Saving data without scripts: Manual tags allow you to save data without having to select and send a script, or hit close and save on a script (the two ways to save data when using branched scripts or tagged canned responses). 

Enabling manual tags for a campaign

To make manual tags available in a campaign, head to that campaign’s creation / edit screen and select the “Texter Sidebar”. Next, toggle on “Enable manual tags”. 

To enable manual tags, and to set up campaign-specific VAN mapping, click on “Enable Manual Tags” .

Then select “Allowed tags for campaign”.

Select “Allowed tags for campaign” to open a dropdown menu.

This will open a dropdown where you can select the tags you want to enable for your campaign. Select “All tags” to add every tag as a manual tag to your campaign, or click on specific tags to add just those tags as manual tags.

Click on the tags you want to add from the dropdown. You can select as many tags as you like, or select “All Tags” to add them all.

Adding campaign-specific VAN mappings

Once you have selected tags from the “Allowed tags for campaign” dropdown, you can begin creating campaign-specific mappings to VAN. Click “Add New Tag Action Handler” to get started.

Click “Add New Tag Action Handler” to start creating campaign-specific VAN mappings for tags.

This will open a screen where you can select a tag to be mapped to a VAN status. Click on the “Tag that triggers the action” field.

To start the process of mapping a tag to VAN on a campaign-specific basis, click the “Tag that triggers the action” field.

Next, select the tag you want to map from the dropdown. Note that you will only be able to select tags you have enabled for the campaign in the “Allowed tags for the campaign” section above.

Select the tag you want from the dropdown.

After selecting the tag you want to map, click on the “Action Handler” field.

Click on the “Action Handler” field to open a dropdown.

Next, select whether you want to map the tag to NGP VAN Action (survey question, canvass response, or activist code) or to NGP VAN Event (a status for an event you have connected to the campaign).

Click on the “Action Handler” field to open a dropdown.

After making your selection, you will get a new field called “Tag Action Data”. 

The “Tag Action Data” field lets you type to search for the exact status you want to map.

Click this field and start typing to bring up statuses you can map to the tag.

Example of statuses brought up for a VAN Event.

Select the status you want the tag to map to for this campaign. Then, click “Add Action” to save your mapping.

Click “Add Action” to save your mapping.

You can add as many campaign-specific mappings to your tags as you like by clicking “Add New Tag Action Handler” and following the same steps. Keep in mind that mutually exclusive mappings (i.e. two different answers to the same survey question) will cancel each other out, i.e. only one of the mappings will save. 

To delete a campaign-specific VAN mapping for a tag, click the trash can icon next to the mapping.

Example of a campaign-specific VAN mapping for a tag. The trash can icon can be used to delete the mapping.

Reporting on tags

Spoke provides reporting about your tag usage in several places.

Campaign data display

When tags have been applied to conversations, you'll see a report on that campaign's data display page.

 Image displaying the tags report for a campaign. 

Data exports

When you export your data, each of your tags will have its own data column. If the tag was applied to a conversation, Spoke will record a “Y” (Yes) in that contact’s row.

Example of tags data in a campaign’s data export.

Searching for and deleting tags in Spoke

To find and manage tagged conversations within Spoke, you’ll use Message Review. This is also where you can delete tags from conversations in Spoke. Texters cannot delete tags they have saved, so if you want to remove a tag from a conversation, you’ll also use Message Review.

Note: deleting a tag from Spoke will delete it from your campaign data exports, but it is not possible to clear a status that has already been applied in VAN.

To search for tagged conversations, click the Tags dropdown, which is set by default to “IGNORE TAGS”. You can choose to filter to just conversations with tags (“ANY TAG”) or just conversations without tags (“NO TAGS”), or you can narrow your search to specific tags in your list by clicking on as many as you like.

Example of the tags filter in Message Review.

Once you’ve narrowed your search for tagged conversations, those conversations will appear in the list at the bottom of the page.

Example of a tagged conversation viewed in Message Review.

You’ll see the tag(s) on the conversation. To remove a tag, click the “x” on the tag. 

You can also remove tags by clicking on the conversation to view it. Click the “x” next to the tag to remove it.

Click the “x” next to a tag in Message Review to delete it.