Idea Details

I agree this process needs better default matching to contact and/or account records.

Alright we shall attempt that, although for what it seems contact is required field on object Social Persona.
Which means for example we would have at least first contact per channel:
1. Eddie Cliff Post, Persona and Contact from tweet
2. Eddie Cliff Post, Persona and Contact from facebook
3. Eddie Cliff Post, Persona and Contact instagram
etc
So that a manual match with a real contact record, deletion of empty contact records by system admin only as is an orphan (no account) which doesnt follow SF best practices.

Just highlightinig here is very cumbersome and either with "Unknown Social Contact" you will have to have a "Unknown Social Account" the whole thing needs rethinking as generates empty records, bad data, redundant records, unecessary use of storage, confusion, manual process (and margin of error), and doesn't follow Salesforce best practices (orphan contacts).

It is great to hear there is some thinking around it, and happy to support of course as I feel by now well invested into this connector :)

If you customize the apex like I'm suggesting, then SCS will never create a new Contact record. Either the Social Persona already exists, and the Social Post is associated with the existing Social Persona and Contact, or the Social Persona does not exist, at which point the Social Persona is created and linked to the catch-all contact which is "Unknown Social Contact" in my example.

Thanks Eddie for more notes on this. Some more clarifications hope it helps:

- There is no need for the contact record to be created in the first place.
- Better than expect a manual contact reallocation
- as well to the duplication of contacts per each social handler/channel.
- Especially reallocation of an orphan contact which is not following Salesforce best practices and 
- hidden from all users except their owner and system administrators.

So am I correct to believe even on customizing the default apex class we can't avoid the contact create? as is required by the personal?

For clarity, I don't think there is an issue with the way data flows to/from Social Studio and Service Cloud. The idea being described here is ultimately a change to how our default apex works for all inbound social posts, which is covered in detail in the implementation guide, so I won't go into that here. 

A lot of customers prefer the way the default apex currently works, and many similar to yourself would prefer the apex to function another way on contact creation. This is true for many scenarios, which is why we offer the ability to customize the apex.

What I described in my previous comment is in the future, to prevent users from having to customize the apex, I want to provide a setup option to select the preferred method.

What I have seen some customers customize within the apex to acheive the desired result of no duplicate/orphaned contacts is the following:
 1. Create a placeholder Contact record, e.g. "Unknown Social Contact"
 2. Alter SCS apex to parent new Social Personas to "Unknown Social Contact" instead of creating a new contact
 3. Agent sees Contact as 'Unknown Social Contact", determines the correct contact and reparents

Advantages:
1. No new contacts are created by SCS
2. A single Contact can be used to group all unparented Social Personas

Disadvantages:
1. If a contact does need to be created, this will be manual
2. Possible to end up with many Social Personas under "Unknown Social Contact" because agents aren't reparenting correctly

Hi Eddie, great to hear there has been some thinking around it. Personally I see the reason for a Social Persona as is the junction object from an individual and multiple handlers.
Now the issue discribed here are Orphan Contacts which goes against Salesforce best practices. And most likely organizations already have that contact record, no need for duplicate empty contact and the pilaba that brings.

I love this Idea, and have been thinking through some possible solutions over the last few months. The way the dewfault apex works today has been in place for a few years now.

I'm thinking about an option in Social Business Rules that allows users to select a preference on whether or not to create a new Contact or Person Account when a new Social Persona is created. This would also remove the requirement for a Social Persona to have a parent record... which could lead to orphand Social Personas. Curious on the community's thoughts here if this would help solve the challenge you face today.

This is one of the many issues with the MC <> SFDC integrations. These should not be 'ideas' - they should be already on the roadmap internally and shared with current customers (at least). 

this is a paid product, right?  from salesforce?  this is not the level of 'integration' one would expect from a paid native product.  

great idea

Great One.

Great idea Ines!