Note: This post was last updated March 2018, and is intended for members of the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN), the Local Independent Online News Publishers (LION), the Detroit Journalism Cooperative and NJ News Commons organizations under a Knight Foundation-supported program to enhance the social media skills of small, independent and nonprofit news organizations. The program is being coordinated by the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University.

CrowdTangle is a social media analysis tool that allows publishers to track a variety of metrics, discover trending content, benchmark themselves against competitors and more. It is owned by Facebook. Access is granted on a per-company/user basis.

News organizations must apply to get full access to CrowdTangle, which will include custom dashboards as well as the ability to add other staff members and spin up additional dashboards.

So how do you get access?

As of March 2018, CrowdTangle doesn’t take in requests through its main page  — news publishers should apply through our program with INN, LION, the Detroit Journalism Cooperative and NJ News Commons. Details are below.

Also please note that once you apply, there may be a delay until you get access; the process isn’t instantaneous, as there are staffers who work on each request individually. So we can’t tell you exactly when you’ll get that magic email telling you you’re in, but as long as you follow the steps below, you’ll be in the queue!

1. Get access to the media partner support portal. If you don’t already have access, request it by contacting Stefanie Murray at [email protected]. After we verify you’re a member of one of our organizations, we’ll get you the correct info to apply.
2. Once you’re in the portal, you will apply for CrowdTangle access there. If you don’t see how to apply for access, email Stefanie at [email protected] and she will help. (The form has been changing somewhat recently.)
3. In the meantime, use the free Chrome extension for CrowdTangle: https://www.crowdtangle.com/resources/chrome_extension_faq
4. Also consider doing some of the CrowdTangle training: http://www.crowdtangle.com/resources
5. Check out this CrowdTangle optimization playbook; it has valuable resources on how you can best use the platform.

If you have any questions, let us know! Email [email protected].

About the Center for Cooperative Media: The Center is a grant-funded program of the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University. The Center is supported with funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and Democracy Fund. Its mission is to grow and strengthen local journalism, and in doing so serve New Jersey residents. For more information, visit CenterforCooperativeMedia.org.