Real-time alerts

What is a real-time alert? 

A real-time alert is a type of alert that is triggered by parameters that you set in Spike. It can be sent directly to your inbox or shared with a Slack channel or user of your choice. For more on the delivery method, see our article on it here.

Setting up a real-time alert

To set up a real-time alert, click on the three dots in the top-right corner of the widget you want alerts from, hover over alerts, and select ‘new alert’.

This will open a pop-up that guides you through setting up an alert, where the real-time option is the default, so ensure that it remains selected.

You’ll then have three kinds of real-time alerts to choose from — popular articles, every article, or custom threshold.

Popular articles 

The first option is popular articles. If you select this option, our system will notify you of the breaking news articles that we think you won’t want to miss.

To select popular articles, click the first option in the pop-up and then hit save. 

If you’d prefer to rely on your own parameters, you can do that by selecting ‘every article’ or ‘custom threshold’. 

Every article

If you want to receive an alert every time an article or post that matches your search is published, you should select the ‘when any article is published’ option. 

This option is best for searches that have a low volume of results so as not to overwhelm your inbox. When you select this option, we’ll tell you how many articles matched your search in the last 24 hours so you can get a sense of how many alerts you would receive.

If you have a more high-volume search, you may want to set a custom threshold alert.

Custom threshold 

Custom threshold alerts allow you to set up an alert for whenever an article reaches a level of interaction, velocity, or is predicted to hit a level of interaction. 

To set a custom threshold alert, select the ‘when an article reaches a custom threshold alert’

You’ll then be able to choose which type of metric will trigger your alert from the dropdown menu.

Total interactions alerts

The simplest form of threshold alert is when a total level of interaction is reached. 

You’ll then be able to type in the level of interactions at which you want an alert to be triggered, and after how much time the level would have to be reached to trigger the alert. 

When you type it into the box, our system will let you know how many articles reached that threshold in the last 24 hours, so you can see approximately how frequently the alert would be triggered.

Velocity alerts

Another option for custom alerts is velocity. 

You’ll then be able to type in the velocity at which you want an alert to be triggered, and after how much time the level would have to be reached to trigger the alert. 

When you type it into the box, our system will let you know how many articles reached that threshold in the last 24 hours, so you can see approximately how frequently the alert would be triggered.

Predicted interactions alerts 

Our final option here is predicted interactions. This uses our predictive technology to tell you as soon as we predict an article or post to go above a certain level of interaction.

You’ll then be able to type in the level of interactions at which you want an alert to be triggered, and after how much time the level would have to be reached to trigger the alert. 

When you type it into the box, our system will let you know how many articles reached that threshold in the last 24 hours, so you can see approximately how frequently the alert would be triggered.

Let’s now take a look at scheduled alerts.