A Social Network field holds links to social media profiles: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. Think of the row of social icons on a contact card.

Here is the test: is the answer an account on one of those four networks? If yes, you want a Social Network field. For any other web address, use a Link field.

Example: a Vendors table with a field called Vendor Social Profiles. Each vendor record carries the accounts the security team watches for outage and breach notices, so nobody hunts for them during an incident.

The Vendor Social Profiles field in a vendor record, with the Facebook and Twitter rows filled in as blue links and the LinkedIn row empty.

The field settings panel opens. It has two tabs: Settings and Help Text. The rest of this article takes them in that order. Save at any point with Add Field (or Update Field on a field that already exists).

The field settings panel, Settings tab, with the Display Format preview, the four network checkboxes and the Require switch.

The Settings tab holds the preview, the list of networks and one rule. Top to bottom: Display Format, Select Social Networks and Options.

A preview box that shows the icons of the networks you have selected, in order. There is nothing to choose here; it updates as you check and uncheck networks below.

Four checkboxes with their brand icons, all on to start: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Linkedin (the product's spelling). At least one must stay on.

Uncheck a network and its icon leaves the preview and its row leaves every record. Links already saved for that network are kept, hidden until you check it again. A network checked again goes to the end of the order.

For Vendor Social Profiles, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn stay on. Instagram is off, because the security team does not watch it.

Require an entry in this field. Off to start. The field shows a REQUIRED label, and a record cannot be saved until every network that is turned on has a link. The message reads "Social Network is required".

A note for the person filling in the record, up to 800 characters. Help Text Appearance shows it As A Tooltip (the default, behind an info icon next to the field name) or Below The Field Name (always visible).

Write it for someone who has never seen the field. For Vendor Social Profiles: "Type the account name only, not the full address. LinkedIn takes a person's profile; put the company page in the Website field."

Field Permissions. Every field can carry its own permissions, which control who can see the field and who can edit it. Open the column menu and select Edit Field Permissions. Let Security set Vendor Social Profiles while everyone else reads it. See Field Permissions.

Dynamic Record Permissions. A Social Network field can also drive record-level rules: who can see or edit a record based on the value it holds. Every field type except Button can drive a rule. See Dynamic Record Permissions.

Once records are filled in, the field puts every vendor's accounts one click away.

In Grid View, a cell shows the four icons in gray. Select the cell and press Enter to open the editor. It has one row per network with a fixed prefix: facebook.com/, @ for Twitter, a username for Instagram and linkedin.com/in/. Type only the account part, such as smartsuite, and select Done. The icons of the networks with a link turn to their brand colors; the x on a row clears it. In a record, the same rows sit under the field name, and a filled row shows as a blue link. The field stores the account name only; the link is built from it, and a Twitter link opens on x.com.

The grid cell editor open, with one row per network, the fixed prefixes and the Done button.

Copying the field copies the full address of each link, with several separated by commas.

The operators are contains, does not contain, is empty and is not empty. Contains and does not contain search the text of every link in the field, and is empty and is not empty test the whole field. The menu also offers is and is not, which test whether a given network is filled in.

The column menu offers Group by this Field. Each group holds the records with the same set of networks filled in, so Facebook alone is one group and Facebook and Instagram another.

Sort A → Z or Z → A from the column menu. The sort joins the links in the field into one text and orders it as a Text field would.

A Lookup shows the account names, joined with commas, not the full addresses.

A formula reads the account names, joined with commas: smartsuite, smartsuite for a Twitter name and a LinkedIn name.

The field is not offered to automations. Update records and Create a record do not take it as an input, and a trigger does not pass it on.

A Social Network field cannot be placed on a form.

Change a link in one record. Open the editor from the cell or the record, change the account part and select Done. The x on a row clears that network only.

Turn a network off. Open Modify Field Settings, uncheck the network, then Update Field. Its row disappears from every record. The links are kept and come back when the network is checked again.

Change the field type. A Social Network field can become a Text, Text Area, SmartDoc or Link field only. Changed to Text, each record holds its full addresses separated by commas. See Changing a Field's Type.

Last verified 30 Oct 2026.