Write your Listening query
How to write what Listening listens for: words, phrases, OR, leaving words out, hashtags, accounts, languages and more; importing a query from Brandwatch, Talkwalker, Meltwater, Onclusive or X; and letting AI write it from a description.
A query says what to listen for. The simplest is a word, such as Gymshark. As you type, Listening reads it back in plain words and shows which platforms can search it, so you can see what it will do before you spend anything. Checking a query is free.
The basics
| You type | It finds posts that… |
|---|---|
Gymshark | say "gymshark", in any case |
"Gymshark Vital" | say that exact phrase |
Gymshark leggings or Gymshark AND leggings | say both, anywhere in the post |
Gymshark OR YoungLA | say either one |
Gymshark -jobs or Gymshark NOT jobs | say "gymshark" but not "jobs" |
(Gymshark OR YoungLA) AND review | group with brackets |
#gymshark | use the hashtag |
@gymshark | are by the account or mention it |
gym* | have a word starting with "gym"; te?m matches one character |
lang:es Gymshark | are in one language |
AND, OR and NOT must be in capitals: a lower-case or is just a word. When a query mixes AND and OR at the same level, add brackets, because tools read that differently: it says so and won't search until you do.
The Query tips link under an empty box shows these examples in the app.
More precise queries
| You type | It means |
|---|---|
"Gymshark sizing"~5 | all the words, in any order, with at most 5 other words among them |
Gymshark NEAR/3 sizing | within 3 words, either order; ONEAR/3 keeps the order. Up to 50 |
{AMP} | exactly this case |
title:(review) / text:(review) | only in a post's title, or only in its text |
country:gb | posts from a country, where the platform says |
platform:reddit | posts on one platform |
author:gymshark / mention:gymshark | posts by an account, or mentioning it |
type:reply | a kind of post: post, reply, repost, quote or comment |
verified:true | by verified accounts |
site:gymshark.com / url:gymshark.com/sale | posts linking to a site or address |
followers:>10000 | by accounts with more than 10,000 followers |
likes:>=100, views:1000..50000 | posts with that many likes, views, comments or shares |
A query can be up to 8,192 characters, with up to 500 terms.
Some platforms don't return everything a query can check, such as a post's language. A post whose match depends on something missing still shows, marked Might match, with what couldn't be checked. See Read your results.
Fewer posts that aren't about it
A word like "notion", "jaguar" or "apple" has other meanings. To keep your results about the brand:
- Pair the name with words only the brand's posts use:
Notion AND (app OR workspace OR template). - Leave out the meanings you don't want:
Jaguar -(animal OR zoo OR Jacksonville). - Use the brand's account or hashtag:
@NotionHQ OR #notionapp. - Turn on Insights: it judges each post against what the topic is about and sets aside those that aren't, with a count, so nothing is lost. See Sentiment and insights.
Under Options, Leave out drops Job ads, Giveaways and contests and Crypto promotion and scams. Leave crypto off for a crypto brand: its own posts can read as promotion.
Import a query from another tool
- Choose Paste from another tool.
- Paste the query from Brandwatch, Talkwalker, Meltwater, Onclusive or X advanced search.
- Written for starts on Detect it, which works out which tool it's from and says so, such as "Read as Brandwatch, from NEAR/5f". If it guessed wrong, choose the tool.
Each part of the query is translated exactly, as an equivalent, as an approximation, or not at all (unsupported), and the read-back says which. A part that can't be searched here is never silently dropped.
There's also a free Boolean query translator, which converts a query between these tools without searching.
Describe it and let AI write it
- Click Describe it.
- Say what you want to hear about in plain words, such as people complaining about Monzo's app being down. Up to 2,000 characters. Starter descriptions help if you're not sure where to begin.
- Optionally, under Show it real posts, paste posts it Should find and posts it Should leave out, up to 5 of each.
- Click Write the query. It writes the query and reads it back to you. If it isn't right, use Refine with AI (also leave out job ads), or edit the query yourself.
Describe it is free. Nothing is searched until you preview. It also suggests what each platform should search when a name is ambiguous.
Choose what each platform searches
Click Up to N credits under the query to see how each platform searches it:
- X and Reddit search the whole query at once.
- YouTube, TikTok and LinkedIn search its terms, a search each.
- Instagram searches each term as a hashtag.
- Threads searches each term as plain words.
- Hacker News searches titles, links and text.
Every post found is then checked against your whole query, so a platform searching only your terms never adds posts that don't match.
If the automatic searches aren't right for a platform, such as #fetch on Instagram for Social Fetch, edit them: remove one, add your own with + search (or + #tag on Instagram), or go back with Use automatic. A platform can have up to 10 searches of up to 200 characters. Your searches change only what's searched, never what counts as a match, and a topic keeps them.
Your first topic
Write what to listen for, preview the posts it finds, and save it as a topic that keeps listening on a schedule, step by step in the Social Fetch app.
Read your results
What each part of a Listening preview and a topic's page means: the summary, each platform's note, filters, reach, grouped reposts, posts that might match, spikes, volume alerts, briefings and runs.