Your first Listening topic

This guide takes you from a few words to a topic that keeps listening. It uses a brand, Gymshark, but anything works: a product, a person, a campaign or a topic.

1. Open Listening

1. In the Social Fetch app, open Tools and choose Listening.
2. Click New topic.

2. Say what to listen for

1. Under Words or a query, type Gymshark.
2. Wait a moment. Under the box, it reads your query back in plain words ("Finds posts that mention "gymshark"") and shows a logo for each platform it can search, with Up to N credits: the most this preview can cost.

Not sure how to write it? Click Describe it and say what you want in plain words, such as complaints about Gymshark's sizing or delivery, then Write the query. It's free, and nothing is searched until you preview. Or start from one of the templates under Start from. Write your query explains phrases, OR, leaving words out and importing from another tool.

3. Choose the options (optional)

Click Options to see:

• Spend: the most credits this preview may use. 50 by default. A higher limit reads further back.
• Leave out: Job ads, Giveaways and contests and Crypto promotion and scams. Posts like these are dropped after the search, so they don't change the cost.
• Sentiment: positive, neutral or negative for each post, 1 credit per 10 posts, on top.
• Insights: sets aside posts that aren't about it, and flags what needs a reply or could hurt you, 1 credit per 10 posts, on top. Turning it on asks for About: the name and what it is, such as Gymshark, the UK gymwear brand, so it can tell the brand from the word. You can also ask up to three yes/no questions of your own, such as Does the post mention sizing?

4. Preview it

1. Click Preview posts. It searches every platform it can, which can take up to a minute.
2. Read the summary: how many posts it found, on which platforms, and what it cost. Unused credits aren't charged.
3. Scroll the posts, newest first. Use the platform tabs, Most reach (estimated) and the sentiment and insights filters to narrow them. Under Where it's said, each platform says how far its search got.

Read your results explains every part of the preview.

If the posts aren't what you meant, change the query and preview again. A query you've already previewed with the same settings isn't charged twice.

5. Keep listening

1. Click Keep listening (in the preview's summary, or Keep listening… under the query).
2. In the dialog:
   • Name: what to call the topic.
   • How often: from Every 15 minutes to Every week. Every 6 hours is the default.
   • up to N credits a run: the most each run may spend. Under it, At most N credits a month shows the most a month of runs can cost.
   • Leave out, Sentiment and Insights start as you set them for the preview.
3. Optionally, open More for an Alert (when it finds a number of posts in an hour or a day), a daily or weekly Briefing, a Webhook, and a Monthly cap on credits.
4. Click Save and run now.

The topic opens. Its first run starts straight away; Running now. Its matches appear here when it finishes. After that it runs on its schedule, and each run keeps only posts it hasn't seen before.

6. Come back to it

Your topics are listed on the Listening page, each with its posts over the last 14 days and anything that needs attention. A topic's page has:

• what needs attention: spikes, volume alerts, and, with insights, posts that need a reply or are a risk;
• Posts per day, Where it's said and Loudest voices (click one to see their posts);
• the Posts it kept and its Runs;
• Download, Settings, Run now and, under ⋯, Pause and Delete….