Social listening provides brands with detailed, real-time data for performance measurement, competitor benchmarking, campaign planning, and consumer insights.
But there is just so much data. Simple keyword search can get messy. Valuable insights can be drowned out by the noise.
Boolean operators are the solution to getting cleaner, more precise data for more actionable insights. These simple pre-defined terms let you build a complex search for exactly the data you need from social listening based on simple, clear logic.
What are Boolean search operators?
Boolean search operators are simple words or symbols (like AND, OR, and NOT) that you can use to build smarter, more precise social listening queries.
Using Boolean operators (rather than just keywords or simple phrases) helps you get more specific social listening results. Instead of pulling in every result that includes a term, Boolean operators narrow the scope of your search by telling your social listening tool exactly what you do — and don’t — want to see. They filter out irrelevant content so you can spend less time digging through noise and more time finding the insights that actually matter.
3 key Boolean operators for social listening
AND
AND is a Boolean search operator that helps you narrow your results. This is especially important for brands like Apple and Amazon that have names that can be used in contexts that have nothing to do with the company.
It can also be used to help you focus your results on a specific product line.
For example, Apple might start a social listening query about its computer division with a search like this:
You can add as many ANDs as you need, but remember that search will only return results that include all of the keywords you specify with AND. The more ANDs you use, the fewer results you will get.
OR
Of course, when Apple is looking for results about its computers, it has to consider the different ways people talk about those products. This is where the OR operator comes in. It’s a Boolean expression that helps you expand your search.
So, for example, a more advanced search for results relating to Apple computers might look like this:
As you can see, this query provides far more search results.
NOT
The Boolean operator NOT is another way to narrow your search results. It is very helpful for reducing noise and irrelevant results. For example, let’s say Apple wants to capture any results that mention the brand, without specifying any keywords about a particular product line (like computers, phones, Apple Music, Apple Watch, etc.).
They obviously can’t just search for Apple. Instead, they can use NOT to filter out results that are not relevant.
With all of these logical operators, you can refine your search queries over time to make them increasingly relevant.
Advanced Boolean operators for more precise queries
NEAR
Known as a proximity operator, NEAR searches for mentions of one term near another. This can help you narrow your database search by providing some context without having to match an exact phrase.
Let’s revisit the example of the query “Apple AND computer”. It would return posts like this, which have nothing to do with Apple computers:
Adding “NOT podcasts” to the query would be one way to reduce results like these. But that only addresses one potential source of irrelevant results. You would still get matches like this one:
Using NEAR helps you ensure there’s a real connection between two words. The top results with this query are reviews of the new Mac Mini.
You can specify how many words apart you want your query terms to be by adding a number. The smaller the number, the closer the references will be, and the fewer results you’ll get.
Note: NEAR doesn’t depend on order, so you will get "Apple near computer" (like the first result) and "computer near Apple" (like the second one).
ONEAR
ONEAR is another proximity operator, but it uses a specified order. So it will find mentions of Apple near computer, but only when Apple comes first. It would find the first result above, but not the second one.
Just like NEAR, you can specify how far apart your search terms can be.
Wildcards (* and ?)
Apple is a pretty easy brand name to spell. So is Talkwalker. But what about a brand name like Fjällräven? Odds are, not every post about this company will spell their name right. Fortunately, the special characters are not a concern, so a search for Fjallraven will work just fine. But Fjalraven or Fjallraaven would get missed.
You could try to include all common spelling variations in your query, but there are a lot of possible permutations and you would very likely miss some.
Instead, you can use the wildcard operators * and ?.
Here’s how they work:
- Adding an asterisk (*) at the end of a word finds all variations of that word. So, including “Fja*” in your query would find Fjallraven, Fjalraven, Fjaalraaven, etc. However, as this is a common beginning for Swedish words, you would need to use the other operators to narrow your query.
- The ? has a similar use, but it replaces exactly one character. This is especially useful for words spelled differently in British and American English, like apologi?e, paraly?e, defen?e (or Heinz Beans/Beanz).
Quotation marks " "
When you put quotation marks around a search phrase, you will only get results for that exact phrase. If you don’t use quotation marks, you get any results that include the various words in the phrase.
“Apple computer” is not a great option, since people are not likely to use that specific phrase in their natural speech. But they are likely to use specific phrases for other product lines, like “Apple Watch” or “Apple Music.”
Searching Apple Watch without the quotation marks can return results like this:
Using quotation marks resolves that issue.
Parentheses ( )
Parentheses allow you to combine all the other operators together in one complex search string.
In the above example, you’re searching for content that refers to:
- Apple or Mac or Macbook
- Within seven words of reference to a computer, laptop, or notebook, or the plurals of these, or computing (and other variations, like computes)
- But does not refer to a podcast or podcasts or Apple Music.
Raw data search (+)
We mentioned above that special characters like accents don’t matter for search queries. That’s generally a good thing, as you can’t count on people to use them when talking about your brand, even if you’d like them too.
That said, if you’d like to find only search results that do use the accents in your brand name, or any other special characters (@,#, $, -,+, and &) or punctuation, you can use Raw Data Search.
Raw Data Search looks for an exact sequence of characters, including special characters. To use it, add the + symbol before your keyword and enclose your keyword in quotes.
For example, +"l'oréal" will find results respecting the apostrophe and accent.
If you also want your search to be case-sensitive, use ++ before your search query. For example, ++"L'Oréal" will return results respecting the apostrophe and accent as well as the capital letters L and O.
Similar (~)
If you want to search for similar keywords, use the tilde (~) followed by the number of letters of variation you’ll accept (~X). For instance, the search query Fjallraven~2 will find results where people got close on the brand name but were off by up to two characters.
If you want to search for phrases up to four words that may contain a hyphen, space, or other special character, use the tilde (~) after your phrase in quotation marks. The tilde symbol (~) is for phrases with a maximum of 4 words.
For example, the search query “Haagen Dazs"~ will find results for haagendazs, Haagen-Dazs, Haagen Dazs, etc.
authordescription:
This can be a particularly useful operator if you’re looking for influencers or creators to partner with. It will match results only from authors who have the specified term in their bio.
Try adding the following onto your search to identify relevant creators:
How to use Boolean operators for efficient social listening
Brand reputation management
Boolean queries can help you surface social intelligence related to your brand reputation. This is a good early warning system to help you get out in front of any emerging brand crises. Even when no crisis is brewing, keeping an eye on your reputation is an important way to make sure nothing slips through the cracks.
Here is a sample Boolean search statement to help you find social content related to your brand reputation:
("Your Brand" OR YourBrand OR @YourBrand OR “CEO name”) AND (reputation OR trust OR "brand image" OR credib* OR "public opinion" OR "brand value" OR “brand image” OR “public opinion” OR scandal OR controversy OR fraud OR scam* OR complain* OR review* OR recommend* OR feedback OR "customer service" OR ethic* OR transparen* OR responsib* OR values OR loyal* OR respect OR boycott OR lawsuit OR "PR crisis" OR "bad press" OR fake OR mislead* OR "do better")
If you have launched a new product, undergone a significant change, or made any recent announcements, you could add specific keywords to track responses to those developments. For example, you might want to add “layoffs” or “merger” to the query if either situation applies. At earnings report time, you might want to add “earnings”.
The wildcards here make sure you capture terms like “credible” and “credibility”; “recommend,” “recommends,” “recommendation,” etc.
When relevant, you could also add keywords related to external or industry events that could impact your brand reputation, such as “climate change” or “sustainability.”
Competitive intelligence
If you want a full picture of your competitors’ brand reputation, you could use exactly the same query as above, just replacing your brand and CEO names with theirs. This is a good exercise to undertake from time to time, but for ongoing research, you’ll likely want a more focused approach.
The query below includes search terms related to market intelligence to surface competitor news and insights that you can use to drive your own strategy. Rather than monitoring their overall reputation, you’re looking for strategic insights and upcoming events that you’ll need to respond to.
("Competitor A" OR CompetitorA OR @CompetitorA OR "Competitor B" OR CompetitorB OR @CompetitorB) AND (launch OR "new product" OR innovat* OR update OR expan* OR acqui* OR partner* OR collaborat* OR fund* OR IPO OR hir* OR "market share" OR pricing OR discount OR promot* OR campaign OR review* OR "customer feedback" OR complain* OR strategy OR vision OR grow* OR trend*)
Again, wildcards help capture variations like “expand,” “expansion,” “expanding,” etc.
If you want to include sentiment signals to see how the market feels about your competitors’ moves, you could add the following to the query above:
AND (love OR hate OR disappointed OR excited)
Or, you could use Talkwalker’s built-in sentiment analysis and add the following instead:
AND (sentiment:positive OR sentiment:negative)
Campaign performance analysis
To measure the impact of a specific campaign, you’ll need to add in the relevant hashtag or keywords specific to the campaign.
This query is designed to capture the conversation about and perceptions of the campaign itself:
("Your Brand" OR YourBrand OR @YourBrand OR "#YourHashtag" OR "Your slogan" OR “campaign keyword”) AND ((campaign OR ad* OR promo* OR post OR video OR launch OR activation OR event OR experience OR influencer) OR (love OR hate OR amaz* OR disappoint* OR review* OR feedback OR result* OR succe* OR fail* OR impact OR trend*))
Again here, you could use Talkwalker’s sentiment operators instead of love/hate/amazing/disappointed:
AND (sentiment:positive OR sentiment:negative)
If you’d prefer to simply measure sentiment around the campaign, you could use a much simpler query:
("Your Brand" OR YourBrand OR @YourBrand OR "#YourHashtag" OR "Your slogan" OR “campaign keyword”) AND (sentiment:positive OR sentiment:negative OR sentiment:neutral)
Market and consumer insights
You can use social listening in a couple of different ways to gather market and consumer insights. The first is to let consumers tell you exactly what they think about you, your competitors, and your industry, as well as what they are looking for. Here’s a Boolean search query to capture these kinds of insights:
("Your Brand" OR YourBrand OR @YourBrand OR "Competitor A" OR CompetitorA OR @CompetitorA OR "Competitor B" OR CompetitorB OR @CompetitorB OR "category keyword" OR "industry keyword") AND (need OR want OR "looking for" OR prefer* OR recommend* OR choose OR buy OR purchas* OR switch OR tried OR avoid OR like OR dislike OR love OR hate OR review* OR experienc* OR feedback OR complain* OR satisf* OR frustrat* OR expensive OR cheap OR afford* OR "value for money" OR quality OR service OR trend* OR demand OR wish OR hope OR "waiting for" OR "should make")
Another option is to use social listening to find secondary data related to your industry or your target market. In this case, you would use demographic keywords combined with market research terms. For example:
("Gen Z" or "Generation Z") AND ("market insight*" OR "consumer insight*" OR "market trend*" OR "consumer behavior" OR "market research" OR "consumer preference*" OR "market analysis" OR "consumer feedback" OR "market demand" OR "consumer needs” OR OR "buying behavior" OR "shopping behavior" OR "purchase behavior")
How Talkwalker simplifies Boolean queries
If all of this feels a little overwhelming, the good news is that Talkwalker can build sophisticated Boolean queries for you based on your specific social listening goals.
There are a couple of ways to go about this.
AI Query Builder for automated query creation
Rather than typing your full Boolean query into Talkwalker’s search bar, click the AI Query builder button.
Provide the relevant information about what you’re looking for from your social listening query. You can specify products or campaigns, or specific issues, like customer complaints.
For example, you could ask the Query builder to look specifically for results relating to the release of the new Mac Mini.
Talkwalker automatically creates the following query:
Looking at the results, there’s a clear spike around the date of the release announcement in late October.
Quick Search to test and refine queries in real time
It can be tricky to get your Boolean query right on the first try. Talkwalker’s Quick Search gives you real-time results for any query, so you can refine your keywords and operators until you get the results you’re looking for.
You can use the Compare function at the top of the screen to test variations in your query and see which returns more relevant results.
Keep testing, refining, and comparing until you get the results that are most useful to you.
Tip: As you write your query, Talkwalker will flag any errors in the Boolean logic, so you know your queries will always function as intended.
Yeti AI Assistant to build queries through natural language
You can ask Yeti just about anything related to social listening or Boolean operators to get a full, easy-to-understand explanation. You can even get the AI assistant to write a full Boolean query for you.
You can carry on the conversation to refine the query until you get exactly what you need for your search strategy.
Boolean queries as a trigger for KPI alerts
Once you’re happy with a Boolean query, you can use it as the basis for Talkwalker alerts. That means you’ll get an automatic notification when new results matching your query exceed your desired KPI thresholds. Talkwalker continuously monitors new social content to automate your social listening based on Boolean queries.
For example, maybe Apple wants to keep an eye out for negative sentiment related to the Mac Mini.
We’ve already got a Boolean query to track content related to the launch, made using the AI Query Builder.
You can then create a Sentiment trend alert with a negative sentiment filter. You can set the alert to send a notification when the number of negative posts exceeds your set threshold.
Common Boolean operator mistakes (and how to avoid them)
Using too many operators
Using too many operators in your search can create two different problems:
- You use too many restrictive variables (like AND) in your search. This is also known as creating a query that is too tightly constructed. This can exclude relevant results.
- You use too many inclusive variables (like OR). This is known as a loosely constructed query. Your search may be too broad and include too much irrelevant noise.
It may take some experimentation to find the right balance. Real-time testing your query in Talkwalker’s Quick Search is a great way to get there.
Not using parentheses correctly
Take a close look at the query just above this section for the Mac Mini launch. There are three nested sets of parentheses. Miss any of them and your query will break. Fortunately, Talkwalker’s search box lets you know when any part of your query is broken so you can make a quick fix.
It’s also important to check your groupings within parentheses to make sure you are combining query terms the way you intended.
Ignoring misspellings and alternative spellings
People do not write like computers, especially on social media. They spell things wrong, sometimes intentionally. They use variations in language based on their geography. A good Boolean query accounts for these inconsistencies to make sure you get the most relevant results.
We looked at wildcards above as a way to accommodate some misspellings, but they can’t cover everything. If you know of common misspellings or alternate ways of referring to your brand, products, or industry, add them to your query.
Monitoring content where your brand is tagged can help you uncover misspellings you may not have considered. Add these to your query as you find them to improve your results over time.
Build smart queries and never miss a brand mention or a shift in sentiment. Get an in-depth view of what people are saying about your brand, your competitors, and your industry with Talkwalker.
Share it