Inbox filtering

Learn how to filter your inbox results in Respond

The Respond inbox is a vital tool that helps you to proactively engage with the customers who are reaching out to your brand.

This article will show you how to navigate the inbox filters so you can create specialized searches for building new workflows for faster and more relevant engagement.

The Deep Dive

The Deep Dive is a tool that helps you filter and navigate unpredictable content within your Respond inbox.

It uses "tier-based" search logic to perform a dynamic range of unique searches for even the most specific needs. Every search can then be saved and used later. See your “Saved Dives” for a list of saved searches.

Using the Deep Dive you can use customized search filters to find anything within a selected time range, and you can go even deeper by adding more filters for granular searches.

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Your Respond inbox with the Deep Dive and Saved Dives highlighted.

Search using customized filters

Deep Dive searches work by combining two tiers of filters with a date range.

We refer to the tiered filters as Tier 1 and Tier 2. Tier filters are essential to your search as they communicate the logic “search this, for that” (Search Tier 1, for Tier 2).

Tier 1

Tier 1 is the name given to the section of the Deep Dive that reads “Match at least one of these”. Here you can select any number of Tier 1 filters to apply to your search. Adding multiple Tier 1 filters increases the range of content to search from, as it builds an “any of these” relationship between each Tier 1 filter selected.

As an example: adding a “Facebook” filter and a “Twitter” filter will show you results from either Facebook or Twitter.

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Tier 1 filters section of the Deep Dive.
When adding a Tier 1 filter you are asking the search to match at least one of the filters you have selected.

Tier 2

Tier 2 is the name given to the section of the Deep Dive that reads “And at least one of these”. Tier 2 is similar to Tier 1, where you can add any combination of Tier 2 filters to build an “any of these” relationship. However, Tier 2 is reactive to Tier 1. Your Tier 2 filter will search within the results from your Tier 1 filters.

Continuing with the previous example: Using Tier 1 filters “Twitter” and “Facebook”, now add a Tier 2 filter that searches for “New content” to show new content from Twitter or Facebook.

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Tier 2 filters section of the Deep Dive.
When adding a Tier 2 filter you are asking the search to match at least one of the filters you have selected, within the results from your Tier 1 filter/s.

Select a time range for your filtered search

The date picker controls the time range that your inbox covers. Changing this will alter your search to include or exclude content made at certain dates. You can search any range in the last 90 days of social content.

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Creating new Tier 1 and 2 filters

If you navigate to Manage > Settings > Tier filters you will find the tools you need to inform and manage tier filters. Here you can create, remove, and edit your tier filters and update their access permissions.

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Manage > Settings > Tier filters
  1. Select the type of filter you’d like to create
  2. Give your new tier filter a relevant name and category (something descriptive so that anyone selecting the filter will know what it's searching for)
  3. Select who in your team can access the filter
  4. Create any custom combination of filters
  5. Hit save
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Some tips for maintaining tier filters are:

  • Use descriptive names
  • Provide a well-explained comment
  • Only give the relevant team members access to use it

If the tier filter you're editing is no longer right for you, you can delete it by pressing the X under the "Tools" heading, in the tier filter table.

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Deleting a tier filter

Stop!
Pressing X will delete this filter for everyone, and cannot be undone. Hit X with caution.

Dive deeper

You can add more filters to your search for more granular searches. We call these additional filters Tier 3 filters. They add on to your existing search by saying “In my search for Tier 2 objects, inside Tier 1, find me anything that matches Tier 3”. This will add deeper layers of search granularity.

Tier 3 filters can be added by selecting the “Filters” button at the bottom of your Deep Dive, and will give you the option to select from 17 unique types of filters.

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Tier 3 filters can be added to your search for an extra layer of granularity.

Tier 3 filters

Here’s a list of all Tier 3 filters that can be applied to any search made using the Deep Dive.

Filter name Explanation
Matching terms This will search for specific words used in a piece of content.
Matching title This will search for specific words used in titles of published articles.
Mentioning links This will find exact mentions of a URL.
From location This will allow you to position a square zone over an area on Earth to filter content from.
Location accuracy This filter combines with the "From location" filter to alternate between whether the location data is provided or calculated.
Mentioning authors This filter will look for mentions of a specific account within a piece of content. This filter only applies to Twitter content.
Source name This filter will allow you to filter content by the name of the source that is has come from. (eg. Twitter, Facebook)
Source groups This allows you to look for public content appearing on a Facebook page or a public Instagram profile —either to or by the owner of the account.
Author name Search for content by a specific author.
Author reach Search for content by authors within a specific social reach (this only applies to Twitter content).
Source type This filter allows you to search content if it matches one or more types. Types refer to the mode in which that content was published (eg. a comment, a direct message).
Content formats This filter allows you to filter in/out videos, images, text, and links.
In language Search for content by the language the customer has provided in their profile details. Note: This won’t necessarily show content only in the language you’ve searched.
Current state Filter by whether or not content has been handled by your team and by specific States within your team’s workflow.
Classifications Filter by whether or not content has been provided with a specific Classification within your team’s workflow.
Form responses Filter through content to see survey responses from specific and multiple surveys.
Assignee name Find messages assigned to one or more members of your team

How to search using Boolean language

When you open a fresh filter, it may present you with a blank field, expecting you to enter something manually. Every blank field search uses what we know as “Boolean language” to elaborately explore the mountains of data that we collect. Boolean language is the idea that you can combine simple searching keywords to come up with very elaborate searches, helping differentiate between “Cats and Dog”, “Cats or dogs”, and “Cats not dogs”.

These operations are:

Boolean operator Explanation Example How it works
SINGLE WORD Search for any single word with no space separations. “banking” Will return all matches of the single word.
“MULTIPLE WORDS" Search for any space separated words. “My Brand” Will return all matches that exactly match the combination of words.
OR Search for multiple words at once. “Cat” OR “Turtle” Will return any content about cats or turtles.
AND Search for combinations of words. “Dog” AND “Turtle” Will return any mentions of dogs when turtles have also been mentioned.
NOT Exclude results containing words. “Turtle” NOT “Cat” Will show content where there’s a mention of turtles, but certainly not a mention of cats too.
(“GROUPS OF OBJECTS”) Use parenthesis to combine groups of objects for more elaborate searching. (“Small Turtle” OR “Big Turtle”) NOT (“Cat” OR “Dog”) This will search for any combination in the first set of parenthesis, if it doesn’t combine with anything in the second parenthesis.
* Wild Card The * character represents anything, returning anything in the place it is used. “My favorite food is *” Will return both “My favorite food is pizza”, and “My favorite food is burgers”.

First time searching?

Try using Boolean language in a “Matching Terms” filter to practice.

Begin by searching for a hashtag of your choice. An example: “#sunsoutgunsout”. Executing this search will now return any content that contains the words “#sunsoutgunsout”.

Once you’ve explored your results and have a good idea of how to further tackle the stream of content, try and find some specific content by adding an AND operator to your search. For example: “#sunsoutgunsout” AND “Going to the beach”. This will filter down your search even further, showing you results that are most relevant to the conversations you’d like to study.

Filler words such as “A”, “the”, “and”, and “it” are excluded from searches, and cannot be searched for on their own. Instead, try using related words, phrases, or hashtags to find what you’re looking for. For example, if you were searching for content around the movie “It”, you could search for a related hashtag, such as #itthemovie or #pennywise.

If you require a search that looks specifically for these terms/letters, please reach out to Lexer Support (support@lexer.io) for assistance.

Updated:
September 23, 2022
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