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Searching in Listen

How to search for social, news and service content in Listen

There’s a whole wide world of information about your brand on social and published media, and we’re going to show you how to hone in on it, be notified about it, and share your findings.

Here, we’re assuming you have an understanding of Lexer Listen. Don’t know what Listen is? Never heard of a Deep Dive? Head over to our Listen overview first.

You’ll also need access to the filters relevant to your search, or have the ability to build them, if they don’t already exist. If you can’t see the filters you’re looking for, or don’t see the New Tier Filter buttons through your account’s Settings > Tier Filters - reach out to your Success Manager, or Lexer Support (support@lexer.io)for help.

Building your search

Set up your filters

There are three distinct levels of filtering in your Deep Dive. Here’s how they work:

From Where (Tier 1)

This is the first step in a search. You are defining the sandbox in which you’re playing. This is where you filter by geography, source, industry, or key terms. This helps you manage your searches in the later tiers.

For What (Tier 2)

Where you put the results from your Tier 1 search into manageable filter sets, that produce dives on particular topics, brands, campaigns, events, etc.

Additional filters (Tier 3)

Generated by you, on the fly, in your Deep Dive.

Within each of these tiers, these are the types of filters you can use:

Filter name	Explanation	How to use it
Matching terms	This will search for specific words used by customers.	Enter simple words, or phrases, enclosed in quotes.
Matching title	This will search for specific words used in titles of published articles.	Enter exactly as the title appears natively
Mentioning links	This will find exact mentions of a URL.	Enter exactly, without using https://
From location	This will allow you to position a square zone over an area on Earth, to filter content from.	Zoom in on your location, and click on the center of the map to set your boundary.
Location accuracy	This filter combines with the ‘From Location’ filter to alternate between whether the location data is provided or calculated.	Add and set your “From Location” filter first. Then add your Location Accuracy filter, and select one or more of the options provided, to tell the filter how you want it to search for content.
Mentioning authors	This filter will look for mentions of a specific account within content.	For Facebook, enter the author name as it appears on their profile - this is case sensitive (e.g. “John Smith”). For Twitter and Instagram, enter the handle, without the @ (e.g. “camplexer”)
Source name	This filter will allow you to filter content by the name of the source that is has come from. (eg. Twitter, Facebook)	Enter the source name as you’d enter it into your browser, i.e. “facebook.com”, “twitter.com” etc.
Source group	This filter allows you to search for accounts that content was published to. On Facebook this is referring to the page content was posted to. On Twitter, this can be anything by or from a particular author. If source group shares a name on Facebook and Twitter, you will see both.	For Facebook, enter the extension that looks like a handle on the profile. For example, Lexer’s page would be CampLexer. For Twitter and Instagram, this would be the author’s handle.
Author name	Search for content by a specific author.	For Facebook, enter the author name exactly as it appears on their profile (e.g. “John Smith”). For Twitter and Instagram, enter the handle, without the @ (e.g. “camplexer”)
Author reach	Search for content by authors within a specific social reach (This does not apply to Facebook).	You’re going to enter the minimum and maximum number of followers you’re looking for on an account. Enter the minimum number in the top field, the maximum in the bottom.
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).	Select the source types you’d like to view from the menu provided.
Content formats	This filter allows you to filter in/out videos, images, text and links.	Select the content formats you’d like to view from the menu provided
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.	Select a language from the drop down menu
Current state	Filter by whether or not content has been handled by your team, and specific states within your team’s workflow.	Select the States you’d like to view from the menu provided
Classifications	Filter by whether or not content has been provided with a specific classification within your team’s workflow.	Whether you want to see content that contains, or excludes Classifications used by your team - click on the relevant fields to select from your preferences in the drop down menus that appear.
Survey responses	Filter through content to see survey responses from specific and multiple surveys.	Select the Surveys you’d like to view from the menu provided.

Construct your query

Lexer uses boolean language to return search results. Every time you use a search engine online, you’re using boolean. Our products use this same approach, but we give you more control over your search results, and the options below will help you exercise that control.

First, we’ll go through the operators that you’ll use to craft your search.

Boolean operator	Explanation	Example of 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	“My Brand” OR “Your Brand” OR “Our Brand” - will return any mention of any of these brands
AND	Search for combinations of words	“My Brand” AND “My Competitor” - will return any mention of both my brand and my competitor
NOT	Exclude results containing words	“My Brand” NOT “My Competitor” - will show me mentions of “My Brand” if my competitor is not mentioned too
(“GROUPS OF OBJECTS”)	Use parentheses to combine groups of objects for more elaborate searching	(“my brand” OR “my second brand”) NOT (“competitor 1” OR “competitor 2”) - will search for any combination in the first set of parentheses, if it doesn’t combine with anything in the second parentheses.

Find out how else you can use boolean logic to construct your query here.

Save

Great work - your Deep Dive is now compiled of a comprehensive set of instructions on what you’d like to search for. Save it now, so you can use it again in future, and make it visible to the rest of your team.

To save, click the Action button at the bottom of your Deep Dive, and hit Save Dive. Then, in the fields that appear on the right, give your dive:

A name - a descriptive name for your search
Description - explain the purpose of this search
Category - group it with similar searches or topics
Color (optional) - this is the colour your Saved Dive will display as in Reports

When you’re done, click the Save button at the bottom of this form.

If you make any changes to your Saved Dive in future, you have two options in terms of how you save the edited search:

Save as a new search - repeat the steps above
Override the existing search - click on the floppy disk icon at the top of your Deep Dive (NOTE: this cannot be undone, but we’ll ask you if you’re sure before you proceed).

Get rid of the noise

Noise is a side effect of searching for popular terms. We define noise as content that is irrelevant to the results you want to see.

For example, you may want to see every mention of “pizza” on social media, in relation to your company, “Pizza Marketing Inc.”.

There are two problems with this:

The brand name is very general, which means we’ll get a lot of noise
Pizza is also part of many other terms (the food type, recipes, social gatherings, discount coupons, names of restaurants, etc.)

The way to combat noise is by choosing how to filter data based on either inclusive or exclusive search terms.

Structure	Explanation	How to use it
Inclusive	Search only for terms that specifically match your needs	“Pizza Marketing Inc” OR (pizza AND marketing) OR (pizza AND “consulting company”)
Exclusive	Search for your terms more broadly, and exclude noise, until the results start looking clean	Pizza NOT (food OR coupon OR restaurant OR discount)

If you’ve added a handful of inclusions or exclusions, and you’re still seeing noise - continue to add more, until you’re happy with the results you’re seeing. Don’t be afraid of having a really long list of exclusions. Sometimes it’s necessary, particularly if you’ve got a very noisy keyword.

If you’re learning about the results of your search through trial and error, and want to save as you go - it’s wise to save each as dive as a new one - we wouldn’t recommend overriding until you’re 100% satisfied. So each time, select Action > Save Dive to save that version.

You can also use other filters to narrow down your results. It might be helpful to use a location filter, look for specific authors, search only for specific source types, or clear out certain content formats

If you’ve tried these, and you’re still struggling with the noise, reach out to Lexer Support.

Be notified

Once you’ve successfully set up your search, you can opt to receive notifications to alert you of new results. These can be configured to let you know:

Instantly, as soon as new results are found
On the hour, every hour
Once a day, at a chosen time
When volumes are trending

Follow our guide on setting up notifications here.

Share Insights

You can share your findings with others through two handy Lexer tools - Visualize Screens, and PDF Reports. The beauty of using these, is that you’re able to share insights with those that don’t have access to Lexer. Both are easy to use, and present the data as you see it in the Lexer platform.

Visualize Screens

Customizable dashboards that show colorful charts and tables, full of insights - presenting live content, as it’s found.

Visualize Screens allow you the flexibility to present your data exactly as you want to, by simply dragging, and resizing your charts as you go.

The beauty of Visualize Screens is that they can be shared with non-Lexer users in Standard view (for everyday reporting) or Big Screen View (large format display), to present to a larger audience.

Find out more about Visualize here.

PDF Reports

Present your data in a structured, easy to read format, that’s easy to share at scale.

Great for daily, weekly, and monthly reporting - PDF Reports require you to set a specific timeframe to report on. The content you choose to show can also filtered down from the results of the Saved Dive you’re using, to show only highlights from that period of time.

Sharing this report is easy - it saves as a PDF, which you can download, or print, for your audience to view.

Find out more about PDF Reports here.

Updated:

April 26, 2025