Welcome to your go-to guide on Explore!
This article walks you through the process of managing your searches within Explore. Read below to learn more:
Accessing Explore
You will access Explore through the left-hand navigation bar using the 'Explore' link.
Next, you will select the type of search you wish to run. You will have a few options:
Create a Keyword or Company Entity Search using the search bar.
2. Select an option under 'Start a new search'.
Keyword Search: Type individual terms or phrases into input boxes and our system will create the search. Recommended for simple searches and users who are new to using Meltwater.
Advanced Search: Directly enter Boolean queries with ANDs, ORs and NOTs (and our complete list of Boolean operators) for precise control over your results. Recommend for advanced users and those comfortable using Boolean syntax in searches.
Combined Search: Join together two or more existing saved searches to create a new search to generate search results. Helpful in managing a large number of searches or for quickly combining topics with your brand's saved searches. Learn more about Combined Search here.
Compare Search: Add up to ten saved searches and show how they compare against one another through different charts and data analytics. Great for share-of-voice analysis and competitive benchmarking. Learn more about Compare Search here.
After selecting your search type - you can now type your text into the search box to generate results for a basic search.
Creating a Search
Creating a query in Explore allows you to search across multiple media types at once, review the results, and gain further insights from the instant analytics.
Let’s walk through step by step on how to build a Keyword Search within Explore:
Select Explore from the left-hand side navigation bar.
Enter your first word or phrase into the Search box and press Enter on your keyboard. If you'd like to write your keywords in Boolean, select 'Advanced Search' under 'Start a new search'.
Use the three Keyword boxes to specify the words you want to include/exclude from your search.
Adjust the Date Range and Search Filters (Further details below) to broaden or narrow your results.
Select Update Results to review the content matching your keywords. If there are irrelevant results, add keywords to the three searching boxes to further refine the results
Click Save in the top left-hand corner
Enter a Name for the search.
Click Save to finish your setup.
Other Search Options:
Company Entity Search: Company Entity Search simplifies searching. This is an automatically generated company suggestion based on the text you have typed into the Explore search bar. The entity combines the company name, associated social media accounts, stock tickers, and visual content such as logos, to find all relevant matches of the company. Learn more here.
Advanced Search: Search terms can be structured using Boolean Search Language to refine the results, please review how to use Boolean via this article here.
Combined Search: Your existing saved searches can be joined together to create a new search to generate search results. To manage a large number of searches , learn more about Combine within this article here.
Compare Search: Your searches can be quickly benchmarked via the Compare option, allowing you to generate 'share of voice' graphs that compare the results within your searches, learn more about Compare within this article here.
Switching Between Saved Searches
Now that you have saved searches created - Explore allows you to easily switch between your searches, without needing to go back to your saved searches library.
To switch between searches:
Click the name of your search to launch the dropdown menu which includes all saved searches, as well as labels (with subfilters), and a find bar.
2. Select a new Search, and it will load in Explore. Available when using a Keyword, Advanced, Combined, or Compare search.
Applying Search Filters
Search results can contain an exceptionally large number of mentions if you do not include any specific criteria other than the query itself. This could potentially present you with results you don't want to see. You can apply filters to narrow down the results of your search.
Apply filters using the filter bar that appears directly under the search entry box to refine query results and return the specific documents and articles you need. The filter bar is shown below:
Let’s break down each filter below:
For further details on how to refine and save your filters, please review this article here.
Filter Sets
Filter sets are saved filters that you can reuse at the click of a button. Common use cases include creating filter sets for specific sets of locations and languages, for a set of editorial sources that you wish to capture, or including only a particular set of sources in your results.
In many regions Meltwater has set up some pre-configured filter sets called “Quick Picks.” You may also create custom filter sets.
In order to apply filter sets:
Simply select the set of filters that you wish to save.
Then select Save under the Filter set menu.
Give your new filter set a name, then click “Save”. The filter set will now be available in the filter set dropdown list below the Quick Picks.
Source Type
The source type filter allows you to select content from specific sources like News, Social, or Broadcast. When not selecting an individual source, your results return documents across ALL source types.
For further details into each of the Media Types which can be searched across within Explore, please review this article here.
To apply a source type filter:
Select “Source Type”
Check the box next to the option(s) you would like to include in your search.
Then, click “Update Results” to the far right of the filter bar.
Source types like News and RSS let you drill down further. You can find their corresponding subfilters by following these steps:
Clicking the arrow icon
To subfilter News, enter a News source name or website into the search box
Next, hit Enter on your keyboard. Now a list of sources with checkboxes matching your entry will appear
Select the checkboxes for the sources you would like to include in your search results
Click “Apply”
To subfilter RSS, you check the box next to the individual RSS feed(s) that are set up in your account. To learn more about how to set up RSS feeds - check out How Do I Add an Incoming RSS Feed?
Language
You may select one or more languages to restrict results to content written in those languages.
To apply a Language filter:
Select “Language”
Check the box next to the option(s) you would like to include in your search.
Then, click “Update Results” to the far right of the filter bar.
Location
To offer more precision when filtering via location our locations are presented in a hierarchy of Country → State/Province → City. When you click on the Location dropdown filter, you are presented with an alphabetical list of countries as well as an item for “Unknown” to capture unattributed documents.
To apply a Location filter:
Select “Location”
Check the boxes next to the specific country or set of countries you want to filter.
Then, click “Update Results” to the far right of the filter bar.
The icon to the right of the country item will open a list of provinces and states. You may also drill a level deeper into the cities that are located in the selected state/province, again by clicking on the icon to the right.
If you wish to retrieve content without location information, such as blogs and forums, select the “Unknown” location item.
Keyword
When entering a keyword or phrase into this filter and applying it to your search, it will apply the keyword to your query. The keyword filter is frequently used after loading saved searches to further explore results, adding keywords to see the impact on results without changing the original query. You can repeat the process to add multiple keywords or phrases.
Sentiment
The Sentiment filter segments results by Positive, Negative, Neutral, or Not Rated.
To apply a Sentiment filter:
Select “Sentiment”
Check one or more sentiment values you want to filter.
Then, click “Update Results” to the far right of the filter bar.
To learn more about how Sentiment is assigned - check out the article HERE.
Author
The Author filter allows you to save a list of Twitter handles or Reddit users, and use the list as a filter to find documents from those handles and users. The Authors filter can be useful in monitoring a set of influencers.
In order to use the Author filter for the first time you will need to create an author list following the steps outlined HERE.
Now that you have author list(s) to apply an Author Filter:
Select “Author”
Check the Author list you would like to filter from
Then, click “Update Results” to the far right of the filter bar.
To learn more about the process of creating and applying Author lists, check out How to Use Author List in Explore.
Custom Categories
Custom Categories allow you to save searches that you frequently use to sub-filter other searches, saving you time and effort. You can use custom categories to exclude sources or terms that are irrelevant to your results or save a set of competitors you research, etc.
You will first need to set up and save a Custom Category filter to make it available for all searches. In order to set up a Custom Category filter - follow the steps outlined HERE.
Now that you have at least one Custom Category created - in order to apply the filter:
Select “Custom Categories”
Check at least one category you would like to filter from
Then, click “Update Results” to the far right of the filter bar
Notes
1) You must first save a Custom Category filter to make it available for all searches
2) Custom Categories can include any boolean operators
3) When applying multiple Custom Categories, they are joined as OR statements
View Options
You are able to tailor the layout of your Explore page via views to structure the page display in 3 different ways. The options available are:
Content and analytics
Content ONLY
Analytics ONLY
You can select your option as shown in the screenshot below:
Tab Options
Now that we know how to use the different filter options - let's take a look at the different tabs within Explore. These tabs provide you with further insights in the media coverage within your search. These tabs can be found under the filter sets as shown the the screenshot below:
Let's break down each tab below:
Overview
The Overview tab will give you a general understanding of your search results using widgets. For more information on each widget in the Overview tab, please review this article.
Analytics
The Analytics tab will gives you a deeper understanding and allows you to visualize your social media data. For more information on each widget in the Analytics tab, please review this article.
Topic Analysis
Topic Analysis allows you to go beyond the volume of results, or where conversations are taking place, and drill further into what the general topics and tenor are related to results. This provides you the ability to find deeper context to the results you see, and better understand how the results are being talked about within separate topics. For more information on each widget in the Topic Analysis tab, please review this article.
Topic analysis is a complementary tool to be used with the Overview and Analytics tabs in Explore.
Twitter Insights
The Twitter Insights tab give you a better understanding of your Twitter results by breaking these results down into Twitter specific widgets. For more information on each widget in the Twitter Insights tab, please review this article.
Authors
The Authors Tab uncovers the 'who' behind the conversation. In addition to the list of influencers that the legacy Authors Tab surfaces, this experience uncovers the demographics, top professions, and interests of the people tweeting about the topics and companies most relevant to you. For more information on the Authors tab, please review this article.
Sharing
Now that your Explore search has returned the results you are looking for, there are a few ways to sharing this content with others.
Once you have selected content, this can be shared via email (1) or by exporting (2) the content to an excel spreadsheet or PDF. For further details on how to export content to excel, please review this article here.
A Shareable Dashboard can also be created from your results via the 'Share' button. For further details into creating this dashboard, please review this article here.
Saving Searches
Now that new searches with keywords and filters have been created you want to save these queries. You can save a New Search by following the steps outlined below:
Select the “Save” button above the query entry box.
You will be prompted to enter the search name
Your search is now saved and listed under "All Searches":
💡 Tip
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