How to Write a Query in Brandwatch [Excerpt]
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Queries in Brandwatch are used to identify web pages that mention brands or topics. Queries can be created and edited using Boolean logic operators like AND, OR, and NOT to combine search terms. Effective queries aim to include relevant terms while excluding irrelevant mentions, though simplicity is best - queries do not need to be perfect to provide useful results. Common complex queries involve three elements: a main term, contextual terms, and excluded terms.
![BASIC OPERATORS AND, OR
OPERATOR 1: AND +
• Milka AND chocolate = will find every entry that mentions the term ‘Milka’ and the term
‘chocolate’ anywhere on a webpage
• It can also be written like this: Milka + chocolate
• Must be capitalised
• A common mistake is to think of ‘AND’ as “I want pages with [brand x] AND I also want pages
with [brand y]. Instead it is “I want web pages that have both [brand x] and {brand y] on the web
page
OPERATOR 2: OR
• Milka OR chocolate = will find any entry that has either the term ‘Milka’ or the term ‘chocolate’
anywhere on the page
• Must be capitalised
• Will therefore produce more results than using AND, but more may be irrelevant
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How to Write a Query in Brandwatch [Excerpt]
- 1. Getting Started 2 Creating a query © 2011 Brandwatch | www.brandwatch.com 1
- 2. What are QUERIES and how do we create them? • Brandwatch uses queries to identify web pages that mention a brand or topic • You can create new queries and edit existing ones using Brandwatch • Queries are built in a similar way to Google searches, but often need to be more sophisticated because we want to exclude irrelevant mentions that match the search criteria (this is not important with Google as they tend to give a low rank to less popular meanings of a phrase) • The sophistication is using a logic language called Boolean. This consists of a handful of words like AND, OR, NOT • Brandwatch limits the length of a query to 4,096 characters (this is a lot) © 2011 Brandwatch | www.brandwatch.com 2
- 3. 4 GOLDEN RULES Getting started on query creation • Simple is best: If a simple query works then don’t try to overcomplicate it with ANDs, NOTs, ORs, (), “” etc. • No query is perfect: do not spend ages trying to make a query perfect, if we see 8/10 relevant mentions, that is often good enough • AND, NOT, OR, (), “” In 90% of cases these five are the only operators that you need to use • If it has to be complex, then try to stick to 3 elements: Most complex queries need no more than the following 3 elements: Main Context Excluded term(s) AND terms NOT terms E.g. if we were looking for problems with the VW Passat, we might write: “VW Passat” AND (repair OR problems) NOT (“spare parts” OR site:www.autotrader.com) Main term(s) Context terms Excluded terms © 2011 Brandwatch | www.brandwatch.com 3
- 4. BASIC OPERATORS AND, OR OPERATOR 1: AND + • Milka AND chocolate = will find every entry that mentions the term ‘Milka’ and the term ‘chocolate’ anywhere on a webpage • It can also be written like this: Milka + chocolate • Must be capitalised • A common mistake is to think of ‘AND’ as “I want pages with [brand x] AND I also want pages with [brand y]. Instead it is “I want web pages that have both [brand x] and {brand y] on the web page OPERATOR 2: OR • Milka OR chocolate = will find any entry that has either the term ‘Milka’ or the term ‘chocolate’ anywhere on the page • Must be capitalised • Will therefore produce more results than using AND, but more may be irrelevant © 2011 Brandwatch | www.brandwatch.com 4
- 5. BASIC OPERATORS NOT, “ ” OPERATOR 3: NOT – • Milka NOT chocolate = will find any entry with the term ‘Milka’ on the page so long as the web page does not also have ‘chocolate’ on it • Must be capitalised • It can also be written like this: Milka –chocolate OPERATOR 4: “” • The string operator is used for exact phrases e.g. “Milka chocolate” will find any web page where “Milka chocolate” appears in that order • Can be useful for mis-spellings e.g. Playstation OR “play station” (A space is treated like AND so Milka chocolate would be read as Milka AND chocolate) • Produces fewer mentions than AND but more likely to exclude irrelevant mentions © 2011 Brandwatch | www.brandwatch.com 5
- 6. BASIC OPERATORS ( ) BOOLEAN TERM: () • Strictly speaking, this is not an operator, but it is widely used to either group together terms so that we can apply an operator to everything in the brackets or to have more than one type of search • E.g. juice AND (apple OR orange OR cranberry) is a shortened form of (apple AND juice) OR (Orange AND juice) OR (Cranberry AND juice) • Keeping track of brackets is tricky – we often paste the search phrase into a text document (e.g. MS Word) and put each new bracketed term as a new paragraph to be able to read it better © 2011 Brandwatch | www.brandwatch.com 6
- 7. Please get in touch for of Index the Brands full guide contact@brandwatch.com © 2011 Brandwatch | www.brandwatch.com 7