Social listening keywords: choose and set up terms

Keywords decide which posts a listener collects. Terms that are too broad flood your feed and use credits on posts you will never act on. Terms that are too narrow find nothing.

The examples on this page use one scenario: you sell a Notion competitor and want posts where people complain about Notion or ask for alternatives.

Add a term

Each keyword on a listener is called a term. A term has its own main term, platforms and filters.

Your terms are listed on the left. Click one to edit it. While a term is open, the copy and trash icons at the top duplicate or delete it.

Use separate terms for separate angles. For example, one term for notion alternative and another for quitting notion.

How a term matches

A post matches a term only when all of these are true:

1. It contains the Main Term.
2. It contains every word in Must also include.
3. It contains at least one word in Must mention at least one of (if you added any).
4. It contains none of the words in Skip posts that mention any of these words.

To add words to a list, type a word and press Enter, or paste a comma-separated list. The copy and paste icons move a list between terms.

Main term options

Two options apply to the main term only:

• Whole word: the term must appear as its own word. Use it for short terms like block, which otherwise matches blockchain.
• Case sensitive: capitalization must match exactly. Use it for brand spellings like Notion AI. Leave it off for broad coverage, since people type inconsistently.

How the word lists match

• Skip words match whole words and ignore capitalization. hiring blocks Hiring and HIRING, but not rehiring.
• Must also include and Must mention at least one of ignore capitalization and can match inside longer words.

Each word in those two lists also has an Exact or Broad toggle. New words start as Broad.

Example: main term notion, must mention at least one of alternative, replacement, switching. Any post about Notion with one of those words matches.

Choose platforms per term

Each term has its own toggles for Reddit, X, LinkedIn, Bluesky and Hacker News, limited to your plan. A term needs at least one.

• X, LinkedIn and Hacker News are checked once per term at the listener's scan interval.
• Reddit and Bluesky match each term against new posts in real time.

Example:

• Term notion alternative on X and LinkedIn, where buyers ask for recommendations.
• Term notion on Reddit only, where users vent in communities.

Settings in the listener's Authors and Reddit sections apply to every term. See Create a listener.

Example terms

Pick good keywords

For a common word, you can keep it as the main term and require context words with Must mention at least one of.

Review the feed after a few days. Too quiet? Widen a little, for example add notion vs. Too noisy? Add skip words, tighten phrasing (done with notion, migrate from notion), or sharpen the intent signal.

What to track

Pair your terms with a clear intent signal so Fit Score favors high-intent posts over tutorials and promotions.

Keyword slots and credits

Each term uses one keyword slot from your plan, and so does each tracked profile. Every term on X, LinkedIn or Hacker News adds scan credits each month. See Credits.

Next steps

• Advanced search: write raw boolean queries and use LinkedIn and X filters.
• Intent & Brand Context: score what your keywords collect.
• Track profiles: follow accounts instead of keywords.