How to build a search

There are several ways to build a search within NewsWhip Spike, but the three principal ones are by keyword, by source, and by URL. 

To create a new search, we’ll start with searching by keywords.

Searching by keyword

NewsWhip Spike allows a freeform text search to add any keywords you are interested in. You can add as many as you like into a search by adding them one at a time, but you can also exclude keywords.

Adding keywords

To add a keyword, simply type it into the search bar. You can then proceed to add as many keywords as you wish to monitor at one time.

If you are familiar with Boolean searching, this approximates a basic OR search. If your keyword contains more than one word, make sure to use quotation marks around it. 

Excluding keywords

You can also exclude keywords from searches if there are topics you are not interested in. To do this, type the keyword in the same way you would add a keyword, but instead of hitting enter, click the red circle that pops up next to it to exclude it.

If you are familiar with Boolean, this approximates a NOT search. 

Boolean

You can also search with basic Boolean terms within NewsWhip Spike. Spike supports AND, OR, and NOT functions, and you can enter it into the search bar like you would any other search term. Quotation marks and wildcards at the end of words also function with NewsWhip Spike.

We have a full guide to searching by Boolean within the platform, which you can find here.

Searching by source 

You can filter a search to a specific website or social account. 

You can combine multiple sources in a search. For example, if you wanted to keep track of multiple Instagram users - you can combine them in a single search. 

You can also combine sources from different networks. For example, if you wanted to keep track of all of your competitor’s owned media - you could combine their Website, Facebook Page, Instagram Account, Twitter account etc in a single view.

Adding and excluding websites

To add a website to your search, simply begin typing it into the search bar. A list of websites in our database will then display below, and you can select whichever you have interest in by clicking on it.

If you’d like to exclude a particular website from a search, do the same thing but click on the red circle that appears next to the website. This will stop articles from that website appearing in your search.

Adding and excluding social accounts

To add a website to your search, simply begin typing it into the search bar. A list of accounts from Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram that exist in our database will then display below, and you can select whichever you have interest in by clicking on it. You can add multiple accounts to a single search, depending on how many are of interest

If you’d like to exclude a particular social account from a search, do the same thing but click on the red circle that appears next to the website. This will stop posts from that website appearing in your search.

Adding and excluding Reddit communities

To add a Reddit community (sometimes called a subreddit) to your search, simply begin typing its name into the search bar. A list of the communities in our database will then display below, and you can select whichever you have interest in by clicking on it.

If you’d like to exclude a particular community from a search, do the same thing but click on the red circle that appears next to the website. This will stop posts from that community appearing in your search.

Searching by URL

You can also search individual articles by url if you want to look at one article specifically. 

To do this, simply copy and paste the url of interest into the search bar and hit enter.

This will show you the interaction data for the url regardless of when it was published, so there is no need to change the time filter.

Saving your search 

When you have finished adjusting your search, you can hit save in the top right hand corner of the search bar. 

You’ll then be asked to give the search a name and a color. Both are changeable later but try to pick something memorable so you can find it quickly and easily later.