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TRAC: Setting up a Panel Search using the Wizard
TRAC: Setting up a Panel Search using the Wizard

Learn how to set up a Panel search using TRAC's Search Wizard.

Updated this week

Learning Outcomes

  • Know what a Panel search is and how to set one up.

  • Understand the different ways to gather data.

  • Know the limitations when setting up a Panel search.


A Panel Search gives you the ability to listen to a specific audience panel first (e.g. ‘mums in the UK’, smart ‘tech journalists in the UK’, followers of Spotify, or a List of people in Sustainable Fashion).

Below we show you the steps for creating an Panel search using the search Wizard and the various options available.


STEP 1 - DETAILS

The Details section is where you will begin your search and specify the data sources for your Panel search.

  1. Give your search a title.

  2. Select at least one data source, or you can select all sources.

  3. Scroll to the bottom and click the Save and continue button


STEP 2 - PANELS

The Panels section is where you are presented with various input options. Depending on the data sources you select at the first step of the search setup will determine which panel fields appear within this step.

X Option 1 - User Handles

In a Panel search you can collect tweets from a group of users from X . You can choose to track a single handle(s) or to track the followers or following of the handle(s).

  1. Input the X handle you want Pulsar to track e.g @Nike and press the “+” button.

  2. A pop-up window will appear giving you 3 options.

  • Analyse user - Track Nike

  • Analyse the following - Track who Nike is following

  • Analyse the followers - Track who is following Nike

🚨 Important: You can only track a sample of up to 1000 X users. This means that a panel of users greater than 1000 will be randomly sampled down to 1000 users before data can be collected.

💡Tip: When adding in users to analyse, it's best not to include all the users in one search. Split it out into different searches that are focused exclusively on the followings and followers of different profiles, unless they're micro influencers.

X Option 2 - Import Users

If you would like to look at a sample of users and how much they contribute, you can build customised groups and understand how they are conversing online. You have various options to import your X users, as shown below.

  • Upload CSV File - You can simply upload a CSV file of X user handles and Pulsar does the rest for you. Download our CSV template, copy/paste the relevant user handles, save your file to your desktop or documents, and then click browse to start the file import.

  • X List - Import users from an X List. X Lists consist of people who have subscribed to a group where they all likely have a common interest.

  • Import from Existing Users - Import users from another Pulsar TRAC search or a saved filter on any one of your Pulsar searches.

X Option 3 - Bio Tracking

If you are interested in tracking X users who have specific keywords in their bios, you can now collect tweets from these authors. For example, you may want to know what people who self identify as student OR graduate talk about in relation to "nike". Enter the author bios in the Author Bios field as shown below.

Once you've entered the author bios, e.g. student OR graduate, the next field is mandatory Author Bio keywords, and will appear below author bios as seen below. You will need to specify the keywords so that we only collect tweets from the Author Bios specified when they contain specific terms.

🚨Important: We do not get historics for X if a search has only populated the Author Bios field or Author Bio keywords.

Facebook Option - Facebook Pages

Facebook Pages are a fantastic way to monitor the conversations on a public Facebook page, be it your company's, a competitor's or a category of interest. You can see all the metrics and topics emerging on multiple pages all in one place.

📒 Note: A few things to note with Facebook Pages tracking:

  • We don't track individual Facebook Users.

  • We don't track Private Pages.

  • We don't track the Page's Followers.

  • We collect posts and comments published by that Facebook Page and the Engagements on those posts.

  • Engagement types that are collected are comments + likes + other types of reactions.

  • Only realtime data is available.

Instagram Option - Instagram Business Profiles

Interested in tracking some Instagram beauty or fashion Influencers? Then all you need to do is add their business profiles to your Panel search. Key thing is the profiles you wish to track have to be business profiles, not regular Instagram profiles. The data we get includes the following:

  • the number of comments received,

  • the number of likes received,

  • and the post or video itself.

Lastly, one token allows you track 5 business profiles at a time: if you wish to track more profiles, then you'd have to add more tokens by just clicking on the Add Token button. The good news is that once you have done this the first time round, the process is now automatic and you don't need to go through the authorisation process all the time.

Reddit Option - Subreddits


Here you have the ability to input up to 1,000 subreddits to track data from. General keywords and Blacklists can be applied to the subreddits to filter the data you collect.

Twitch

Want to create a panel of Twitch streamers? You absolutely can! Simply enter the usernames of the Twitch users you would like to create a panel for, and hit enter.

Discord

You can also create a panel of Discord servers/ text channels that you are the administrator of.

News Option - Search by Site

You can now also create a News Panel search and track specific online news outlets, for example, you can search for all articles that come from The BBC, or NY Times. The ability to monitor the content of specific outlets gives you insight into how different outlets cover a certain topic, what angle they take and how much impact and reach their coverage has. You can also understand what topics certain outlets cover in general, and even be able to map how their coverage changes over time.

You can also do the same for Print News, Radio and TV.

Optional - General Keywords

After choosing your audience panel options, the last step in the Panel section is the General Keywords section. This option can be applied only if you were looking at a panel of X Handles; a group of Imported Users; Tracking Facebook Pages; or Tracking Instagram Profiles. By adding some terms in this field you are essentially narrowing down your panel search to only collect posts with specific terms.

Optional - Blacklist

Here you can specify the keywords or authors that you want to block entirely from your audience panel dataset. For example you've got a panel search tracking a panel of journalists but you don't want their posts collected into your search if they are discussing "donald trump".


STEP 3 - TARGET

The Target section is where you can specify the Language, Countries, Region and the Media Types your content should come from. This is a great way to make the results you collect more targeted and specific, plus this helps to control your data collection and prevent unwanted mentions.

Countries: This is where you would choose the locations where you want your data to come from for example, you can specify that you want to collect mentions from authors located in the US only. However, if no countries are selected, Pulsar will bring back content from around the globe.

Regions: The regions field gives you an option to further narrow down your location by region. This is useful if you wanted to understand a specific topic in the US, and drill down to look at what is being discussed by a specific state, for example New York, only. Note though that Regional targeting is only available for X content.

Languages: This field is where you can select all the languages you want to collect data in for example, you may wish to only collect content written in English. If no countries are selected, Pulsar will default to bringing back content in all languages.

Media Types: This field is where you will specify which media type you want to collect, for example, if you were running a competition you may wish to only capture the data that includes an image or link within the post. Overall, this would not only help to reduce data usage but it will ensure you only receive content specific to your objective.

If you are ready to move on, scroll to the bottom and click Save and continue.


STEP 4 - ANALYSIS


The Analysis section offers a suite of advanced algorithms you can choose to apply to your search. You can select up to 2 modules to apply to your search. To learn more about AI Modules you can read our article Here.

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Once you have finished, hit Save and continue and you will be redirected to the summary page where you have the option to review your search.

STEP 5 - SUMMARY

Before you finish and save your panel search, you can view a summary of your search. Following this, if you wish to make any amendments to your search, you can edit the search summary.

Your search will only be saved once you click Ok, Create Search, so be sure to hit this button before you navigate off the page. Upon creation, you will be directed to the Status page where you will be given the option to collect data in real time, historically, or both.

That's it! Now you are ready to collect your data.

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We hope you enjoyed reading this article! 📚

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