The Engine Behind Your Social Listening
When you activate a campaign in Socialhose, you don't manually go out and find social media posts - the platform handles that automatically through what we call live searches. Understanding how these searches work gives you insight into when and how your data is collected, helps you troubleshoot issues when they arise, and enables you to optimize your monitoring for better results. This guide explains the complete lifecycle of a Live Search, from activation to the moment a mention appears in your dashboard.
How Live Searches Work
At its core, a live search is an automated process that executes a search query against a social media platform and collects the matching results. This is a crucial distinction: live searches run queries, not keywords. The query is what determines what content gets collected from the platform.
For example, if your campaign has a search query of "Acme Corp OR @AcmeCorp OR #AcmeCorp", the live search sends this exact query to the platform's search API. The platform returns all posts matching that query, and Socialhose ingests them as mentions.
After mentions are collected, keywords come into play as a separate mechanism. Keywords are pattern-matched against the already-collected mentions to categorize and tag them. The "keywords matched" field on each mention shows which of your campaign's keywords appeared in that mention's content. This two-stage process - query for collection, keywords for organization - gives you flexibility in how you monitor and analyze conversations.
What Happens When You Activate a Campaign
The moment you click "Activate" on a campaign, Socialhose springs into action behind the scenes. For each platform you selected - Twitter/X, Instagram, Reddit, LinkedIn, Facebook, or TikTok - the system creates dedicated live searches that will execute your configured search query against that platform.
This isn't a one-time operation. Social listening requires continuous monitoring because new conversations happen every minute. The system creates a structured collection mechanism that will run repeatedly for as long as your campaign remains active, ensuring you capture both historical context and ongoing conversations.
Bootstrap Searches: Capturing History
The first search that runs for any new campaign is the bootstrap search. This is a special one-time operation designed to give you immediate context by collecting historical data - posts that already exist on social platforms matching your search query.
Bootstrap searches reach back up to 30 days into the past, depending on what each platform makes available. This historical collection serves several important purposes. It establishes a baseline for your monitoring, showing you the existing conversation landscape before you started tracking. It provides immediate value - you don't have to wait days or weeks to see meaningful data. And it helps you validate your search query configuration by revealing whether your query terms capture the right conversations.
Bootstrap searches typically complete within 15-30 minutes, though this varies based on how much historical content exists for your query terms. A very broad query might take longer because there's more content to process. A highly specific query might complete quickly but return fewer results. After the bootstrap completes, you'll have a foundation of historical mentions in your campaign, and the system transitions to periodic collection.
Live Searches: Continuous Monitoring
After the bootstrap, live searches take over. These run on a configurable schedule to capture new content as it's posted across social platforms. Unlike the bootstrap, which runs once and completes, live searches run indefinitely as long as your campaign is active.
Each live search execution sends your search query to the platforms and retrieves content posted since the last run. The system keeps track of what it's already collected to avoid duplicates. New content matching your query gets ingested, processed through AI enrichment, and appears in your mentions list.
Monitoring Speed Tiers
Socialhose offers three monitoring speed tiers that you can configure per campaign:
Standard Monitoring (Daily) collects mentions once every 24 hours. This is the most economical option, ideal for background intelligence, trend tracking, and competitive analysis where same-day response isn't critical. At 1 search run per day per platform, it consumes minimal quota.
High-Frequency Monitoring (Hourly) is the default for most campaigns, running live searches every hour. This provides same-day visibility into conversations and is suitable for active brand monitoring, product launches, and marketing campaign tracking. With 24 live search runs per day per platform, it balances responsiveness with reasonable quota consumption.
Crisis Mode (5-Minute Intervals) provides near-real-time detection, executing searches every 5 minutes. Use this during active crisis situations, major announcements, or sensitive periods where every minute counts. At 288 search runs per day per platform, crisis mode is designed for temporary activation rather than continuous operation - most organizations escalate to crisis mode during specific events and return to hourly monitoring afterward.
Choosing Your Monitoring Speed
Match your monitoring speed to your actual response capability and needs:
If your team reviews mentions daily and responds within business hours, hourly monitoring provides plenty of lead time. If you're tracking a potential reputation issue where viral spread could happen in minutes, crisis mode ensures you see content almost as soon as it's posted. If you're monitoring competitors for quarterly planning purposes, daily collection captures the trends you need without consuming premium resources.
You can adjust monitoring speed at any time. A common pattern: run most campaigns on hourly monitoring, temporarily elevate specific campaigns to crisis mode during sensitive periods (product launches, executive announcements, emerging issues), then return to hourly once the situation stabilizes.
Platform Considerations
Each platform has slightly different characteristics. Twitter/X and Reddit tend to have the fastest turnaround because of how their platforms expose content. Instagram and Facebook may have longer intervals due to platform-specific limitations. LinkedIn collection depends on public content availability in professional contexts.
Monitoring Live Search Status
You can view and manage all Live Searches for a campaign through the "Manage Live Searches" tab. This interface shows you exactly what's happening with your data collection.
Each Live Search displays several key pieces of information. The status tells you the current state: Running means the Search is actively collecting data right now; Completed means the last run finished successfully; Scheduled means the Search is waiting for its next run time; Failed indicates something went wrong on the last attempt; Cancelled means the Search was stopped (usually because you paused the campaign); and Idle means the Search is between runs.
The query field shows the search query this search is executing. This is what gets sent to the platform's search API. If you're not seeing expected results, check that your query includes the right terms.
The last run timestamp shows when the search most recently executed. If you're troubleshooting missing mentions, this tells you the last time collection happened. The next run timestamp shows when the search will execute again, helping you understand the collection rhythm.
Run count tracks how many times this search has executed since the campaign was activated. This cumulative counter helps you understand overall collection activity. Document count shows the total number of mentions this specific search has collected across all its runs - a useful indicator of how productive your search query is on each platform.
The Data Flow: From Post to Mention
Understanding the complete journey from a social media post to a mention in your dashboard helps demystify how the system works.
It starts when someone posts content on a social platform that matches your search query. During the next scheduled search run, Socialhose executes your query against the platform and retrieves this content along with any other matching posts since the last collection.
Each piece of retrieved content goes through a normalization process that converts platform-specific formats into a standardized mention structure. Regardless of whether content came from Twitter, Reddit, or LinkedIn, it ends up in a consistent format with the same fields: content text, author information, engagement metrics, timestamp, and source URL.
The campaign association happens automatically based on which Live Search retrieved the content. Since each Live Search is linked to a specific campaign, mentions automatically inherit that association. Important: Campaign assignment comes from the Live Search linkage, not from keyword matching. The search query determines collection; the search-campaign link determines where mentions land.
After collection and campaign assignment, keyword matching runs. Socialhose checks the mention content against your campaign's keyword list and records which keywords appear in the "keywords matched" field. This enables filtering and categorization in your dashboard - you can filter mentions by keyword to focus on specific topics within your broader collection.
Next comes AI enrichment. Each mention passes through natural language processing that analyzes sentiment (positive, neutral, or negative), extracts named entities (people, organizations, products, locations), detects intent (is this a question, complaint, praise, or informational statement?), and identifies key phrases and topics. This enrichment runs automatically and completes within seconds of ingestion.
Finally, the fully processed mention appears in your campaign's mentions list, ready for you to review, filter by keyword, export, or include in alerts.
Understanding Quota Consumption
Your subscription limits the number of concurrent Live Searches you can run simultaneously, based on monitoring tiers.
Plans allow a predefined mix of active searches, such as 100 Standard Monitoring (daily), or combinations like 80 Standard and 20 High-Frequency (hourly).
This enables running multiple daily and hourly searches at once, without per-execution charges.
Collected mentions count separately against your monthly mention volume limit - a search may retrieve zero or many mentions.
Monitor usage in Profile & Settings → Organization. To optimize, pause unused campaigns, reduce platforms in low-priority ones, or upgrade for more concurrent searches.
Troubleshooting Common Issues
Several issues can affect search performance, and knowing how to diagnose them saves time and frustration.
If Live Searches aren't running at all, first verify your campaign is in Active status. Paused or draft campaigns don't trigger search runs. Check the Live Search status in Manage Live Searches - a Failed status indicates something went wrong, often with temporary platform issues that resolve on subsequent runs. If you've exceeded your quota limits, live searches may skip runs until your next billing period or until you upgrade.
If searches are running but collecting no mentions, the issue is usually your search query. A query that's too specific might not match any content. Try broadening your query terms or adding more variations using OR operators. Also consider that some platforms simply may not have much content for your particular topic - a B2B software product might have extensive LinkedIn discussion but minimal TikTok presence.
If you're collecting too much irrelevant content, your search query is too broad. Add exclusion terms using NOT or minus operators to filter out noise patterns you've identified. Review your first batch of mentions to understand what irrelevant content is getting through, then add appropriate exclusions to your query like "-jobs -careers -hiring" to exclude job postings.
If mention volume suddenly dropped, check whether your search query still matches how people discuss your brand. Language evolves, products get renamed, and platform conventions change. A query configuration that worked six months ago might need updates to stay effective.
If keywords aren't matching as expected, remember that keywords only match within already-collected mentions. If a term isn't in your search query, posts containing only that term won't be collected in the first place - and thus won't be available for keyword matching. To capture content, the term must be in your search query.
Queries vs. Keywords: Quick Reference
This distinction is fundamental to effective campaign management:
Search Queries (what searches execute):
Determine what content gets collected from platforms
Run against platform search APIs
Support Boolean operators (OR, AND, NOT, quotes)
Configured per-search and synced with campaign settings
If a term isn't in the query, that content won't be collected
Keywords (post-collection pattern matching):
Applied to mentions after they're collected
Used for categorization and filtering
Stored in the "keywords matched" field on each mention
Power mailing list filters and alert targeting
Only match within already-collected mentions
Live Search Lifecycle and Campaign States
Live Searches are tightly coupled to campaign states. When you pause a campaign, all its searches stop running - no new data is collected during the pause. Existing mentions remain accessible; you just won't get new ones. When you resume the campaign, searches restart from the current moment. There's no backfill for the paused period - mentions that happened while paused are missed.
If you archive or delete a campaign, its Live Searches are permanently cancelled. Archived campaign data remains accessible but static. Deleted campaigns and all their data are removed.
When you edit a campaign's search query or platform selections, the changes take effect on the next scheduled search run. You don't need to deactivate and reactivate the campaign - just save your changes and wait for the next collection cycle.
Understanding live searches transforms social listening from a mysterious black box into a transparent system you can monitor, optimize, and troubleshoot. The searches are your tireless workers, continuously executing your search queries against social platforms and delivering relevant conversations to your dashboard. Treating them as a visible, manageable component of your monitoring strategy - and understanding how they differ from keywords - helps you get more value from your social listening investment.
