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You have built your keyword list, you are excited, and now you are staring at the search bar of your social listening tool. The question is: how do you turn that list into a powerful search that gives you the good stuff without all the noise?
Boolean logic is the secret sauce. It is a simple but sharp language that lets you combine and filter keywords with real precision. Get it right, and you will move from clumsy searches to insights you can actually use.
What is Boolean Logic?
Think of Boolean logic as a set of digital filters. With just a handful of operators, you can tell your social listening tool what to include, what to ignore, and how terms should combine. Master these, and you are no longer just searching, you are interrogating the data.
The Core Operators
AND (The Narrower)
Use AND to find results that contain all your keywords. It makes your search more specific.
Example: ("digital banking" AND "customer service") will only show posts that mention both terms. Perfect if you want to see conversations about customer experience with digital banking.
OR (The Broadener)
Use OR to find results that contain at least one of your keywords. This is how you scoop up synonyms, nicknames, or different phrasings.
Example: ("banking app" OR "mobile banking" OR "internet banking") will pull any mention of those terms, so you do not miss the variations people use.
NOT (The Excluder)
Use NOT to cut out keywords that muddy your search.
Example: (Capitec NOT "student account") will keep conversations about Capitec but drop the ones about student accounts if that is not your focus.
Putting it Together: Nesting for Precision
Parentheses are your best friend. They let you combine operators to build more advanced queries.
Banking Fraud Example
Imagine you want to detect conversations where customers are warning others about scams:
("phishing scam" OR "card fraud" OR "banking fraud")
AND (warning OR beware OR scammer OR "be careful")
NOT ("security tip" OR "banking advice")
This says: find conversations mentioning fraud, where the tone is a warning, but exclude official security-tip posts that could skew your analysis.
👉 If fraud risk is a key concern, you may also find our 5 Ways Social Monitoring Helps Banks Spot Fraud Signals Fast useful.
Beyond the Syntax
Boolean logic gives you control, but the platform powers the result. Tools like Brandwatch come with query builders, AI-driven sentiment analysis, and local language detection that make your Boolean queries even sharper.
Next Step
If you want to see how strong your listening really is, try our Easy Peasy Social Health Check. It is a quick way to benchmark your brand’s social maturity and spot the gaps.
