Twitter

Here are the useful operators to create a Twitter Topic.

The CTRL+F command and Command+F on a Macbook allows you to easily find your operator in the table.

You can download this page in PDF.

List of boolean operators:

Symbol	Use	Example
Space	To associate words, corresponds to the logical "AND".	bank scandal It focuses on posts that contain these two keywords, regardless of their position within the post.
OR	To search for one word or another. Corresponds to the logical "OR".	scandal OR boycott It focuses on posts that contain at least one of these two keywords.
Sign -	To exclude a word.	-bank To avoid fetching posts that contain this word.
Bracket ()	To make groups. By default AND (space) has priority over OR (OR).	(scandal OR boycott) bank (scandal OR boycott) (banks OR bank) bank scandal -(director OR CEO)
Quote mark ""	To monitor an exact expression.	"General company" instead of General company to avoid picking up tweets such as: "the company had planned a general meeting for this day".

Each line is independent (a new line is the equivalent of an OR with brackets around the line).

There is no need to put the different variants with and without capital letters: Visibrain automatically takes into account all case variants.

Conversely, you have to think about listing the different variants of accentuation (é, à, ç, û, ï...). Indeed, Visibrain considers a word with accent different than a word without accent.

All operators work retroactively except those in orange.

It is currently not possible to retrieve data retroactively on these operators.

At first, you can create a Topic without these operators to retrieve the data retroactively, then add them by editing the Topic afterwards.

Tweet content operators

Operator	Explanation	Example
key-word	Captures all posts containing the keyword, or the keyword with a # in front (hashtag).	car Captures all publications with the keyword "car" or the hashtag #car.
"exact expression"	Captures all publications containing the exact expression, i.e. all the words of the phrase, in this precise order.	"blue car" Catch all posts with the keyword expression "blue car" in them. Does NOT pick up the following content: blue car and yellow car.
#hashtag	Captures all posts containing the hashtag.	#car Captures all publications with the hashtag #car in it. Does NOT pick up posts with the keyword "car", without #.
emoji	Captures all posts containing a specific emoji.	😂 Captures all posts containing the "joy" emoji.
contains:	Captures all posts containing the string "element", including inside a word. Operator not available for retroactive data recovery.	contains:account Captures account, accountability, accountable, accounting ... But also: nonaccountable, unaccounted ...
lang: XX	Allows you to take into account only publications in a particular language. XX= language abbreviation. The main languages: fr (French), en (English), es (Spanish), ja (Japanese). See the list of available languages.	motorcycle lang:fr Captures all French publications with the keyword "motorcycle" in it. motorcycle -lang:ja Does not pick up any publication in English, Japanese...

*In orange, non-retroactive operators.

Twitter account operators

Operator	Explanation	Example
from:user	Captures all @user Twitter account activity.	from:Bloomberg Captures when @Bloomberg writes a tweet, or when @Bloomberg retweets another account. Do NOT pick up when another account retweets @Bloomberg.
retweets_of:user	Captures retweets (made by other accounts) of tweets written by @user.	retweets_of:Bloomberg Captures when @journalist1 retweets a tweet from @Bloomberg. Do NOT capture the initial tweet from @Bloomberg.
@user	Captures when a tweet mentions @user	@Bloomberg Captures when a user writes a tweet "read this on @Bloomberg". Do NOT pick up tweets from @Bloomberg.
to:user	Captures replies addressed to user @user	to:Bloomberg Capture replies to all tweets from @Bloomberg, and also all tweets starting with "@Bloomberg...". Does NOT pick up tweets from @Bloomberg.

*In orange, non-retroactive operators.

The from: retweets_of: to: and url: operators are used without the @ in the username. If you put the @, your rule will not work.

Don't forget the from:user operator

The retweets_of:user, @user or to:user operators used alone will not catch tweets written by @user, which can lead to strange behavior in the platform later. We recommend that you always use them in conjunction with the from: operator, for example: from:user retweets_of:user

Web content operators (articles, photos, videos)

Operator	Explanation	Example
url:key-word url:"exact expression"	Captures all web content whose URL contains the keyword (or exact expression).	url:"bloomberg.com" Captures all publications from the bloomberg.com website
url_title:key-word url_title:"exact expression"	Captures all web content whose title contains the keyword (or exact expression). Operator not available for retroactive data recovery.	url_title:"Breaking News" Captures all posts titled "Breaking News" (exact expression). url_title:Breaking url_title:News Captures all posts containing the keywords Breaking and News in their title (regardless of keyword order).
url_description:key-word url_description:"exact expression"	Captures all web content whose body contains the keyword (or exact expression). Operator not available for retroactive data recovery.	url_description:Amazon Captures all articles with "Amazon" in their cap, and all YouTube videos with "Amazon" in their description.

*In orange, non-retroactive operators.

Operators on Twitter profiles

Operator	Explanation	Example
bio:key-word bio:"exact expression"	Captures all tweets from accounts whose biography contains the exact keyword or exact expression. Operator not available for retroactive data recovery.	bio:journalist Captures all tweets from accounts that have declared themselves as journalists in their bio. (Does NOT pick up "journalists")
bio_name:key-word bio_name:"exact expression"	Captures all tweets from accounts whose full name contains the exact keyword or exact expression. Operator not available for retroactive data recovery.	bio_name:"times" Captures all tweets with "Times" in their full name (eg: @nytimes, @TheTimes_UK...)
profile_point_radius:[LON LAT RAD]	Captures tweets from accounts that have been identified as being in a given circular area. LON = longitude in degrees (±180) LAT = latitude in degrees (±180) RAD = radius of the circle, specifying the unit (between 0 and 25mi or between à and 40km)	profile_point_radius:[2.3412 48.8569 50km] Captures all tweets from accounts that have been identified as in a city less than 50km from Paris.
profile_bounding_box:[LON1 LAT1 LON2 LAT2]	Captures tweets from accounts that have been identified as within a given rectangular area. LON1 and LAT1 = longitude and latitude of the southwest corner of the rectangular area. LON2 and LAT2 = longitude and latitude of the northeast corner of the rectangular area. LON1, LAT1, LON2 and LAT2 in degrees (±180)	profile_bounding_box:[-105.301758 39.964069 -105.178505 40.09455] Captures all tweets from accounts that have been identified as in a city within a rectangle around Boulder, Colorado, USA.
statuses_count:AAA statuses_count:AAA..BBB	Captures all tweets from accounts with a certain activity under their belt. AAA = lower bound BBB = upper bound Operator not available for retroactive data recovery	statuses_count:100 Captures all tweets from accounts that have made at least 100 tweets (in total). statuses_count:100..10000 Captures all tweets from accounts that have tweeted at least 100 (total) but less than 10,000.
followers_count:AAA followers_count:AAA..BBB	Captures all tweets from accounts with a certain number of followers. AAA = lower bound BBB = upper bound Operator not available for retroactive data recovery	followers_count:10000 Captures all tweets from accounts with at least 10,000 followers. followers_count:10000..1000000 Captures all tweets from accounts with at least 10,000 followers, but less than 1 million.
friends_count:AAA friends_count:AAA..BBB	Captures all tweets from accounts with a certain number of followers. AAA = lower bound BBB = upper bound Operator not available for retroactive data recovery	friends_count:10 Captures all tweets from accounts with at least 10,000 followers. friends_count:10..1000 Captures all tweets from accounts with at least 10 followers, but less than 1000.
listed_count:AAA listed_count:AAA..BBB	Captures all tweets from accounts that have been added to a number of lists. AAA = lower bound BBB = upper bound Operator not available for retroactive data recovery	listed_count:100 Captures all tweets from accounts that have been added to at least 100 lists. friends_count:100..1000 Captures all tweets from accounts added to at least 100 lists, but less than 1000.
is:verified	Captures all tweets from verified accounts. LON = longitude in degrees (±180) LAT = latitude in degrees (±180) RAD = radius of the circle, specifying the unit (between 0 and 25mi or between à and 40km)	coca is:verified Captures all tweets containing the keyword coca and written by verified accounts.

*In orange, non-retroactive operators.

Identify influencers through operators on Twitter profiles.

Twitter profile operators are initially used to filter keywords. They can also be hijacked to be used without keywords and thus detect influencers, such as a Twitter profile search engine.

Since most profile operators do not work retroactively, a Topic must be created and left active for a few days, and accounts must have tweeted at least once during the period to appear in the Visibrain platform.

For example, you can use the following rule: (bio:journalist OR bio:writer) followers_count:1000 to capture all the Twitter profiles of journalists, and having at least 1000 followers.

Operators on Twitter GPS geolocation

The following operators on geolocation only concern tweets having activated GPS geolocation, ie: <0.5% of tweets.

Operator	Explanation	Example
point_radius:[LON LAT RAD]	Captures tweets geolocated in a given circular area.	point_radius:[2.3412 48.8569 5km] Captures all tweets geolocated between 0 and 5km from the center of Paris.
bounding_box:[LON1 LAT1 LON2 LAT2]	Captures tweets geolocated in a given rectangular area. LON1 and LAT1 = longitude and latitude of the southwest corner of the rectangular area. LON2 and LAT2 = longitude and latitude of the northeast corner of the rectangular area. LON1, LAT1, LON2 and LAT2 in degrees (±180)	bounding_box:[-105.301758 39.964069 -105.178505 40.09455] Captures all geotagged tweets in a rectangle around Boulder, Colorado, USA.
place:"Place name"	Captures tweets geolocated to a specific location.	place:"Paris" Captures geolocated tweets in Paris.
place_country:XX	Captures tweets that have been geolocated to a certain country. XX = country abbreviation The place_country operator operates on the GPS geolocation of tweets having activated GPS geolocation, ie 0.5% of tweets.	place_country:us Captures tweets geolocated in the United States
has:geo	Captures tweets that contain any geolocation information.	accident has:geo Captures all geotagged tweets that contain the keyword "accident".

*In orange, non-retroactive operators.

Advanced operators

The following advanced operators are useless for the majority of cases. We recommend that you give preference to the operators at the top of the page. If necessary, do not hesitate to contact your account manager so that he/she can advise you on the best rules to use in relation to your problem.

Operator	Explanation	Example
"key-word1 key-word2"~N	Proximity operator between keywords. N = number of words allowed between keyword 1 and keyword 2 (between 1 and 6).	"blue car"~2 Will capture "my red and blue car" But won't pick up "my red car and my blue van"
url_contains:element	Captures all web content whose URL contains the word part "element". Operator not available for retroactive data recovery	url_contains:times Captures all articles from thetimes.co.uk, nytimes.com...
is:retweet	Captures only retweets.	"weak signal" -is:retweet Picks up all original tweets containing the phrase "weak signal", but does not pick up related retweets.
is:quote	Only captures tweets that quote another tweet.	"to unroll" is:quote Captures all tweets containing the keyword "to unroll", and which point to another tweet.
has:links	Captures only tweets containing a link.	"I like" -has:links Captures all tweets that contain the keyword phrase "I like", but do not contain a link.
sample:ZZ	Allows you to retrieve only a sample of the data. ZZ = a percentage, between 1 and 100 Operator not available for retroactive data recovery	coca sample:10 Captures 10% of content containing the keyword "coca".
$SYMBOLE	Captures all posts containing a specific cashtag.	$AMZN Captures all publications containing $AMZN, that is to say evoking the stock market quotation of the company Amazon.
bio_location:key-word	Captures all tweets from accounts with "keyword" in their "Location" field. Operator not available for retroactive data recovery	bio_location:Eiffel Captures all tweets from people who put the keyword "Eiffel" in their "Location" field.
has:profile_geo	Captures all tweets from accounts for which Visibrain has managed to identify (from the "Location" profile field) the location.	bonjour lang:fr has:profile_geo Captures French-speaking tweets containing the keyword "Bonjour", and issued by accounts in which Visibrain has managed to identify the location.
time_zone:"timezone name"	Captures tweets from people who have entered a specific timezone in their profile. Operator not available for retroactive data recovery	time_zone:"Paris" Captures all tweets from profiles who have explicitly set their profile to the Paris timezone (GMT+1).
source:"Twitter client name"	Captures tweets from a specific Twitter client (software). Operator not available for retroactive data recovery	source:tweetdeck Captures tweets sent with TweetDeck (i.e. very often tweets from seasoned users)
has:mentions	Captures tweets that mention another user.	bonjour -has:mentions Captures tweets that contain the keyword "hello", but don't mention another Twitter user.
has:hashtags	Captures tweets containing at least one hashtag.	coca has:hashtags Captures tweets containing the keyword "coca", and any hashtag (for example: "#Love Coke")
has:symbols	Captures tweets containing at least one cashtag.	breaking has:symbols Picks up tweets containing the keyword "breaking", and any cashtag (for example: "Breaking News, $AMZN stock up")
has:media has:images has:video	Captures tweets that contain attached media, or more specifically an image or video.	#NewYear has:media Captures tweets with the hashtag #newyear that contain an image or video. #NewYear has:video Captures tweets with the hashtag #newyear that contain a video (but not those that contain an image).
retweets_of_status_id:ID	Captures all retweets of a specific tweet. ID = the exact id of the desired tweet Operator not available for retroactive data recovery	retweets_of_status_id:821391052594614272 Captures all retweets of this tweet.
in_reply_to_status_id:ID	Captures all tweet replies to a specific tweet. ID = the exact id of the desired tweet Operator not available for retroactive data recovery	in_reply_to_status_id:821391052594614272 Captures all retweets of this tweet.

*In orange, non-retroactive operators.

Operators not available for retroactive recovery

Some operators (in orange) are not available for past data recovery (but they work perfectly for real-time recovery).

You can create your Topic without them at first, then add them later.

If you have validated your Topic without retrieving past data, you can contact your account manager to have past data retrieved for you (on operators that allow it).

Common operators not available in retroactive recovery: contains:, url_title, url_description:, bio:, bio_name:, status_count:, followers_count:, friends_count:, listed_count:

Advanced operators not available in retroactive recovery: url_contains:, sample:, bio_location:, time_zone:, source:, retweets_of_status_id:, in_reply_to_status_id