Boolean search is a search method that combines keywords with operators like AND, OR and NOT to include, broaden or exclude results. In social media, it’s the logic behind the queries social listening tools use to find relevant conversations.

How Boolean search works

The term Boolean comes from its inventor, George Boole. Today, it’s how you tell a social listening tool what to find and what to skip.

Each operator gives your search a specific instruction:

  • AND: Narrows results to posts that contain every term, like coffee AND “oat milk”.
  • OR: Broadens results to posts with any term, which makes it ideal for synonyms and misspellings.
  • NOT: Excludes noise, so jaguar NOT car skips posts about vehicles.
  • Quotation marks: Matches an exact phrase, so “customer care” won’t return posts with those words scattered apart.
  • Parentheses: Groups terms so the tool reads your logic in the right order.
  • Proximity: Finds terms within a set number of words of each other.

Syntax varies by tool, and many tools expect operators in capital letters. In Sprout Social’s query builder, proximity follows the format term \~n term, so coffee \~3 cold finds posts where coffee appears within three words of cold.

Boolean search vs. keyword search

A plain keyword search matches words loosely. Type jaguar and you’ll get cats, cars and sports teams in one crowded feed.

Boolean search defines how your terms relate, so you decide what belongs in the results. That control matters most when you monitor your brand and your name doubles as an everyday word.

Boolean search query example

Here’s a brand monitoring query that uses Sprout Social as the example brand:

("Sprout Social" OR SproutSocial OR "Sprout Socail") AND (pricing OR "customer care") NOT (hiring OR jobs)
  • The first group catches the brand name, a one-word handle and a common misspelling.
  • The second group limits results to the topics you care about.
  • The NOT group removes job posts that mention the brand.

Run the filtered results through sentiment analysis to see how people feel about each topic. When you’re ready to go deeper, learn how to build better listening queries.

Skip the syntax memorization with Sprout Social’s Listening Query Builder. Sign up for a demo.