Queries help you gather content from Instagram. Think of these as streams of content or results of specific searches. They’re the essential building blocks of Visual Commerce. Without queries you cannot create Boards and add Pins to your Shoppable Galleries/Embeds.
Queries can be created based on an account or a hashtag. After creating a query, content data will be gathered into the platform for you to use next – curate, see analytics, add to Boards.
Let’s have a look at how to create a Query:
- Click the New Query button.
- Decide whether you want to gather data from an account (for example @mcdonalds) or from a hashtag (#TheSaweetieMeal).
NOTE:
Hashtag queries return only media objects published within 24 hours of query created.
- Next, decide if you want to use a limit for the amount of content that will be gathered. Leaving this at 0 will pull all the data it can, starting with the newest posted.
- The Filters section allow you to choose specific content to gather. For example, you might only want to see posts that have between 10-100 likes and 100-200 comments.
- If you want to gather content that contains specific words or hashtags, this next section is for you. Click the “New search term” button. You can add specific words or hashtags (Remember to add # before your hashtag to differentiate from a general word) and the platform will only show those pieces of content that feature those words and/or hashtags within the content piece’s caption.
NOTE:
Mentions are NOT available to be used, as they are not part of the caption itself.
- The Advanced Settings allows you to automatically get new content or only get the content that matches your settings at this time.
NOTE:
The way the Limit and Advanced Settings work: The Limit allows you set a number of pieces of content you’d like to gather. The Advanced Settings allows you to automatically gather new content, each time it’s posted. Remember – hashtag queries returns only media objects published within 24 hours of Query created.
Viewing and editing Queries is simple and fast:
To view an existing Query go to the Content section, then Search. This will take you to the Search Dashboard with all your queries.
Once you click on a Query you’ll get to a new in-depth screen about the content within.
The very top left section shows if your Query is based on an Instagram account (you’ll see the “@” symbol) or a hashtag (the “#” symbol). Next to it is a button featuring 3 horizontal dots. Clicking on it brings up the menu, allowing you to edit or delete that Query.
At the top left you’ll see 4 numbers:
- Total Content – The total amount of content within your Flaminjoy account – images, carousels, videos.
- Total Images – The total number of Images in this Query.
- Total Carousels – The total number of Carousels in this Query.
- Total Videos – The total number of Videos in this Query.
Editing a query can be done from 2 places:
- The options menu, from the Search Dashboard itself
- The options menu, once you’re viewing a Query
Either one you’ll choose, you’ll get to the same screen, to edit your Query. You can change anything about a Query (Filters, Hashtags, Words, Advanced Settings) except the associated Account or Hashtag. Changing this would transform it into a new Query.
If you are looking to change that, refer back to the beginning of this article, to learn how to create a new Query from scratch.
NOTE:
After you make changes to your Query, existing content will be filtered. For example, let’s say you’ve created a Query based on the “@cocacola” account, gathered 100 pieces of content. Then you’ve edited your Query to also include the word “happy” in captions. Those original 100 pieces of content will be filtered to only show the new pieces of content that include that word. Similarly, if you’ve started with a word in captions and then removed it, the number of pieces of content will grow, having access to more data.
READ MORE:
See all of the Content support articles in their dedicated section.
