Facebook-owned social media monitoring tool CrowdTangle has launched a new search feature to help journalists and students track down relevant information on evolving web trends.
As shared by CrowdTangle CEO Brendon Silverman:
Today, we are launching CrowdTangle Search, a powerful new tool that lets our users search memes, see social trends over time and access page transparency data across FB, IG and Reddit (2/3) pic.twitter.com/x2lCHGAi9O
— Brandon Silverman (@brandon33175) March 17, 2020
As you can see here, the new option will enable CrowdTangle users to search for any term in order to access a display of all the relevant mentions, along with a chart showing the query’s popularity, based on post volume over time. You can also narrow down your search by platform or to specific time frames, and even by memes specifically, using the additional qualifiers along the right of the main screen.
CrowdTangle isn’t available to everyone, with only selected users allowed to access the tool, so the update is not universally helpful. But for those who can access the platform, it can be hugely helpful in keeping track of the evolving Facebook and Instagram conversation, and this new search option will only make it more valuable in this respect.
In addition to this, CrowdTangle has also added a new set of publicly available, regional dashboards for COVID-19, highlighting all the relevant, public Facebook and Instagram posts on the subject across 45 markets.
Click into any of these regional displays and you’ll be shown a dashboard of mentions specifically relevant to that region.
The dashboards are similar to the US Presidential Election dashboard CrowdTangle also rolled out recently, which, in that instance, aims to provide more transparency over branded content funded by political candidates.
The public COVID-19 info displays provide a broader picture of what’s being shared in relation to the pandemic, including major announcements from news outlets and smaller-scale notes and discussions posted on each platform. Which is interesting, and definitely gives you a better understanding of the evolving impacts, but like all the COVID-19 info at the moment, it can also be a little overwhelming, with so much happening, and so little control or insight into how the tide might shift.
Maybe best for use in moderation – but if you’re working for a news organization or in government, the dashboards could prove hugely valuable in keeping up to date with the impacts.
You can access the COVID-19 regional dashboards here.
