Social Media API Search Guidelines

When searching through social media APIs, having clear guidelines helps you get accurate and relevant results. This guide covers best practices for building effective queries, filtering data, and staying within usage limits.

• General Guidelines
• Platform-Specific Guidelines

General Guidelines

• Avoid special characters
  • Use lowercase, and remove symbols (e.g like #, @, ', and -) or accents for better matching and results.
  • Use normal terms like "loreal" and "anti aging" instead of "L'Oreal" or "anti-aging"
• Keep your queries simple
  • Most platforms prefer simple keyword searches to complicated ones.
  • Break large queries into smaller, more targeted ones for better results.
• Platform-specific behavior
  • Our APIs return data based on what the source platform allows, so results may vary depending on those limits.
• Always test first - platforms behave differently, so start with small test queries before scaling up.

Platform-Specific Guidelines

YouTube

• Supports keyword search
• Supports basic logic like AND, OR, and parentheses.
• Complex searches are valid, but they often return fewer results.
• Use simple, focused keywords for better results.

Examples:

✅ "skincare review", "best serum for dry skin"

✅ ("skincare" OR "beauty") AND ("review" OR "test") → This is allowed by the system

⚠️ But: "skincare review" generally performs better

TikTok

• Supports hashtag and keyword search
• Supports complex queries, but results may be inconsistent.
• Using simple keywords, like hashtags, works best.

Examples:

✅ "neutrogena skincare", "antiagingroutine"

❌ "neutrogena" AND "cleanser" AND "routine"

X (formerly Twitter)

• Allows account scraping - you can enter a specific account URL to collect posts from their feed.
• Best support for boolean logic (AND, OR, parentheses).
• Works well with simple and moderately complex queries.
• Avoid special characters—queries with @, #, or punctuation tend to perform poorly.

Example:

✅ "neutrogena cleanser"

❌ "@neutrogena" AND "cleanser"

✅ "neutrogena" AND "cleanser" → technically valid

⚠️ But: "neutrogena cleanser" generally performs better

Facebook

• We only scrape public content and public posts
• You can discover Company Facebook pages in different regions and maximize the coverage of data (It only works for logged-in users )

Examples:

✅ "https://www.facebook.com/bbc/"

✅ "https://www.facebook.com/Zara"

Bluesky

• No support for logical operators or complex queries.
• Use simple keyword combinations only.

Example:

✅ "neutrogena skincare"

❌ ("neutrogena" OR "cerave") AND "skincare"

Instagram

• No query language support: search is based on hashtags only.
• Use compound keyword-style hashtags for best results.
• Search results are limited, and login restrictions may apply.
• ⚠️ Due to Instagram' restrictions on unauthenticated access, the amount of retrievable data is limited.

Examples:

✅ "mcdonaldsburger", "burgerkingburger"

❌ ("mcdonalds" OR "burger king") AND "burger"

Reddit

• Fully supports boolean logic and advanced query structures.
• Max 250 results per search
• To retrieve more results, split complex queries.

Examples:

✅  "elon musk" AND ("spacex" OR "twitter") → technically valid

⚠️ But: 2 simpler standalone queries are likely to retrieve more data due to the 250 results per search cap. See below:

✅ "elon musk" AND "spacex"

✅ "elon musk" AND "twitter"