monitoring-brand-mentions-on-twitter

Monitoring Brand Mentions on Twitter

Collects all public tweets mentioning a brand, product, or keyword on Twitter/X within a date range. Groups by sentiment, surfaces top complaints and praise, and provides engagement totals.

Prerequisites

• APIFY_TOKEN environment variable set
• Optional: Apify MCP server installed

Inputs

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Notes
searchTerms	array	✅	[]	Twitter advanced search queries (e.g. ["#AI lang:en", "from:NASA"])
sort	string	Optional	Top	Sort order: Latest, Top, or Latest+Top
tweetLanguage	string	Optional	—	ISO 639-1 language code (e.g. en)
maxItems	number	Optional	Unlimited	Maximum tweets to return
onlyVerifiedUsers	boolean	Optional	false	Only tweets from verified users
onlyTwitterBlue	boolean	Optional	false	Only Twitter Blue subscribers
onlyImage	boolean	Optional	false	Only tweets with images
onlyVideo	boolean	Optional	false	Only tweets with videos
onlyQuote	boolean	Optional	false	Only quote tweets
author	string	Optional	—	Filter to a specific author handle
inReplyTo	string	Optional	—	Tweets replying to a specific handle
mentioning	string	Optional	—	Tweets mentioning a specific handle
geotaggedNear	string	Optional	—	Tweets near a location
withinRadius	string	Optional	—	Radius around geotaggedNear
geocode	string	Optional	—	Lat/lng + radius string
placeObjectId	string	Optional	—	Tweets tagged with a place
minimumRetweets	number	Optional	—	Minimum retweet count
minimumFavorites	number	Optional	—	Minimum like count
minimumReplies	number	Optional	—	Minimum reply count
start	string	Optional	—	Tweets after this date (YYYY-MM-DD)
end	string	Optional	—	Tweets before this date (YYYY-MM-DD)
includeSearchTerms	boolean	Optional	false	Add the matched search term to each tweet
customMapFunction	string	Optional	—	JavaScript function to transform each output object

Workflow

Progress:
- [ ] Step 1: Define brand terms and date range
- [ ] Step 2: Run tweet-scraper
- [ ] Step 3: Retrieve dataset
- [ ] Step 4: Classify sentiment (positive/negative/neutral)
- [ ] Step 5: Deliver structured report

Step 1: Clarify Parameters

Ask the user for:

• Brand terms — brand name, handle, product name, hashtag, and common misspellings. Build a list. Example: ["@Nike", "Nike", "#Nike", "Nike shoes"]
• Date range — e.g., "last 7 days" or specific dates
• Exclude retweets? (default: yes — filters noise)
• Min engagement (optional — e.g., tweets with ≥10 likes only)
• Language (default: all)

Step 2: Run tweet-scraper

Run once per major search term to maximize coverage. Combine results after.

Recommended — run_actor.js (handles waiting, output, and file saving automatically):

# Quick answer (prints table to chat)
node scripts/run_actor.js \
  --actor "apidojo~tweet-scraper" \
  --input '{"param": "value"}'

# Save as CSV
node scripts/run_actor.js \
  --actor "apidojo~tweet-scraper" \
  --input '{"param": "value"}' \
  --output YYYY-MM-DD_results.csv --format csv

# Save as JSON
node scripts/run_actor.js \
  --actor "apidojo~tweet-scraper" \
  --input '{"param": "value"}' \
  --output YYYY-MM-DD_results.json --format json

APIFY_TOKEN must be set in environment or .env file.

If Apify MCP is available:

Tool: apify:run-actor
Actor: "apidojo~tweet-scraper"
Input:
{
  "searchTerms": ["[BRAND_TERM]"],
  "maxItems": 500,
  "includeReplies": true,
  "tweetLanguage": "en",
  "since": "[YYYY-MM-DD]",
  "until": "[YYYY-MM-DD]"
}

If Apify MCP is not available:

curl -X POST \
  "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/apidojo~tweet-scraper/runs?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "searchTerms": ["[BRAND_TERM]"],
    "maxItems": 500,
    "includeReplies": true,
    "since": "[YYYY-MM-DD]",
    "until": "[YYYY-MM-DD]"
  }'

Run for each brand term in the list. Wait for SUCCEEDED, collect all results.

Step 3: Fetch and Merge Results

curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/actor-runs/$RUN_ID/dataset/items?token=$APIFY_TOKEN"

Merge datasets from all runs. Deduplicate by tweet id. Result: unified list of all mentions.

Step 4: Classify Sentiment

For each tweet's text field, apply a simple classification pass:

Positive signals: words like "love", "great", "amazing", "best", "recommend", "thank", "perfect" Negative signals: words like "hate", "awful", "broken", "scam", "worst", "never again", "disappointed", "avoid" Neutral: everything else (announcements, news, questions)

Group tweets into three buckets: Positive, Negative, Neutral.

Identify top 5 most-engaged negative tweets (these need the fastest response). Identify top 5 most-engaged positive tweets (retweet candidates / testimonial material).

Step 5: Format Report

Use the output template below.

Output Format

# Brand Mention Report: [BRAND]
Period: [START_DATE] – [END_DATE] | Total mentions: [N] | Analyzed: [DATE]

## Sentiment Summary
| Sentiment | Count | % of Total | Avg Engagement |
|-----------|-------|------------|----------------|
| Positive  | [N]   | [X%]       | [likes+RT avg] |
| Negative  | [N]   | [X%]       | [likes+RT avg] |
| Neutral   | [N]   | [X%]       | [likes+RT avg] |

## 🔴 Top Negative Mentions (Action Required)
1. @[handle] ([likes] likes): "[tweet text excerpt]" → [url]
2. @[handle] ([likes] likes): "[tweet text excerpt]" → [url]
3. @[handle] ([likes] likes): "[tweet text excerpt]" → [url]

## 🟢 Top Positive Mentions (Amplify These)
1. @[handle] ([likes] likes): "[tweet text excerpt]" → [url]
2. @[handle] ([likes] likes): "[tweet text excerpt]" → [url]
3. @[handle] ([likes] likes): "[tweet text excerpt]" → [url]

## Volume Over Time
[Day 1]: [N] mentions | [Day 2]: [N] mentions | [Day 3]: [N] mentions...

## Key Themes in Negative Mentions
- [Theme 1]: [N] tweets (e.g., "shipping delays")
- [Theme 2]: [N] tweets (e.g., "customer service")

## Key Themes in Positive Mentions
- [Theme 1]: [N] tweets
- [Theme 2]: [N] tweets

Troubleshooting

Too many results for popular brands: Increase minLikes filter to 5 or 10 to focus on influential mentions. Missing mentions: Twitter search API has ~7-10 day lookback limit for free tier. For historical data, reduce date range. Sentiment misclassification: Sarcasm is hard to catch with keyword matching — flag high-engagement tweets for manual review.