Social Listening Query Writing Competition 2026

Boolean brilliance meets real-world complexity.

Think you’ve mastered the art of turning digital noise into strategic signal? It’s time to prove it. The Social Listening Query Writing Competition is back for 2026. One brief. One query. One shot at the title. Can you beat hundreds of professionals and be crowned this year’s global query writing champion?

Registrations open July 28th!

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Why do we care about query writing?

Query writing is one of the most important and undervalued skills in social listening. The quality of your query sets the stage for everything that follows: the insight, the story, the strategic impact.

BUT outside of platform trainings, there's almost no space to learn, share, or be recognised for it. That’s why we run this competition: to celebrate the analysts, strategists, and researchers who know how to craft a great query and to give the rest of the industry something to aim for.

Show off your boolean prowess and be in with a chance of winning prizes.

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What to expect

Each year we set a real-world challenge, one that demands precision, creativity, and a good dose of lateral thinking. No simple brand mentions. No obvious keywords. This is about uncovering signal in complexity.

You’ll get the full brief during our live virtual kickoff session. For now? Just know this:

✅ You’ll be writing one Boolean query

✅ You’ll be judged on precision, coverage, and logic

✅ You’ll have the chance to win prizes

✅ And you’ll be competing against some of the sharpest minds in the field

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Who can enter

The Social Listening Query Writing competition is open to individuals who work as freelancers, and those who work in brands, organisations, and agencies. We do not accept entries from individuals working with or affiliated with technology vendors. During the application process, applicants who do not fit the criteria will be eliminated from the competition. Entrants will compete in two categories - Brand and Agency.

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What are the judging criteria?

Entries will be judged according to four criteria:

✅ Relevancy rate: the percentage of comments returned by your query that match the research criteria.

✅ Breadth: signal volume, weighted by relevancy

✅ Structure of your query: logical, readable, and well-constructed Boolean

✅ Logic behind your structure: written rationale explaining why you structured it the way you did.

Scores will be awarded for each category. If multiple competitors achieve the same top score, the winner will be chosen at random from that group.

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Registrations open July 28th!

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