Volume

The Volume tab measures the size and rhythm of the conversation: how many posts the query matches, what a typical interval looks like, when activity peaked, and which way it is heading. It is also the tab where time range adjustments usually begin: its charts tell you when something happened, and narrowing the range to those days lets the other tabs and the feed explain what.

The page adapts to the number of queries in the query bar. With a single query it shows the layout described in the next section. When two or more queries are active, a toggle appears above the results with three views: Compare sets the queries against each other, Aggregate combines them into one conversation, and Select focuses on one of them at a time. For the query bar itself, including syntax, time ranges, and display names, see Getting Started.

Single query (Select)

The layout with one query in the query bar, also rendered by the Select view for whichever query you choose when several are active.

Stats bar

Total Volume is the number of posts matching the query in the selected time range. It is the most direct measure of how much attention the subject commands, and it calibrates every other reading: percentages and scores computed over a handful of posts deserve less weight than the same figures over tens of thousands. Against a reference point it also works as a trend instrument, since the same query run over different ranges, or checked again next week, shows whether the subject is gaining or losing attention.

Average Volume is the mean number of posts per interval, computed from completed intervals only; the current day or week, still accumulating posts, is left out so a partial count does not understate it. This is the tab's baseline. Judge individual bars in the chart below against it: a day at twice the average is an event worth explaining, while a day slightly above it is ordinary fluctuation.

Peak Volume is the busiest interval's post count, with its date. A peak almost always marks an event, and identifying it is usually the first concrete lead the tab produces: narrow the time range to the days around that date, and the feed and the other measure tabs will describe what set it off and how the conversation received it.

Volume Trend is the direction of the series: the average change from one completed interval to the next, expressed as a percentage of average volume and labeled Increasing or Decreasing, or Stable when there is no net movement. It separates momentum from size, which the other three cells cannot: a modest conversation that is steadily increasing may deserve more attention than a large one that is cooling, since the trend is the earlier signal.

Volume over time

One bar per interval shows when the conversation happened. The toggle switches between three readings of the same series:

• Volume is the raw post count per interval, the view for locating the story in time. Read it with Average Volume in mind: the bars that rise well above the baseline are the days worth narrowing the time range onto.
• Rate of Change is the difference between each interval and the one before, increases in green and decreases in red. It shows momentum directly: a sustained run of green marks a conversation still building even before its raw bars look tall, while alternating colors suggest ordinary day-to-day variation rather than a developing story.
• Cumulative is the running total from the start of the range. A straight diagonal means a steady pace, a steepening curve means acceleration, and a flattening curve means the burst has run its course. This is the clearest view for deciding whether a spike is over or still unfolding.

Activity by day

This chart regroups the range's volume by day of the week, Monday through Sunday. It exposes the conversation's weekly rhythm, which the time series hides inside its day-to-day noise: discussion concentrated on weekdays tends to indicate professional or news-driven contexts, while weekend weight points to leisure audiences. Knowing the rhythm also keeps readings honest, since a quiet Saturday may be entirely normal for the subject rather than a decline.

Aggregate

Aggregate sizes the subject as a whole: the same stats and charts computed over every post matching any of the queries, with overlap counted once, so the total is a count of distinct posts rather than a sum of the per-query numbers. Use it when the queries are facets of one subject, such as a brand and its product names, and the question is how much attention the family commands overall.

Compare

In the Compare view, every element measures the queries against each other. Each query keeps the color and display name it has in the query bar, and all queries are measured over the same range and intervals.

Stats bar

Highest Volume and Lowest Volume bracket the attention ranking, each naming a query with its post count. Highest Volume is the share-of-attention verdict: which subject the public talks about most. The counts also calibrate the rest of the comparison, since shares and scores from low-volume queries rest on fewer posts and deserve more caution.

Highest Variation and Lowest Variation name the most volatile and the steadiest conversations. Variation is the spread between a query's busiest and quietest completed interval, relative to its typical interval. High variation suggests an event-driven subject that surges and empties with the news cycle; low variation suggests a steady background presence. Two queries with similar totals can sit at opposite ends here, and that difference in character changes how much any single day's reading is worth for each.

Volume

One bar per query shows total matching posts on a shared scale, making the attention gap visible at a glance. The gap itself is a finding: a challenger generating half an incumbent's conversation tells a different story than one generating two percent of it. Keep these totals in mind when reading the composition charts on the other measure tabs, which normalize each query to its own total and therefore hide the difference in scale shown here.

Volume over time

The time series stacks the queries within each interval, with a toggle between three readings:

• Volume stacks raw counts, showing the combined conversation and each query's contribution to it. When the combined total spikes, the segment colors show which query drove the surge.
• Distribution normalizes each interval to 100%, showing each query's share of the conversation regardless of how the total moves. This is the view for shifts in relative attention: one subject's share steadily expanding at another's expense stays visible even while the overall total swings.
• Cumulative stacks each query's running total, showing which subject accumulates conversation faster across the whole range and whether the gap between them is widening or closing, independent of any single day's noise.

Activity by day

The weekly rhythm chart, stacked by query. It reveals whether the compared subjects live on the same schedule: a weekday-heavy query set against a weekend-heavy one suggests different audiences and contexts even when their totals are similar, which is useful context for every other difference in the comparison.