PolicyNote tracks social media posts from U.S. federal and state legislators and executives across X (Twitter), Bluesky, and Truth Social. You can monitor what lawmakers are saying about your organization and issues in real time, directly from your dashboard and through Discover search.
The Two Entry Points
Social media in PolicyNote works in two places with different levels of functionality:
Dashboard widgets: Passive monitoring. A live feed of posts mentioning your organization and keywords, plus trend data showing which legislators are most vocal over time. Good for staying current without actively searching.
Discover: Full functionality. Search and filter social posts alongside legislation, create reports, save searches.
Setting Up Your Dashboard Widgets
Two social media widgets are available to add to your dashboard.
Stakeholder Mentions widget
Shows recent posts from legislators and officials that mention your organization or tracked keywords.
To configure it:
- Add the widget to your dashboard via Configure Dashboard > Add Module.
- Open the widget settings and enter the keywords you want to monitor like your organization's name and common variations, key staff, products, campaigns, competitors, or any other terms relevant to your work.
- Not sure what to enter? Click Draft Settings for Me and PolicyNote will use what it knows about your organization to suggest keywords automatically.
From the widget, you can click through to view any post on its original platform or navigate directly to the legislator's PolicyNote or social media profile.
Social Discussion Trends widget
Shows volume trends for mentions of your organization or any keyword over time, and surfaces which legislators are posting most about your issues.
Use this to spot shifts in conversation volume. A sudden spike often signals something worth investigating before it shows up in legislation.
Searching Social Media in Discover
For more than monitoring, use Discover. Switch to Keyword Search, enter your terms, and social media posts will appear alongside legislative results.
To see only social posts, select Stakeholder Social Posts under Content Type in the filters.
Additional filters available for social search:
- Social media platform (X, Bluesky, Truth Social)
- Stakeholder type (Senator, Representative, executive branch officials, state legislators)
- Party
- Last Updated Date
Social media searches can be saved for future use by clicking Save Search. Saved searches can be accessed from the Saved Searches panel in Discover.
Creating Reports on Social Media
Once you've filtered social results in Discover to the set of posts you want, click Create Report for All to generate a social media report. Reports include:
- Total post count and number of stakeholders who posted
- Percentage change in posting volume over the timeframe
- Trend over time visualization
- Party breakdown over time
- Most vocal stakeholders
Reports can be downloaded, shared, scheduled for automatic delivery, or embedded. → See Generating & Sharing Policy Reports for how sharing and scheduling work — the process is the same for social reports.
Saving Social Media Searches
You can save a social media search for quick access in the future. Run your search in Discover, filter to Stakeholder Social Posts, and click Save Search.
Saved searches can be accessed from the Saved Searches panel within Discover and reused whenever needed.
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