One of the most common questions we hear from new Meltwater users:
“What source types can I actually track in Explore?”
“Where do I find this list?”
Great question! Explore pulls content from many source types, but what’s available to you depends on your package and region.
🔍How to Check What’s in Your Account
You can easily check this at any time by doing the following:
Mira Companion
- Select Meltwater Companion at the top of your screen
- Click Provide Account Support
- Type “What are the source types included in my account?”
Explore
- Click Explore in the left-hand navigation bar
- Navigate to the search options section and select Keyword Search or Advanced Search
- Click the Source type drop-down
-
All sources included in your subscription will be listed in this drop-down
This will show you the exact list of sources currently available to your account.
📚 Common Source Types Available
Here’s a breakdown of the types of content you may see in your Explore results and where the data comes from:
| Source Type | How This Content Appears in Explore |
| Online News | Global online news sites, industry publications, and news wires. Indexed continuously. |
| X (formerly Twitter) | Public X posts from global users, including hashtags, mentions, and retweets. |
| | Posts and engagement from Facebook Pages connected via Monitored Connections. Public pages only, no personal profiles or Groups. |
| | Posts from Instagram Business Accounts and Hashtags connected via Monitored Connections. Stories supported when authorized. |
| YouTube | Public video metadata and comments from YouTube channels, depending on your package. |
| Broadcast | Transcripts of TV and radio programming where available (depends on package & region). |
| | Scanned images and text of articles from print newspapers and magazines (if included in your package). |
| Podcasts | Transcripts from publicly available podcasts across global directories. |
| Forums | Content from public forums and discussion boards. Indexed based on site permissions and availability. |
| Blogs | Public blogs across global publishing platforms and independent sites. |
| Consumer Reviews | Product and service reviews from major global review platforms (if included in your package). |
➕ A Quick Note on Monitored Connections
Some platforms (like Facebook and Instagram) require an extra step to bring in their content to Explore.
If you want to track posts from your brand’s pages, competitors’ pages, or Instagram hashtags, you’ll need to set up Monitored Connections first. This is done by clicking the arrow next to Account on the left-hand navigation bar and Social Connections.
- Once connected, that content will flow into Explore searches, dashboards, and reports — just like any other source.
- For how to set up Monitored Connections check out our tutorial, Monitoring Social Channels in Explore
In Summary
- You can always check your available sources in Explore > Source Type or by asking Meltwater Companion
- Your available sources depend on your package + region
- Adding Monitored Connections gives you access to Facebook and Instagram content in Explore
For full details check out our Source Types page.
💬 Still have questions? Drop them below this post, we’re happy to help!