Abhord Quickstart Guide (2026 Refresh)

Get from zero to insights fast. This practical guide walks new Abhord users through setup, multi-LLM surveying, interpreting results, competitor tracking, and turning findings into action.

What’s new in this edition

Since the last release, Abhord added and refined several capabilities:

• Cross‑model surveys now include consensus scoring (majority vote and pairwise ranking) and per‑model cost/latency reporting.
• Mentions graph deduplication reduces noise from reposts and near‑duplicates, improving share‑of‑voice accuracy.
• Sentiment analysis has been upgraded with a hybrid lexicon+embedding model and confidence scores.
• Rolling 90‑day baselines and anomaly detection highlight meaningful movements vs. short‑term noise.
• Competitor tracking templates, alert rules, and budget guardrails make ongoing monitoring simpler and safer.
• New exports (CSV, JSONL) and webhook triggers streamline handoffs to BI tools and workflows.

1) Initial setup and configuration

1) Create a workspace

• Name it clearly (e.g., “US Consumer SaaS 2026”).
• Set timezone and data retention. Default 12 months is fine; tighten if you have compliance requirements.

2) Connect data sources

• Social: X/Twitter, Reddit, YouTube comments.
• Forums/news: product communities, HN, tech media.
• Reviews: G2/Capterra/App Store/Play Store.
• Web: crawl rules for owned domains and key media.

Tip: Start broad, then prune sources driving low‑quality mentions.

3) Define entities and aliases

• Add your brand, product lines, and executives.
• Provide aliases and common misspellings (e.g., “Acme AI,” “AcmeAI,” “Acme.AI”).
• Map competitors and their product families now—you’ll reuse this in tracking.

4) Create topic and keyword sets

• Group by use case (e.g., “pricing,” “latency,” “security,” “support”).
• Include boolean logic and exclusions to cut false positives (e.g., exclude generic terms that collide with your brand name).

5) Permissions and governance

• Roles: Admin (billing, sources), Analyst (query/surveys), Viewer (dashboards).
• Enable PII masking and profanity filters if exporting to customer‑facing channels.

6) Budget guardrails

• Set monthly token caps and job‑level limits for cross‑model runs.
• Enable cost alerts in Slack/Teams and email.

7) Baseline and cadence

• Choose a 90‑day rolling baseline for trend comparisons (recommended) and schedule weekly refreshes.

2) Run your first survey across LLMs

Goal: Compare how leading LLMs “see” your brand, competitors, and key topics right now.

1) Frame the question

• Example: “How is Brand X perceived vs. Competitors Y and Z among developers discussing latency and pricing in North America?”

2) Build the survey

• Select Topics: “latency,” “pricing,” “support.”
• Entities: your brand + key competitors.
• Time window: last 30 or 90 days (30 for speed,