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Getting More Out of Twitter

August 18, 2010 by Jessica Ziegler

While in the process of writing the new Twitter training lab documentation (coming soon!), I’ve been playing around with some of the more advanced components of Twitter. Here are a few of my favorites:

Twitter Advanced Search
This easy-to-use web based form allows you to really hone your search. You can search within specific date ranges, search tweets by or references to specific people, search retweets, etc. One interesting feature is the ability to filter by location. This piece is bound to grow more powerful as users see the value in geo-targeting themselves and their tweets, and as location-based services like Gowala and Foursquare continue to gain traction.

One of my favorite features is the ability to filter based on “attitude”, tweets that use smiley faces, frowns or question marks. This is nowhere near as thorough a view as offered by products like Consumer Base that really study and interpret the language of tweets, but it’s a pretty decent tools for the average user.

If you prefer to write your search queries yourself in the twitter search box, the Twitter Advanced Search Operators are for you. These operators reflect the same filters as the advanced search interface, but without all that annoying ease-of-use. If you write queries regularly, this may actually be faster for you. It’s syntax-tic! Moving on…

Search Widget
I love this one. Use the interface to define your search query, title and caption, test it right there, then finish and grab code. Voila! You can a display a custom stream of tweets related to whatever you choose right on your page or blog.

For example, say you run a blog called SchnauzersRock.com, because you love Schnauzers. (No, I don’t love Schnauzers, we’re talking about YOU). You could search for Schnauzers, love, I love Schnauzers. Then add a title and caption and…

Twitter widget

Paste the code right on your site for non-stop Schnauzer love.

Or course these tools offer compelling listening tools for your business, even if it is not Schnauzer-related. Use advanced search to find people worth following, use the search widget to create a real time view into conversations that are, and aren’t, happening around your industry right now and share with your readers.

How are you using these tools to gain insight into your business?

Filed Under: Featured, Social Media, Twitter Tagged With: search, Twitter, Twitter Search

Using saved searches in Twitter

October 23, 2009 by Tim Miner

I use Seesmic to manage both Twitter and Facebook most of the time, but I still go back to Twitter every so often to use my saved searches. I am a creature of habit and the saved Twitter search is one of those habits for me. A saved search gives you an easy way to revisit the current results for a search that remains relevant to you.

Creating a search is pretty straight forward. Just enter your search criteria and then click search. Once your results are displayed, you will see a button for saving your search in the top right part of the search window.

Saving a Twitter Search

But there are ways to make your search more specific. I use a few basic search operators to limit my search results like [-rt], [filter:], [to:] and [from:].

Twitter Saved Search These operators can be used with a search term to produce results that are even more refined than just searching for the keyword alone.

For example, searching for posts about “social media” and removing retweets and limiting results to just those with links would look like this: “social media” -rt filter:links

You can find more search operators forTwitter here or use the Advanced Search Form to perform your search.

What operators do you use to further refine your search results?

Filed Under: Social Media, Twitter Tagged With: operators, saved search, search, Twitter, Twitter Search

Finding interesting people to follow on Twitter

October 15, 2009 by Tim Miner

It may seem a bit obvious to you, but I amazed at how many great people I find on Twitter when I follow the live tweets from big events like #bwe09, the Blog World Expo in Las Vegas that kicked off this morning.

It’s an easy practice for Twitter users of all skill levels. Just perform a Twitter Search for the hashtag (#bwe09) and hold on for dear life. My best guess is that there are over 150 new tweets each minute for this hashtag and trying to sift through all of them is virtually impossible. But that’s ok. There is a wealth of information in this pool of tweets and it seems almost too easy to find interesting voices with every refresh of the screen.

Twitter Search for #bwe09

So don’t be shy. Do the search and start following the people that you find interesting. You will learn new things, share ideas with others that share your passions and have fun doing it.

Filed Under: Featured, Social Media Tagged With: Blog World Expo, followers, hashtag, Twitter, Twitter Search

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