How to Optimize Twitter Searches

The ability to search the web easily is part of what makes the internet incredibly usable and useful. Did you know that YouTube overtook Yahoo as the number two search engine in 2008? Facebook’s search capabilities are an important component of that service as well. One of the great, if underutilized, features of Twitter is search.

I say that Twitter search is underutilized not because people don’t use it frequently; rather, because people tend not to use Twitter’s search capabilities to its full extent. Using Twitter’s search engine effectively is not as easy as using Google, Yahoo, or Bing—even with their improved social search options. This post will teach you one of many simple, yet effective ways to optimize your Twitter search experience.

The Des Moines Arts Festival runs June 25-27 this year in Western Gateway Park. The festival is making a strong effort this year to connect with people using social media, in part through their Twitter account @DSMDEG (Des Moines Downtown Events Group). In addition to following people interested in the event, or even curated lists of users, the DSMDEG might consider setting up a search feed in whichever platform they use for Twitter. For this post, I will keep things easy and use the RSS feeds that Twitter allows you to create from a search result.

Step 1:
From http://search.twitter.com enter the search query: “art festival” OR “arts festival” near:50309 within:100km. You will see that this search string accommodates both users posting about the “art” festival and about the “arts” festival (plural). The quotation marks in the initial search query keep out tweets that contain both words, but not next to each other. I have also limited the search to within 100 kilometers of the downtown Des Moines ZIP code so that the results aren’t muddied by other art festivals taking place. Upon clicking the search button, you will see recent tweets that fulfill the query’s limitations.

Step 2:
In the top right of the screen, right click on the link that says “Feed for this query,” and click on “Copy Link Location” or “Copy Shortcut,” depending on your browser.

Step 3:
For the sake of simplicity, I will assume you use Google Reader for your RSS reader. Directions for other reader programs are similar, but you may want to click on the help button if you are unsure of how to proceed. In Google Reader, click “Add a subscription,” which appears in the top left. Paste the contents of your clipboard into the box, and click “Add.”

With these three steps, you now are able to track tweets coming from people talking about the Des Moines Arts Festival who are located within 100 kilometers of Des Moines. Because of its simplicity, this search tactic is limited. This search, however, is more powerful than a simple search for the #dmaf hashtag, because not everyone attending the festival knows about the hashtag or will remember to use it every time. With specialized tracking software, it is possible to obtain results coming from throughout the social web with the added bonus of long-term analytics, email alerts, and more.

Setting up Twitter searches are just one component of a comprehensive listening strategy, and each organization should assess this based on individual needs. More importantly, your organization needs to consider what to do with the information it finds through an alerting system.

It’s okay if most or all of this post went over your head; that’s why we are here. If you need help with your listening strategy, or your overall social media strategy, we would love to show you the ropes. Let us know what you think in the comments section, or give us a call at 515.423.0585.

Tagged as: Des Moines Art Festival, Des Moines Downtown Events Group, Listening strategy, social media strategy, Twitter search