Twitter Search Tips:

• search.twitter.com – Most of you already know about the most basic of search functions on Twitter.  If you don’t, welcome noob.
• Advanced Search on Twitter – automated via Twitter that allows you to search based on:
  • word combination
  • people
  • location
  • dates – only going back 2 weeks
  • attitudes – positive, negative, or if a question has been asked
  • whether the tweet contains links

I personally use a lot of Twitter oriented tools that helps me save a lot of time.  There will be a separate post about these applications.

Using Twitter Search Operators instead of the advanced search function

Here is a list of Twitter search operators (as of this post, there are a total of 17 different Twitter search operators).  The great thing about these search operators is that it can be used on most sites including Google and eBay.  The biggest different is that eBay offers a lot more advanced search shortcuts than what Twitter provides, most notably the search function involving the asterisk (*).

All of the operators are available using the Twitter Advanced Search option.  I will go over the most popular ones.

Twitter Hashtags (#)

1. What is a hashtag (#)? – hashtags are used as a way to organize and manage searchable groups.  Hashtags (#) are automatically linked so that when a user clicks on a hashtag, every tweet that used the hashtag will show up.  If you don’t utilize the hashtag, it will not show up as part of that group when searching.
2. How do I use a hashtag (#)? – place a # right before the word.
   • Example:  “Oh no, I just came across the #failwhale.  Whatever shall I do” – in this example, #failwhale is a group.  It will be hyperlinked so that when you click on the hashtag, every tweeter who used that hashtag will show up.
   • Example: “Oh no, I just came across the failwhale (or fail whale).  Whatever shall I do” – in this example, both “failwhale” and “fail whale” will not be hyperlinked, thus you are not included in the group.
3. If you don’t know if a particular hashtag exists, type it into the search function and see what comes up.  There is no formal procedure in creating a hashtag.  Everyone can create a hashtag at anytime.
   • Example – I post links to interesting info on PR, SEO, social media, and random news all the time.  Whenever I post a link to my blog, I add a #marketingshindig in my tweet just so I am providing “full disclosure” and making sure others realize I am not spamming.
4. TIP: so how do you find out which hashtags to use?  It’s about listening and seeing what others tag using the #.  Follow those twitter accounts you respect and see what hashtags they use.  You’ll quickly notice that people use the # effectively for conferences, trade shows, and weekly chats.

Exact Phrasing (” “)

1. Exact phrasing are words you specifically want to search utilizing the ” “.
   • Example: you want to search for every tweet that contains the words, Twitter Conference.  You would type in “twitter conference”.  If you just type in- twitter conference – without the ” ” before and after, all results that contains each individual word will appear.  So, if a user tweets that they are using Twitter in a team conference call, it will show up.
2. This search function is helpful because it allows you to filter for specific events and people.  It’s just another easy way to clean up the search results.

The Minus Sign (-)

1. I think this is one of the most useful generic search functions.  If you use eBay, it’s especially helpful.  The minus sign eliminates keywords from your search results.
   • Example:  You want to search for “social media”, but you do not want to include any words that contains the word “conference”.  You would search: “social media” -conference.
   • Note the space after “social media” and that there is no space after the minus sign.
2. Below are additional examples of multiple exclusions as well as the usage of plurals
   • Example: You want to search for “social media”, but do not want to include “conference” and “twitter”.  You would search: “social media” -conference -twitter.
   • Example: Or you do not want to include the words “twitter conference”, which would be “social media” -”twitter conference”
   • Important note: plurals DO matter.  If you exclude “conference”, then “conferences” will appear. If you exclude “conferences”, then “conference” will appear.

The Twitter People Search (from: , to: , @)

There are 3 ways of searching for people.

1. from:shinng – will search for all tweets from user.  Simple.  Notice the “picture-in-picture” functionality and the “show conversation” option.
2. to:shinng – will search for all tweets the user has sent to another user.
3. the @ search – searches for any references of the user.  The difference between “to:shinng” and “@shinng” is that the “@shinng” will contain ReTweets (RT), while the “to:shinng” will not since it is searching for users who have replied to the user.

The Twitter Location Search (near: , within: )

1. You can search “near:” a city location and “near:” a city location “within:” a certain number of miles.
2. TIP: If the user does not have the ‘city’ information properly filled out in their profile, they will not come up in the results.
3. TIP: If the city has more than one word, e.g., Los Angeles, be sure to input, “los angeles”
4. TIP: Unlike the minus sign (-) search function, you cannot use more than one “near:” search function.
5. Example: I want to search “social media” near Chicago, IL. You would type in, “social media” near:chicago
6. Example: I want to search “social media” and “facebook”, but not include “conference” near Los Angeles, CA.  You would type in, “social media” facebook -conference near:”los angeles”
7. The spaces are very important to use when searching.  Notice the space after “social media”, after “facebook”, and notice there is no space after “near:”

As I mentioned before, there are numerous other Twitter search operators, but I feel the 5 I listed above are the most common and most useful if you go old-school searching.  I recommend using desktop applications and online twitter resources to make your time more efficient.  A post will follow regarding these resources.

On that note, if you have any recommendations on useful Twitter applications, let me know and I’ll include it in my post (after testing out myself of course).

I know how every one of us wants to make our time more efficient so I hope this helps somewhat.

Got questions, feedback, suggestions, or ranting/praising you want to do?  Don’t hesitate to reach out.