Twitter for Dummies - Laura Fitton [57]
2. In the Words panel, fine-tune your search by word.
You can specify that a search match all or none of the words in your query, the exact phrase you input, Twitter hashtags (which we talk about in the section “Hashtags,” later in this chapter), or even set your advanced search defaults to all or one of 18 different languages. (Persistent off to the right of the Languages drop-down menu just means that the language you select will remain your Advanced Search default until you select a new one.)
3. In the People panel, specify whether you want to search by user.
You can search tweets that come from or reference a certain username.
4. Enter information if you want to search by location or distance, as well as by date, in the Places panel.
For example, you might search only tweets of users who enter their location as a given city.
5. In the Attitudes panel, select whether you want to search for “positive” or “negative” tweets, or search for tweets that ask a question.
These options search for natural language clues about the tweet that imply whether it’s positive or negative.
If you use Twitter to improve customer relations for your business or a client, the Attitudes panel search can really help you find certain types of feedback. It’s not perfect, of course, but it can make rooting out negative or positive feedback much easier.
6. In the Other panel, specify whether you want to search for tweets that have links.
You can also limit how many results are returned per page.
7. Click the Search button, which appears both at the top and bottom of the Advanced Search page.
Your search results appear.
Here are a few tips to keep in mind about search:
Remember search is a living thing. Having fine-tuned a useful search, many times you’ll want to do something with it, like watching it over time, subscribing to it, or sharing it with others.
Keep the search window open to watch as new results come in or subscribe to the RSS feed for the search to monitor it longer term.
You can also share the search results by selecting the Twitter These Results option on the search page or by copying and pasting the search URL from your browser bar. (Hint: Shorten that URL, or it will be difficult to tweet.)
TwitScoop
Time and again during news events, (earthquakes, wildfires, politics, accidents, deaths) as an extension of popular culture (TV shows, sports, movies, celebrities, fashion) and for emerging information of any kind, Twitter shines as a powerful way to find out what’s going on in almost real time. TwitScoop (www.twitscoop.com) is one of many applications that display what trends are rising and falling. TwitScoop does this both at a Web site and as a feature built into popular Twitter client TweetDeck (www.tweetdeck.com).
Built into TweetDeck, TwitScoop, shown in Figure 9-2, helps you track keywords and trending topics, which can be really useful and is mandatory if you’re using Twitter to keep tabs on your brand. You can access TwitScoop by clicking the button with the small bird icon in the TweetDeck toolbar (which is a row of icons along the top left of the application). A new TweetDeck column dedicated to trending topics and the information related to them loads.
On the main Web site that is behind the TweetDeck application, you’ll find trending topic and keyword tracking in a browser interface. From the TwitScoop home page (www.twitscoop.com), shown in Figure 9-3, you can see tags, tag clouds, popular hashtags, and other words that are trending on Twitter. You can also use a handful of widgets to embed a list of trending topics on your Web site or blog.
Trending topics let you know how popular something is by tracking keywords and hashtags. For example, if you’re running a meeting or conference, tell attendees to mark their tweets with an agreed-upon hashtag and then follow the conversation by tracking that hashtag on TweetScoop in TweetDeck or on the TwitScoop site. Twitter also offers a Trends tab now, which gives you a short, unsorted list of popular topics in real time.
Figure