In case you're not totally convinced yet, social media listening is an imperative for your social strategy. Listening makes people feel heard and acknowledged, helps gain better understanding of your customers, uncovers new opportunities, contributes to future product planning, and more.
The good news is, listening in to social networks like Twitter has been getting smarter and smarter - the challenging part is that it's also been changing so quickly. We know it might be hard to keep up and we know how to use listening tools properly, so, we've broken down 16 awesome Advanced Search Queries on Twitter, and why they're helpful.
First off, imagine this scenario: you're a real estate professional and you want to take advantage of social listening. To start, you need to identify some great keywords that would be interesting to your business. One could search "real estate listings", specific real estate companies that may be competitors, "house hunting", and other related phrases.
In this example, we used "house hunting" as a keyword to search. The search results allow you to listen to everyone who may be house hunting, asking about how to house hunt, or other competitors that are talking about house hunting guidance.
Here's what your search looks like in Likeable Local's Hubspot Tool:
Here are your search results:
Let's now take a deeper look into what you can do with the search phrase "house hunting". Notice how it was searched with quotations surrounding the phrase. There are different symbols that can be added to your keyword or phrase that can affect your Twitter search results. In Likeable Hub, we break these down for you on the "advanced queries" link next to the search box.
These newer listening features will help you search more effectively and find the conversations that matter most to you.
Let's dive into these 16 advanced search features, in relation to our "house hunting" example.
1. house hunting |
This phrase matches both "house" and "hunting". Separating the words this way, without quotes, is beneficial if you want to search phrases including house and hunting separately. |
2. "house hunting" |
This phrase matches the exact phrase "house hunting". This is the best tool to use if you want to search a phrase without separating the words within the phrase. |
3. house OR hunting |
This search option matches either "house" or "hunting" (or both). As this says, it will search the first word, or the second word, or both. Keep in mind they will not necessarily be together (like when you searched "house hunting"). |
4. house -hunting |
This search phrase matches "house" but not "hunting". This search feature will search the first word without the second word. |
5. #househunting |
This search matches the hashtag #househunting. This feature will search for that specific hashtag on twitter. This will allow you to keep track of trending hashtags pertaining to house hunting and will assure that your search will be very specific. |
6. from:alexiskold |
This search feature will search tweets sent from a specific person, in this case "alexiskold". If you were a real estate agent, you may want to search what a competing agent, client or prospect has tweeted. You can also search competing or complimentary businesses. |
7. to:techcrunch |
This search feature will allow you to search tweets sent to a specific person, in this case, "techcrunch". You may want to search what's been sent to a client, a prospect, or yourself in the past. |
8. @douglaselliman |
This search option searches a specific person on Twitter, in this case Douglas Elliman. These search results will include all tweets that @douglaselliman was mentioned in on the social network. |
9. "house hunting" since:2010-12-27 |
This search query searches the phrase "house hunting" from date "2010-12-27" (year-month-day) onward. Searching between a specific period of time can be incredibly helpful if your market is ever changing. |
10. "house hunting" until:2010-12-27 |
This search option will produce results for "house hunting" sent before the date "2010-12-27". Similarly to the "since:" option, using the "until:" option can be helpful if you want to search tweets sent prior to a certain date. |
11. "house hunting" :) |
This search will produce results for "house hunting" with a positive sentiment. Inserting the :) can be helpful when searching people who are excited about a topic and may want to use your services. |
12. "house hunting" :( |
Opposite to the :), this search will show you results for "house hunting" with negative sentiment. Change a client or prospect's attitude by listening to their concerns and responding to them appropriately. |
13. "house hunting" ? |
This search query will show results for "house hunting" that include a question. Your prospects may be confused and it's important to stay abreast of these queries. Many people could be asking questions about house hunting - how to do it, how to get started, or what company they should use. This is true for any industry. Take advantage of these questions, answer them promptly, and provide clients/prospects with your knowledge |
15. "house hunting" filter:links |
This search will produce results for "house hunting" which also link to a URL. It's important to read what others have written or shared themselves. Take note of any beneficial articles another company, customer, or prospect may have linked to their tweets. |
16. "house hunting" source:twitterfeed |
This search will show results for "house hunting" entered via TwitterFeed. This search will result in all "house hunting" tweets that have been entered via TwitterFeed, and can also be used for other feed sources. |
Remember, listening is the most important tool on social. You can use listening to gain customers, cater to your customers or prospects, alter your product appropriately and keep tabs on what your competitors are up to. You can easily keep track of all the advanced listening you are doing using a listening tool like Likeable Hub. Likeable Hub, which also has a mobile app, enables you to save many different searches and easily navigate between them and check them seamlessly. You can also utilize these 16 search queries on twitter when searching tweets.