10 Advanced Twitter Search Tips to Cut Through the Noise

Have you ever tried to use Twitter's search engine to find new followers, monitor a brand or just plain find news/information? Have you been overwhelmed by the number of irrelevant results you get? With over 65 million tweets per day and now over 20 billion total tweets, the noise on Twitter is growing every day. As someone who works with search engines, I'm always looking for ways to use advanced search options to find what I'm looking for. Today we'll take a look at advanced twitter search tips to cut through the Twitter search results noise.

Advanced Twitter Search Tips

Using advanced Twitter search is easy and can be a great way to find the right kind of people to follow in your market. You can also hone in news and information in your niche.

The search screen is made up of a number of different search options, grouped into categories (e.g., finding tweets by content, from certain people, from certain locations, etc.). To cut through the noise, simply use a strategic combination of search terms and the advanced Twitter search fields to hone in on the tweets that matter to you. Let's take a look. Each bolded link opens a screenshot of the search in a new window.

1. Find people with questions that you can answer. This tip is courtesy of one of my favorite sources for Internet marketing insights, Christopher S. Penn. To perform this search, enter a key term of interest to you (e.g., "Internet marketing") in the This exact phrase field. Then enter words that signal intent such as "anyone, suggest, help" into the Any of these words field. Finally, check the Asking a question? checkbox. This is an extremely effective way to find quality new people to follow.
2. Find new jobs in your area. This one is easy. Put specific job titles in the All of these words field. (You could also use Any of these words if you wanted to shotgun it). Put "job posting" in the This exact phrase field.
3. Find folks near you with similar interests. Take advantage of the Places options in the advanced Twitter search interface to filter tweets to a certain area.
4. See photos of bad weather rolling into your area as it happens. Use "twitpic.com" within the The exact phrase field. Add storm-related terms to the Any of these words field. Use Places and Dates to further narrow your search (Pro tip: add additional Twitter photo services to your search net by using the OR Twitter search operator.).
5. Avoid bad traffic on the drive to and from work. Combine commute-related terms with your normal travel routes in the Any of these words field. This is a good example to point out the benefit of negative filters. Including the word "traffic" in my search will typically bring a lot of SEO-related results. Since I want to know about vehicle traffic, I can filter out web-related terms using the None of these words field. Once again, using Places and Dates will you help with this advanced twitter search as well.
6. See when those who inspire you create new work. Create a search to show you when there's something new in a topic that interests you. In this example, I've created a search to filter only tweets from specific people who create new Squarespace websites (If you're looking for a great blogging platform, be sure to check out my review of Squarespace).
7. Play around with hashtags. Create a mixture of your favorite hashtags to consolidate the number of columns in your Tweetdeck or streams in your Hootsuite dashboard.
8. Find the best photos on the web. Combine the Twitpic.com trick with words like "beautiful, gorgeous and amazing" in the Any of these words field.
9. Find new local friends. Combine the Places filters with hashtags in your key interest area to find new people that are close to you both in interest and proximity.
10. See the web's funniest videos. The last advanced Twitter search tip locates uses humor-related terms in the Any of these words field and "video" in the This exact phrase field. 

Share your Advanced Twitter Search Tips

One last tip: once you've found a killer search, make sure you bring it over to Google Reader in the form of an RSS feed. Now it's your turn. What tips do you have for using Twitter's advanced search options? Is there one in particular from the list you're eager to try? Leave a comment below to share your thoughts.

Twitter, Flickr and Squarespace: Social Media Widgets are Live!

If you're a blogger, you know how social media networks like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn can be a great source of traffic and engagement for your blog. That's why I was super excited last week when Squarespace, the blog/CMS platform creator and platform of choice for Big Picture Web, rolled out their new Social Media Widgets functionality. Today's post takes a look at the new Twitter, Flickr and RSS features of the Squarespace.

I've been looking forward to the social widgets roll-out since Squarespace founder Anthony Casalena announced them in his recent Squarepace 2010 Roadmap post on the Squarespace blog - which was written thanks, at least in part, to this Big Picture Web post on the quest for the best blogging platform.

Anyway, I heard rumors Wednesday morning that the social widgets were in place. I rushed to log in to see that they were indeed available for configuration. As with most Squarespace website development, I had the Twitter widget in place and functioning within minutes. A few minutes later and I had my new Twitter widget styled to my exact liking. What you see in my right margin took a total of five minutes to configure. So far so good!

The implementation was so fast and easy, in fact, that I had time to implement the new changes, break the news on Twitter and congratulate Senior Squarespace Designer Krystyn Heide all before it was even officially announced. Heide responded that they were still officially in soft launch but the big changes were unveiled later that day via the blog. It took less time to master the new widgets than it did to fully roll them out.

Squarespace doesn't mess around when it comes to implementing new features like the Twitter widget. Creative Director Tyler Thompson explained this week via Twitter that Squarespace imports and hosts all your Twitter information for use with the widget. That means if Twitter goes down, your tweets will still show up on your blog.

Plus, you won't have to worry about Twitter gumming up your blog's load time by trying to fetch new tweets each time the site loads. Especially considering that Google has come out and said that they look at a website's load time in their ranking algorithm - that fact is thanks to last week's episode of Marketing Over Coffee, the best online marketing podcast ever - it's nice to know that Squarespace is hosting and (quickly) serving your tweets through the new social widgets functionality.

The new Squarespace social widgets are just the first in several new social features, according to Casalena - next up are Digg and Delicious. I've implemented the Twitter, Flickr and RSS widgets here on Big Picture Web and really like what I see so far. Squarespace, if you're listening, I really hope you consider incorporating the new Facebook Like functionality as well. Ultimately though, I'm very pleased with the social widgets and can't wait to see more features like these rolled out on the Squarespace platform.

What about you? Did you like the new Squarespace social widgets? Did you implement the Twitter widget? Flickr? RSS? Was this worth the wait or does Squarespace need to roll out more features, more often?

How to Build a Blog Following and Trust Online

Do people trust you enough to follow you? To believe you? To buy your product? Many experts will tell you that your online success comes down to that one essential question: do people trust you?

For today's post, I've brought in a friend and ringer to add his perspective. Kareem Ahmed is the Internet Marketing Manager at the McNally Smith College of Music, a social media/SEO/online marketing blogger, and the very first person I ever met through Twitter. Kareem has helped hundreds of people on the interwebs and has agreed to share his thoughts here today on how to build a blog following and trust online.

Big Picture Web (BPW): First impressions can make or break whether a visitors stays on your blog or website. There are dozens of mental triggers that alert us when we should be wary of new sites, according to books like Neuro Web Design: What makes them click. When you help people build blog and websites, what are some of the most important things you can do to quickly establish trust with the visitor of the website? Are there any musts for a homepage, for example? Anything that should be in each blog post?

Kareem Ahmed (KA): It really differs from site to site and what the objective of the site is. Perception is reality, so if you are perceived as a trustworthy source, then you will be one. In terms of selling a product or service, I always find it extremely valuable to include testimonials and/or recommendations...and not the ones that are ridiculously overpromotional. If you really believe in yourself, and the product/service you are pushing, there should be no problem in getting folks to believe you.

BPW: Trust online is very important to search engines, too. In fact, trust and authority are two of the main factors for Google and how they determine how to order their search results.  What are your favorite tips for building trust with search engines?  What should our bloggers do to gain Google's trust?

KA: Trust with search engines is very easy to obtain. Play nice, and they play nice back. White hat strategies work best.

BPW: Follow-up question: Link building is a much advised, yet little undertaken effort that can dramatically improve search results for bloggers. Do you have any killer techniques for building links to blog in order to gain new followers through harnessing more search traffic?

KA: Link building is essential for any successful SEO campaign. I like to start with directories because they are easy to obtain, I have a huge list of them that I begin every link building campaign with. Then I find out where the competition is getting links and I get links there too. The best links come from government and education sites. They provide great authority. I've said it before and I'll say it again, 3 or 4 ultra powerful links are better than 100 crappy ones.

BPW: Best-selling authors Chris Brogan and Julien Smith describe being the go-to person at the center of your network in Trust Agents. Building trust is ultimately about relationships, being helpful and leverage, among other things. What are your tips for building your personal network to gain trust? How might this help you add to your blog following?

KA: Do favors for people, they return them.

And there you have it. I officially owe Kareem Ahmed a favor. Big thanks to Kareem today (follow him on Twitter, seriously) for lending his time and expertise to Big Picture Web. 

What tips do you have for building a blog following? What little tidbit of extra effort or technique goes the extra mile for you? Leave a comment below to share your tips on building trust online.

Blatantly Using My Blog (and Vacation) As Leverage

If you're here, you've probably at least heard of Chris Brogan and Julien Smith, authors of the book Trust Agents. I recently finished reading their vision for building relationships and trust online - it's quite good. Exceptional, actually. And today I'm going to blatantly use my blog and my vacation to Europe as leverage to illustrate one of their points and - more importantly - to help you.

Leverage is simple, according to Brogan and Smith:

You can use the advantage you have in one place to help you in another.

What does this mean? Often you have a skill, asset or tidbit of knowledge that can be used to further your efforts in other areas. In social media, for example, why not share your advantages with your network/blog followers to form and strengthen relationships? Let's take it a step further to clarify.

I'll be in Europe this week. Do you need anything? 

That's right. If you'd like a little souvenir or knick-knack from Europe, let me know. I'm using the Twitter hashtag #bpweurope throughout the trip. Send me a tweet using that tag or leave a comment below before April 17th and you might just get the European treasure you've always wanted (you can also just say hi if you'd like). We're slated to go through parts of France, Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany although haven't really committed to anything. (Note: For best results, keep it simple. All unfilled orders due to volume, weight, hazmat status or price will result in a shiny key-chain.)

How is this leverage? 

When I get back, I'll be hosting a website/blog/social media strategy and measurement meetup in the Twin Cities area. Door prizes will include your requested souvenir. I'll be taking advantage of my already-scheduled vacation to Europe to increase my meetup attendance through putting a smile on your face.

I'm also leveraging my blog to tell you about my trip, souvenirs and a new meetup.

Leverage is just one of the many key moves of a "Trust Agent." Hopefully today's blog post piqued your interest to the point of wanting to learn more.

What assets do you or your company have that could be used for leverage?

4 Pro Tips for Managing Your Brand Online

Branding has become a topic of great interest to me lately. A few recent work activities followed by meeting some new branding experts/friends have brought the power of a brand into perspective. A brand is the sum of everything you know, think and feel about a product or service.  It's the feeling you get when your favorite product's jingle is on the radio or TV. It's the specific look of the bullet points on the product feature list on the website. It's what assures and comforts us when we choose one product over another. Today's post features four pro tips for managing your brand online.

1.  Your Brand is as Good as the Customers' Experience

New friend and brand expert Pat Dawson recently launched his website/brand consultancy with TheBrandChiropractor.com. Dawson and fellow branding experts blog about their observations of brands that convey a message far different than the version of the brand customers experience, both online and offline.  For example, Dawson's most recent post outlines a difference in customer experiences across Rainbow Foods grocery stores in the Twin Cities and suggestions for how their owners could put their brand back "into alignment."  Managing Your Brand Online Tip #1: Strive for alignment between customer expectations and customer experience.

2. The Power of a Brand with Power

More new friends include John Stucker and Devon Thomas Treadwell, founding principals of Pollywog, a Twin Cities naming and branding firm.  Their patent-pending brand process helps you create a powerful brand that will stand out in an online landscape, cluttered by over 5.5 million worldwide brands. Managing Your Brand Online Tip #2: Create a brand that stands out and is easily understood and spread by word of mouth.

3. Let Your Customers Help Shape Your Brand

We recently tested a few visual design changes on our website at work with a few of our customers.  We developed three different designs and then asked our customers to select five adjectives from a list of fifteen that best described the designs.  We were then able to leverage the customers' feedback in our decision-making process with evidence supporting the path we selected. Managing Your Brand Online Tip #3: Let customers help make big branding decisions.

4. Use the Online Brand Management Tools

Conversations occur about you online whether you're listening or not.  It's easy to mange your brand online with free tools and little time here and there.  Check out this recent blog post about free online brand management tools you can use to stay on top of what's being said about your brand online. Managing Your Brand Online Tip #4: Use free and cheap tools to alert you when your brand is mentioned.

What tips do you have for managing your brand online? Have you seen a particularly memorable brand recently? Post a comment with your thoughts.

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