Another inexpensive way to speed up your computer is to install more memory. Check to see how much memory your computer has by clicking on Start then Control Panel then double-click System.
THE POWER OF THE TWITTER SEARCH
by Barbara Moore
RPCN News - A Newsletter of the Rochester Professional Consultants Network
April 2010
Many business people assume that to use Twitter effectively you must spend hours each day tweeting – in 140 characters or less - about your business and reading the tweets of everyone you are following.
You could. Or you could spend just a few minutes each day searching for and responding to relevant tweets.
For many, the true power of Twitter is in the ability to search - in real time - what people are tweeting about. Use Twitter search to find what people are saying about you, your business, the services you provide, and trends in your industry.
Twitter search is real time. Your search will display tweets that are just minutes old to tweets that are five days old. (This may change by the time you read this article as Twitter is going to display popular tweets – which may be older than five days – at the top of its search results.)
You do not need a Twitter account to search. Go to search.twitter.com. Ignore the basic search on this page and click Advanced Search. Here you can search keywords separately or as an exact phrase. And, more importantly, you can add a location like Rochester NY to the search criteria.
A local photographer would use the Advanced Search to find who is tweeting about not only a photographer but weddings, graduations, and anniversaries in the Rochester area. Others may want to search for grants, computer problems, or consultants in the Rochester area.
Try a search for the exact phrase “looking for” with the location Rochester NY. You will find hundreds of tweets from people looking for pets, other people, “stuff,” and help. Often you will see tweets from reporters looking for people to interview for articles they are working on. Who knows, you or your services may be exactly what people are “looking for.”
Also on the Advanced Search page is a box to search for a hashtag. A hashtag is a word proceeded by a pound sign -- for example #rpcn or #healthcare -- that people add to their tweet in order to connect tweets on a similar topic. Searching for a hashtag will bring up all recent tweets that contain that hashtag.
These two tweets use hashtags:
1) “People who filter information are valuable ... we can't all create the content
#smforum” and
2) “Sony drops price on e-reader #iPad.”
The first tweet includes a hashtag Emily Carpenter asked people to use when tweeting about RPCN’s social media forum. The second tweet needs the hashtag in order for this tweet to show up in a search about Apple’s new iPads.
It is very common to find city airport codes as hashtags. If you want to group your tweet with other tweets about Rochester, use the hashtag #roc. You can use multiple hashtags in a tweet. For example: “Company ABC is looking for an Internet Marketing Account Manager #roc #jobs”
Always do a second search with your keyword as a hashtag. Different tweets may show up in the search results.
Once you start searching Twitter to find out what people are tweeting about and who is talking, you may find that you will want to do more with Twitter search. For example, you can save searches as well as set up a news feed for your searches. You also can use Google to search specific fields in Twitter. John Jantsch explains how to do this in his article 7 Insanely Useful Ways to Search Twitter for Marketing.
Now that you know how to search Twitter, take a few minutes each day to experience for yourself the power of the Twitter search.
Net Results, LLC
Rochester, New York
585.748.1850
bmoore@NetResultsUSA.com
www.linkedin.com/in/barbaramooreny