Twitter marketing can be a powerful weapon in any digital marketer’s arsenal because of its broad reach and potential to drive leads and conversions.
There are more than 145 million users on Twitter that create more than 500 million tweets every day. It is a platform full of growth and opportunities for ecommerce brands, only if they know how to use it correctly.
But, just like any other thing in the world, Twitter marketing isn’t without its roadblocks for marketers.
With over 8,000 tweets blasted every second, it’s easy for marketers to lose track of any specific post.
We have created this article to highlight one of the most beneficial Twitter features you can use to grow your ecommerce store.
Yes, you got that right!
We’re talking about the highly useful yet often neglected Twitter Advanced Search feature that offers a plethora of benefits to marketers and brand owners if they know what they can do with it.
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What Is Twitter Advanced Search?
Beyond a simple hashtag search, trying to find what you’re looking for on Twitter isn’t as easy as it may sound.
Twitter Advanced Search offers filtering options that can help users conduct a specific search. In other words, this feature enables you to comb through billions of tweets based on specific search parameters.
How Does It Work?
Type anything you want to search in a search box given on the right-hand side of the official Twitter website. Click the ‘More Options’ tab and select the ‘Advanced Search’ option from the dropdown menu.
An Advanced Search form will prompt containing different perimeters to help you narrow down your search.
Words (If you’re searching for a word/phrase/hashtag used in a tweet, then this option is for you)
- All of these words: The search results include all terms searched
- This exact phrase: The search results include ‘exact match’ terms only
- Any of these words: The search result includes ‘searched combination of words’
- None of these words: Specify words you want to exclude from search results
- These hashtags: Search based on targeted hashtags only
- Written in: Search based on a specific language
People (If you want to keep your search targeted to specific accounts, then you can use this option. The other given-below features, such as places, and dates will make your search even more precise and focused)
- From these accounts: The search results include tweets sent from a specific account only
- To these accounts: The search results include tweets sent to a specific account only
- Mentioning these accounts: Results highlight a mentioned Twitter account
Places
Near this place: Results are limited to a 15-mile mentioned by the user
Dates
From this date: Results extracted from a specified date range only
Why Is It Important?
Thousands of Twitter users are talking about your brand and services. If they’re tagging you with @symbol, then it’s not difficult for you to find them. But what if they’re not tagging you and their tweets are getting lost in the crowd?
This is where an Advanced Search option comes to your rescue. If you’re using Twitter for quite some time now, chances are, you have already used the simple search feature available on the right corner of the site.
Say you search for the keyword ‘McDonalds’, you’ll get hundreds of results related to the search. But the results you’ll get are generic.
With Twitter’s Advanced Search feature, you can find any specific tweet having a particular keyword or phrase in any location.
Sounds interesting, right?
There are so many other ways you can use this specific Twitter marketing feature to your advantage. For example:
You Can Use Hashtags To Find Potential Customers
Twitter is one of the most popular social networking channels that enable businesses to find people who’re genuinely interested in their products and services.
Twitter Advanced Search helps ecommerce brands to target their potential customers using the right set of keywords, key phrases, and hashtags.
Let’s suppose you sell fitness trackers online. You can use keywords, phrases, or hashtags like ‘buy fitness trackers’, ‘I want to buy a fitness tracker’, or ‘#ineedanewfitnesstracker’ to target buyers who are looking for fitness trackers online.
You Can Know More About Your Target Audience
Knowing your target audience is an integral element of ecommerce marketing. Twitter’s Advanced Search feature allows online businesses to know more about the buying preferences of their target audience.
When you search for a specific keyword, you will see what people say about your brand and products. Are they happy about your products? Do they want you to improve? Are they complaining?
With this information at hand, you can develop an effective marketing strategy that addresses your customer’s pain points.
You Can Use The Advanced Search Feature To Manage Your Business Repo
For every brand, it’s crucial to know what people think about them.
Positive tweets let you know about your strengths, while negative comments help you pinpoint your weak areas and improve.
With the Advanced Search feature on Twitter, you can filter tweets to spot all comments that include your brand’s name.
You can also use filters ‘positive :)’ or ‘negative :(‘ to determine people’s sentiments about your products and services.
You Can Use Hashtags To Find Influencers
Influencer marketing is powerful. Today, many brands use influencers to spread positivity about their business on popular social media channels.
You can use Twitter’s Advanced Search tool to find influencers who’re credible in your area of expertise. For instance, you must collaborate with someone who has an interest in fitness trackers to become an influencer for your business selling fitness products online.
You Can Use The Advanced Search Feature To Keep Track Of Your Mentions
Not everyone talking about your brand on Twitter will spend a minute to tag you in their tweet. That means you’re missing out on plenty of useful information just because you’re not being tagged in their tweets.
With Twitter’s Advanced Search feature, you can filter out tweets that talk about your products and services.
You Can Use The Advanced Search Feature To Handle Customer Complains
Gone are the days when customers reach brands through phone calls to register their complaints. Today, they sign in to their social media accounts and directly approach a business through their business pages.
Twitter is specifically known as a platform where people come to talk to the support team of different brands.
Being on top of such complaints allows your business to resolve customers' issues in a timely fashion.
You Can Use Hashtags To Find Media Opportunities
Many PR companies search Twitter to find brands they can feature as case studies. With targeted hashtags, you can search for those opportunities and get your brand featured on prominent PR or journalism platforms.
So you see, there are many things you can do with the Advanced Search feature, only if you know how to use it correctly. Here are some of the ways you can use this feature to grow your ecommerce store.
How To Use Twitter Advanced Search To Grow Your Ecommerce Store?
Conduct A Sentiment Analysis
Another effective way you can know more about your target audience is by using sentiment analysis.
Sentiment analysis enables you to find out what others are talking about a certain brand or product.
Start with simple sentiment searches, such as a happy face :) or a sad face :( to see what people think about your brand.
You can also use a question mark search to see what questions users are asking on Twitter. The Advanced Search feature also enables you to filter out results based on different factors, including images, videos, top tweets, etc.
Now let’s go back to our first example. Type ‘Fitness trackers?’ to find out what questions people are asking on the platform about fitness trackers.
Use your industry knowledge to respond to people’s queries, add a link to your website, and suggest your business to them.
Reach Your Local Market
Use geolocation filters to weed out tweets from faraway locations. This strategy is specifically beneficial for businesses that want to target local customers.
For this, all you need to do is add “near:(city/country) and ‘within:(X mi)” to find tweets from any specific location.
The purpose of this filter is to help businesses find tweets based on zip codes, city, or country.
Also, you can use this filter to spot things that are going on in your area. You can join the conversation and respond to your target audience’s messages before your competitors do.
Generate And Connect With Your Leads
Twitter's Advanced Search feature also enables businesses to generate leads.
How?
Let us explain!
Run a negative sentiment search for your competitors to find out people who’re not happy with their services. It’s your chance to impress them with your offers. Pretty simple, right?
The best bit? It works…
You can connect with the leads you have generated using the Advanced Search feature by talking to them. Send them a message containing reasons why they should switch to your brand.
You can also head to their profiles and follow them so that they will follow you back.
Always Respond To Tweets
Twitter has an active community of users who keep an eye on everything. Make sure you always reply to tweets in the best possible manner.
Say, thank you to those who have shared positive tweets about your products or service. Give them a shoutout with your Twitter page or other social media by capturing their positive tweet through a Twitter screenshots tool. Do not neglect those who have shared their negative feedback. Ask them to get in touch with your support team so that you can make every possible effort to make their experience right.
Pro tip: You can also add your website link in your reply. Doing so will help your buyers connect with your support team directly through your website. In addition to that, you also get a chance to drive more traffic to your site.
Research Competitors
Did you know you can also use Twitter’s Advanced Search feature to know more about your competitors?
For example, you can examine how strategically your competitors are dealing with their customers and marketing their brand.
You can use that information to improve your marketing strategies. You can then retarget those customers directly and convince them to switch to your brand.
Save Your Searches
Twitter allows businesses to save up to 25 searches per account. To save a search, you have to click the 3-dots available on the right side of your query. Click on ‘Save this search’ to track users who’re recommending your products or services.
You can also keep an eye on people who’re sharing your posts. Use geolocation filters to refine your search and make it look more targeted.
Leverage ‘How-To’ And Educational Content
As a reputable brand, your goal is to offer your prospects value-driven offers and services. Yes, your products should be unique and compelling enough to attract sales. But your targeting strategy should not confine to physical products only.
How-to and informative content in any form is all the rage in every industry. You can also include ‘how-to’ as a part of your Twitter query along with the targeted keyword.
Carefully examine the results and create personalized content on your niche to get more followers and mentions on Twitter.
Final Words
Twitter marketing has gained substantial momentum in recent times. The power of social media is only expected to grow in the coming years. All social media channels, including Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, and Twitter, offer incredible benefits to ecommerce businesses.
With these channels, businesses not only can generate more leads but also keep their existing customers happy and satisfied.
Ricky Hayes
Trisha Ballesteros