The True Power of Twitter Search for Businesses
Undeniably, Twitter has gone on to become one of the most provocative, gut-punchingly powerful sources of information on the web. People go there to blab about useless things that nobody cares about, sure, but Twitter is also a powerful news-sharing tool and communications platform that has been credited with starting riots in London, having an odd infatuation with Denver Broncos QB Tim Tebow and for pissing off Kanye West (warning: heavy use of capslock and language within).
And yet, behind that extremely complex database of billions upon billions of individual messages and tweets lies something even more powerful: Twitter Search. Behind a database of millions of words, links and hash tags that Twitter engineers are constantly struggling to make sense of — “How do we make money?” they ask — lies an even more powerful(er) tool that helps people manually find things on Twitter. For most users, this might be generally useful. Cool or funny, even. But for businesses? Try freakin’ amazing.
Finding Conversations
For one, Twitter grants us the opportunity to pour through each and every tweet that is sent through the social networking platform. What that means is that businesses can literally go through each and every tweet in the world in order to find information that might be relevant to their business or their local community.
For example, if a business is interested in finding out what people are tweeting about in their local community, say NYC, they can type ‘near:NYC’ in order to see what people are tweeting about in that particular area. If they want to search particular hashtags or phrases, they can do that too.
Why It’s Important
In between all of that essentially useless social media babble is something far more intriguing for businesses: Dissatisfied customers and clients. Dissatisfaction is something that runs rampant through social networks, whether they be related to an experience a customer might have had with a business, or dissatisfaction with a job — basically anything that could be portrayed as a negative reflection of a business.
And as any business knows, one dissatisfied customer can cause a domino-effect resulting in many dissatisfied customers.
And with dissatisfaction comes great opportunity: Those customers, more often than not, are seeking solutions to their dissatisfaction. They don’t always want to remain miserable, upset and frankly ticked off that their products or experiences are awful. They just want to vocalize their dissatisfaction and hope that somebody hears them.
That’s Where You Come In
Sometimes, people just want to feel heard. That’s why they vent on Twitter (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) and hope that somebody can provide them with suitable solutions for their car troubles and other issues.
But many businesses fail to capitalize on those opportunities. Even worse, they probably don’t even know that they exist.
And that’s where your business comes in. Actively utilizing Twitter Search to actually find problems, whether those be local or national, can often be time consuming. But those that do contribute the time and energy finding problems on Twitter Search often requires — which may mean tens upon tens of searches in order to find suitable search results — may be able to find hundreds if not thousands of potential customers that could be turned into their own if they are simply willing to lend a helping hand.
Conclusion
If Twitter is, in a lot of ways, the mouth of the Internet, then Twitter Search is its brain. Twitter Search grants people the ability to sort through all of that mindless information in order to find what’s important, whether that be search results surrounding a particular hashtag or more specific phrases like ‘water leak’.
The businesses that actively monitor and engage with those individuals who are seeking solutions to their problems — be it advice or recommendations — will be the businesses that benefit the most through Twitter Search.
Has your business ever successfully utilized Twitter Search in order to find new customers? Sound off in the comments below.