conversational search

Twitter Strategies: 6 Reasons to Use Twazzup.com Twitter Search Engine

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twazzup-logo1Entrepreneurs and job seekers looking for leads, networking, and opportunities have a new Twitter search tool more powerful than Twitter’s internal search engine or the recently reviewed Twitterjobsearch.com: Twazzup.com. Twazzup is the best tool I have found so far to search keywords for conversations you wish to engage within or simply listen.

In Louis Gray’s well written post “Twazzup Takes on Twitter Search to Make Sense of Real Time Web” Gray describes Twazzup.com as:

“. . .  looking to extend the Twitter Search platform, by not only providing real-time updates to the search results, but also highlighting popular users, links and tweets relevant to searched keywords.”

1. Real Time Updates

This is a scrolling real time lineup of the tweets related to your keyword search. The movement on the scroll depends on the amount of people talking about your keyword. If your topic is hot, you can choose to slow the flow of information down with a simple click of the button.

2. Popular Tweets

twazzup-pop-tweets

The most popular tweets for the keyword search you performed. This also changes, in real time, with the amount of conversation surrounding your keyword. This feature provides marketing exposure, networking opportunities, but most important it can help to start a viral avalanche of word of mouth traffic

3. Trend Makers

twazzup-trend-makers

Twazzup lists the people whose tweets began the trend your keyword(s) is creating. The most popular Trend Makers is also in real time and can change depending upon what is being tweeted. This is a great way to gain exposure for your company, products, services, or for your online presence.

4. Related Photos

twazzup-related-photos

Photos related to your keyword search show up in this real time stream. This feature can help bring people back to your blog, website, or social media profile. It is also a great way to provide a visual of your company logo, product, or service.

5. Most Popular Links

twazzup-most-pop-links

Most Popular links for the keyword search you perform is the most important feature for viral marketing opportunities. If your tweeted link makes this list, it is sure to be RT aka retweeted and moved forward to hundreds or even thousands of Twitter users.

6.  Ten Keywords Associated with Your Search

twazzup-other-keywords

This is a list of 10 keywords that fit with your keyword. Our example search was on “Social Media” and the keywords in the above graphic show the words that combine with Social Media. Clicking on any of these keywords brings an addition real time stream of twitter convesations about this new combination. This is a great method of finding even more information or places to network while you are still running your main keyword search

Twitterjobsearch.com: A Job Search Engine For Twitter

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“For job seekers this is the new tool of the paradigm shift from the power of search to the super power of conversational search”–Dean Guadagni Business Director Inner Architect

Twitter.com is one of the fastest rising social networks with 7.1 million users and an explosive growth rate of 1,382% (January 2008 to January 2009) according to Adage.com. The latest, and one of the most effective new tools for Twitter, is a new job search engine for Twitter Twitterjobsearch.com.

TwitterJobSearch.com – The Social Media Job Search Engine

Some things can’t be improved upon. To begin to understand the power of Twitterjobsearch, consider the power of conversational search and Twitterjobsearch.com’s mantra:

“Until now, search engines for social media sites merely looked for words. We’re looking at context. We use semantic tools to look at what was said. We then look at what they’ve said before. We then look at who was saying it. If we do this right, we can figure out why they’re saying anything at all.”

Browse Twitterjobsearch

The Browse function for Twitterjobsearch is a great place to begin your search by category and niche within category:

Browse jobs


Twist: Twitter Tool Identifies Trends, Conversations, ROI

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twist-twitter-trends

FoxBusiness.com published this deansguide article 3-28-09

Twist is a tool that allows users to search for trends related to keywords used in Twitter “Tweets.” The compilation of the statistics are presented in graphs and based on what Twitter users are tweeting about during a specific time period over a week or a month. These keywords can include products, services, and companies which make this tool a very solid research tool.

As the Business Director for Inner Architect, a social media marketing, strategy, and consulting firm, I am always searching for tools that will provide further evidence of ROI for social networks and tools. Susan Hanshaw, Founder and CEO of Inner Architect, comes from the direct marketing field where ROI is a constant and measurement is the standard and norm

Lead Generation Tool

  • Identify trends in user behavior for your products or services
  • Identify conversations around customer dissatisfaction of your products or services
  • Identify trends in user behavior for competitions’ products or services
  • Identify trends in conversations around dissatisfaction of competition’s products or services
  • Identify “Buzz” surrounding your industry, niche, or breaking news

Lead Generation Applications

  • Measure user “behavior” for your products and services to determine if your products and services need changes or if they are being received positively. If changes are needed this allows a company or entrepreneur to contact conversation participants
  • Seek out dissatisfied customers and offer them something of value, create a solution, and create the opportunity for retention and future sales
  • Identify who is using your competitors products and services as a list of prospects
  • Dissatisfied customers of your competition become the “low hanging fruit” in your efforts to convert them to your products or services
  • If “Buzz” is evident and aimed at your product, service, industry, or niche consider it a time to strike while the iron is hot. Whether the trend leads you to lead gen, customer service, or spin control opportunities, it’s best to know what is being said and why

Twitter Strategies and Tips for Beginning “Twitterers”

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twitter-logo-search

Chicago Sun-Times published this deansguide article 3-24-09

Post Tribune published this deansguide article 3-24-09


Twitter is a sensational social network tool for entrepreneurs, job seekers, and companies. Twitter is being used as a research resource, marketing tool, measurement source, messaging utility, networking facilitator, and broadcasting system. The following are some tips and basic strategies:

Strategies:

  1. Identify: Choose how you want to use Twitter: research, marketing, networking, creating audience, customer service and so on.
  2. Following: Avoid following hundreds of people or companies immediately as this tactic gives the impression you are spamming people with sales propaganda

Tips:

  1. Who: Identify people in the industry, business, niche, or company you wish to follow
  2. Keywords: Make a list of keywords that will help you find the conversations you wish to follow. Example: “San Jose jobs”; “Company names”;“Your job and Company name”; “Industry organizations, groups, or associations”
  3. Search: Input in your keywords or names into the internal search engine to tap into the conversations you wish to follow
  4. RSS Subscription: When you find a conversation that is important, use the RSS feed to subscribe to that conversation and set up in either your email or a Google Reader
  5. Auto-Follow Service: Perform your due diligence before following someone. Do not sign up for an auto-follow service
  6. Vary Message: For every 10 “Tweets” you write make sure 7 give “outside” value and 3 are about your products, services, or events
  7. Signal to Noise: Within your 7 value messages leave links to your resources
  8. Tiny Url: Utilize this super valuable site to shrink the size of your links so they fit within Twitter’s 140 character limit
  9. RT: “RT” stands for Re-Tweet. This is a form of recognition and the best strategy for networking. When you want to recognize someone’s Tweet content you simply place RT and then copy their Tweet. This provides your network with the valuable information and opens up a line of communication with that person
  10. @: This is another form of recognition. If you @person or company you can ask them a question as well as publicly recognize them for their writing

Twitter’s Conversational Search: The Search Google and Facebook Seek to Emulate?

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FoxBusiness.com published this deansguide article 3- 18-09

The new buzzword in the world of search, and a concept being posited as the downfall of Google, is “conversational search.” The idea being that searching within Twitter, Linkedin, or other social media network search engines is a more robust and valuable search strategy than utilizing Google search. The thought is that the search results on Twitter could lead the searcher to conversation(s) that provide more targeted information, possibility of immediate communication, and feedback.

The following is a retrospective look at our original Twitter case study that highlighted David Murray’s successful job search utilizing Twitter.com as his main tool. Within Dave’s strategy were 5 major tips that any job seeker can use to begin the process of delivering their value to their strategically targeted audience(s). This is a fantastic case study for the value of conversational search: injecting yourself into your desired conversation resulting in an opportunity.

The case study of David Murray written by David Meerman Scott is a powerful example of how to utilize Twitter in your employment campaign. The article “How David Murray Found a New Job via Twitter” provides 5 advanced tips that are very important to consider—if you plan to utilize this free broadcasting tool:

  1. Use Twitter: This sounds easy but the first step is to recognize that if you want to stand apart, you need to begin to utilize social media tools your competitors may not be using–yet.
  2. Create Keyword List: List all of the keywords for the company, industry, people, and niche you wish to “follow” on Twitter. An example of David’s keyword list: “Social media jobs”, “Online Community Manager”, “Blogging jobs”, “Hiring social media”, and other keywords that fit his job search criteria.
  3. Twitter Search: Twitter Search is an internal search engine that you will input your keywords into to find conversations by people who are connected to the industry, jobs, companies, and niches you wish to contact.
  4. Google Reader: David then pulled the RSS feeds of his keyword conversations into Google Reader and “made it a habit to check these first thing in the morning every day.”
  5. Introduce Yourself: David found conversations related to his job interests and he “took the liberty of introducing himself via Twitter.”

The Results: David was hired as “Assistant Webmaster, Client Services for The Bivings Group.” And as David states “Many times when inquiring about the open positions, the jobs had not been officially posted” and “How cool that on Twitter you can express interest in a job opportunity that hasn’t even been announced yet?”

Win More Business: Tap Into Conversational Search Using Twitter

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albert-einstein-pic

Courtesy Albert Einstein Wikiquote King of Observation

Chris Brogan’s latest post “How Hotels Can Win More Business Travel” is a look at how all social media marketers, social media consultants, entrepreneurs, and large companies should be looking at applying social media networks to their challenges. Implementing new processes in order to meet a business challenge is often a matter of observing and re-engineering. In Chris’s post, search is the main tool with an open mind to possibilities. Let’s take a look at 3 of Chris’s steps.

While Chris addresses hotels, I will plug in his first 3 Steps for restaurants:

1. Get Aggressive with Search: Chris utilized a Twitter search that found conversations surrounding lodging in Austin, Texas for the SXSW conference. He found folks who were having a problem finding accommodations.  Chris’s idea: “If I were an Austin, TX hotel property with open beds, I’d go after each and every one of them with a rate quote and an easy link to make the reservation.

Restaurant’s Strategy: (dg) If I were a Austin area restaurant, I would also tap into these travel conversations on Twitter. Here is how I would engage:

A.) Welcome each traveler to Austin

B.) Promote Hotel(s) that you wish to partner with by tweeting their facilities with a link to reservations with contact information

C.) Welcome them to my restaurant with an added incentive, give away, or special that makes them feel compelled to investigate

2. Improve Your Concierge Service: Chris’s idea here is simple yet few are doing it. He talks about chronicling and then databasing a travelers tendancies, wants, and needs. “How hard would it be to database your guests a little bit, and start to understand their recurring business travel needs? How difficult would it be to share them across properties?

Restaurant’s Strategy: (dg) Like inventory control when chef’s order their supplies, a customer’s preferences for dishes would be a database that could be very impressive to both local and business travelers.  With these tendencies, a restaurant could Tweet specials, special nights, or offers with confidence. Create a database of your customers.

Real Strategy to Connect: At the restaurant location, offer them the opportunity to actually login and sign up to be your fan on Facebook and connect on Twitter. This is the next generation version of those stale paper “How Did We Do” evaluation forms so many restaurants use.

3. Get Aggressive with Offers: CB “Right now, there’s no reason why not to build incentives into property loyalty. Hotels.com has a book 10 nights through them, get 1 night free (without any loyalty required to any particular chain). It’s a really clever offer. It could be countered easily and retain chain loyalty fairly easily.”

Restaurant’s Strategy: Due to the economic crisis we all face, eating out today is often a luxury for most people. Restaurant’s should consider leveraging their food as a commodity by offering special value items, menus, or incentives. Granted many restaurants offer value but do they do this strategically? Often the value offer is something that is seen as less value and more fluff. The free dessert, apertif, or side dish just isn’t going to get it in today’s world.

Restaurants must give something their customers actually want and give it to them with the idea that they can make up the costs in return visits, alcohol sales, and viral marketing word of mouth.

Wachovia Bank Update: New Twitter Strategy Matches “Connectivity” Goals

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wachovia-dm-on-strategy

Direct Message to deansguide from our friends at Wachovia Bank

If you have followed the deansguide series of critiques on Twitter.com business strategies, one of the companies I outlined was Wachovia Bank: “Bank’s Twitter Strategy: Lack of Strategy Hurting Brand.” In this critique, I pointed out the following:

  1. They had no discernible strategy
  2. Their lack of strategy in following people (audience of customers) could be perceived negatively
  3. They were not being true to their Twitter Bio mission

Wachovia’s Old Strategy: Follow a minimal percentage of audience-clients on Twitter

wachovia-bank-twitter1

The results can be seen in the “follow” and “followers” categories where Wachovia was following only 11% of their audience.

Wachovia’s New-Improved Engagement Strategy

As of today March 12, 2009 Wachovia has aggressively fixed their follow strategy by following every one of their followers. By adopting this strategy, Wachovia now has created the following:

  • Open line of communications with audience via Direct Messaging
  • Created the perception that they wish to communicate with their audience
  • Provided their audience with recognition by following each person or company who follows Wachovia on Twitter
  • Demonstrated their willingness to listen to their audience
  • Quickly tap into customer conversations and solve customer services challenges that may exist
  • Demonstrate they are one of the leaders in the Banking industry in regards to social media and audience engagement on Twitter

Wachovia Bank March 12, 2006 Twitter Account

wachivia-new-strategy

Twitter Transparency: Inner Architect’s Strategy

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For the sake of being transparent, honest, and forthright, I feel it is necessary, as the Business Director for Inner Architect, to state our Twitter.com strategy on Twitter. Over the course of the last month I have reviewed the Twitter strategies, or lack of strategy depending upon how you utilize Twitter, of the National Association of Realtors and Wachovia bank. Let’s take a look at what we are accomplishing here on Twitter:

Two Account Strategy: deansguide

deansguide-twitter-page

My Twitter.com deansguide has the following functions:

  1. Engage: Spend time investing in my Twitter relationships, my selected communities, conversations, individuals, and companies by following nearly everyone who follows me
  2. Communicate: Direct contact with people or companies
  3. Research: Gather content ideas, valuable links, and industry information for repurposing
  4. Go-To-Source: Try to be a go-to source and resource of valuable information by providing the best tweets as often as possible
  5. Recognize: Recognize great content, ideas, attitudes, and kindness by ReTweeting or writing about any person or company that is creating and giving value on a continuous basis
  6. Network: meet and network with people in Silicon Valley (near my home) and around the country

My goal here is to contribute to the twitter community as much as possible.

Two Account Strategy: Innerarchitect:

innerarchitect-twitter-page

Our Twitter.com Innerarchitect account has the following functions:

  1. Research: Find content that matches our business goals, provides fresh perspective, and helps us build our library of value
  2. Follow: The main focus of this account is to find content, research our industry. Consequently we are less active in following. We try to follow people specific to our industry, read, and listen more on this account.
  3. Recognition: We will not follow everyone that follows us as that is not the focus of this account. What we will do is recognize people and companies that inspire us and provide value on a ongoing basis
  4. Activity: We will produce less content (Tweets) on this account because our focus will be to listen to conversations and gather information

Conclusion

If you are a company or individual concerned with ratio of followers to those you follow, then consider deansguide as the place to be on Twitter. On deansguide, I provide value and follow most everyone to build their network numbers.

If you are interested in our company mission, information, and writing consider following or checking in with Innerarchitect. We will focus on companies interested in social media and