Understand Twitter search

Now that you’ve set up your dashboard, bookmark this link immediately: search.twitter.com/advanced.

This is Twitter’s own advanced search tool, and it is absolutely essential if you want to get into the conversation happening right now in your niche.

It is similar to Google’s advanced search, in that you can define keywords to include, exclude and target exact phrases. But because Twitter is a social information network, its search includes social queries too: you can search tweets from, to, or referencing a particular person, tweets from a particular location, or tweets with only a negative sentiment.

Twitter search is a powerful way to find out exactly what people are saying within your niche right now. For instance, you could search for “dogs” and “grooming” and “hair cut” in only your state to see if there are any potential clients who might need your services. Or you can use it to discover the most popular hashtags in your niche, the Twitter thought leaders, and more.

That one is probably the only one worth mentioning as the others are common sense. The whole point to Twitter, in our opinion, is that it is far and away the best, most up-to-the-minute information portal on the web today. 

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Because the trend toward a more online-centric marketing platform will continue into the forseeable future, however, why not help your present customers along in that process by making the transition as seamless as possible?

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Perhaps the editors and publishers once figured that they could get their way because Apple chief Steve Jobs needed classy aggregated content for the iPad. If so, the magazine industry had its head in the sand. They need the iPad more than the iPad needs them.

So, this seeming marriage made in heaven of new and old media is getting off to an uninspiring start. As The Wall Street Journal noted on Monday, while an increasing number of magazines are edging toward permitting subscriptions on the iPad, “relations between the publishing industry and Apple remain icy.” 

Don’t look for the iPad to offer consumers much of a break. The Economist, for instance, carries a price tag of $110 a year, and the New Yorker costs $4.99 an issue on the iPad. Magazine publishers fret that by playing ball with Apple, they’ll eventually lose control of the customer data that they need for related marketing programs. Bloomberg BusinessWeek this week began offering subscriptions to an iPad variation of its publication for $2.99 a month. Elle and Maxim are among what the Journal called “a small but growing number of magazines willing to sign despite industry-wide concerns about Apple’s reluctance to share customer data.”

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According to a new report from the founder of SocialMediaExaminer.com, the results are a mixed bag:

While 90 percent of marketers now say that social media-related marketing is important for their business, nearly 25 percent are still in the dark when it comes to measuring its effect, according to the third annual Social Media Marketing Industry Report from Michael A. Stelzner, founder of SocialMediaExaminer.com.

Entrepreneur.com

Knowing whether your online marketing is working for your bottom line is what's important. Companies can have all the flashy facebook and twitter pages in the world but if customers aren't following the links and buying something, it's kind of pointless. Style is one thing but style withoutsubstance is, unfortunately, an all-too-common occurrence for small businesses. It also may be one of the biggest reasons why small businesses are hesitant to "justify plowing resources into something that you're not sure is working".

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