Twitter Advanced Search: The Complete Guide

9 min readNov 21, 2019

Twitter is one of the leading platforms among social media marketing tools. If used well, Twitter provides a plethora of features that can help businesses generate new leads while discovering current trends. In this post, we want to feature the Twitter Advanced Search tool and explain how to use it. But before we get started on it, let us look at some background data to reflect why Twitter is such an important tool for your business.

Consider that as of the first quarter of 2019, Twitter averaged 330 million monthly active users. Every second, active Twitter users are sending over 6000 Tweets. On average, this translates to over 500 million tweets daily. Searching the content posted on Twitter every day presents your business unlimited potential. You could discover new leads or even discover brand mentions, and act accordingly to counter any negativity. Do not forget that your happy customers could be sending tweets that you can leverage on, helping you to retain customers. Owing to what we have reviewed above, it is clear that Twitter Advanced Search presents a goldmine for marketers and salespeople.

How to find the Twitter Advanced Search Tool

Advanced search is an amazing resource, available when using the Twitter web application. To access the advanced twitter search tool, the first option is direct via the URL: http://twitter.com/search-advanced.

The second approach is using the usual web search tool on your Twitter homepage, then clicking on the “More Options” menu and select “Advanced Search”. See the screenshot below:

Either of the two methods will get you into the twitter advanced search tool. Now that you understand how to navigate to it, let us look at some of the search refining features.

The “Words” section

Twitter’s advanced search tool makes it easy for you to find information using different words. This information can relate to your business, your competition, or even your customers. Before we look into the different sections, here is a screenshot showing advanced search using the words to refine a search.

All of these words: The twitter search results will include all conversations containing the words you have entered. For instance, if you enter the word motorsport, your search results all conversations with the word will be displayed.
This exact phrase: this performs an “exact match” kind of search. Therefore, if you enter the phrase “Motorsport USA”, the search results will not contain a phrase like “Motorsport UK”.
Any of these words: the tweets or conversations that contain any of the keywords entered in this section will be displayed.
None of these results: this field is used when you want to eliminate some words in your search.
These hashtags: The search results will include extracts containing the particular hashtags you will enter.
Written in: This is used when you want to be specific to a particular language.

To refine your search results, ensure that you use relevant keywords on your search.

The “Accounts” Section

Use this section when you want to filter results to specific users only. Here is a screenshot of what the “accounts” section would appear like.

Let us look at each of the subsections under the “Accounts” section:

From these Accounts: the search results will contain Tweets made from the account you enter on this subsection of Twitter Advanced Search.
To these Accounts: The search results will contain the tweets that are directed at the users you have entered under this section.
Mentioning these accounts: The search result will include the tweets that mention the specific accounts that you have entered.

Use this Twitter advanced section to discover tweets from and directed to people you are interested in. The feature is particularly relevant if you want to discover what others are saying about your competition, your brand or products, or even discover influencers on Twitter. When using this section, remember that people often use name alterations when referring to twitter accounts or brands. Therefore, in case you are interested, do not hesitate to make use of those alterations.

Besides, note that some Twitter users will not mention using exact brand names, neither will they use alterations. Therefore, you can use the exact phrase section to discover more search results.

The “Dates” section

This section is important when you want to focus on Tweets or conversations that took place over that period. Therefore, this can be a great enhancement when you are using the other sections we have mentioned in our previous paragraphs. A calendar will popup allowing you to enter the start and the end date from the search tool.

Use all sections to refine the search results

The Twitter advanced search tool allows the user to make use of all the sections that we have looked at herein. You can enter details on all the subsections, refine your tweets and ensure you have relevant results.

Now, we have a clear understanding of how to use the Twitter advanced search tool. However, why is the advanced twitter search tool important for your business? To answer this, we need to analyze the different accomplishments you can make using the Twitter advanced search tool.

Why Twitter Advanced Search tool matters to your business

#1 Use Advanced Twitter Search to Explore Conversations

Different conversations occur on Twitter on a basis. Marketers can use the advanced twitter search tool to discover and join relevant conversations. These are the conversations relating to products or even industry news.

Remember that those taking part in a particular conversation are either potential customers or existing customers. Therefore, if you are offering relevant services or products related to the topic, you can target the participants effectively. This is a great opportunity to introduce them to your products or services when and as at the time they are discussing them. Remember that it is through such conversations you can also discover or connect with influencers.

Look at this from a different perspective. Potential buyers will introduce a Twitter hashtag when they are researching a product or best industry suppliers. If you are using the advanced twitter search tool to discover the conversations, you discover these conversations. At this point, you have a great opportunity to thrown in expert’s advice, as an industry leader. This way, you have discovered new leads and you can target them in subsequent postings.

#2 Advanced Twitter Search to explore opportunities content marketing or blogging

Are you looking for a great opportunity to get your business name out there? Probably you need to try blogging or content marketing strategy. For most bloggers, finding a relevant topic that they can write about is often overwhelming. If blogging is your marketing strategy, you can leverage on Twitter Advanced Search Tool for new blog ideas.

Borrowing from trending hashtags, you can drive more traffic to your blog by writing topics that relate to current trends. Consider that there are different hashtags, touching on different industries. Search for the industry hashtags and read the conversations.

By simply identifying the industry keywords or main hashtags, you can discover numerous opportunities for your blog content. Searching the ongoing conversations is also a great approach when looking for the best topics for your upcoming blog.

Remember that a timely blog will get you several clicks. In that regard, you should pay attention to trending hashtags and come up with content that serves to answer the reader’s curiosity on a trending topic.

#3 Connecting to influencers around an industry or product-related hashtags

Twitter influencers keep a huge network of likeminded people. Discovering like-minded twitter users is a great opportunity for marketers. It creates a good opportunity for allowing marketers to expand their twitter following. Having conversations with the like-minded persons, and targeting them through promoted or organic Twitter Ads is what follows, once you have discovered them.

In the twitter advanced search tool, search for the industry keyword or a common hashtag using the other filters. Tap on the people option, and you will discover like-minded persons, and then add them to your twitter network.

Twitter marketers know that what matters, is ensuring you have the right people on your network. Using this advanced search tool is inevitable if you want to be able to achieve this. By searching using it, you can find the right audience for your marketing campaigns.

#4 Brand Monitoring using Twitter Advanced Search Tool

Brand monitoring is an important aspect that affects business survival. You want to make sure that your business does not have any negative mentions that can affect brand image. We have seen organizations lose dozens of customers just because of a single tweet sent by an agitated customer. Consider that customers are tweeting on the experiences they had, after using a product you sold to them. Marketers can leverage positive comments to market the product. In the case of negative comments, the marketer’s quick reaction will help to protect the brand image.

To discover twitter mentions using the advanced search tool, enter your brand name on it. Alternatively, you can use the product names to conduct a quick search. Do not forget to use a different brand name or product name alterations on your search. The important thing is to ensure that you keep a note of every mention and respond appropriately.

#5 Use the advanced Twitter search tool to find what competitors are up to

Your competitors are holding conversations with their Twitter followers. Besides, their customers are mentioning their products, in different Twitter conversations. To stay top of the game, you want to spy on these conversations to discover what they are planning and pain points they are not fulfilling. Therefore, you must use the Twitter advanced search tool to discover the conversations. Enter the competitor’s brand name and product names on it to discover important insights.

#6 To research customers needs and wants

Twitter’s advanced search allows organizations to discover the pain points of their target audience. This is something that every marketer on Twitter should be interested in, particularly when it comes to ceasing business opportunities. You want to be able to know what the customers want and meet their requirements on time.

This tool will help you to accomplish this requirement. You can narrow down using the search criteria that allow you to pinpoint the customer’s pain points. This helps you to discover new opportunities, bringing in additional revenue.

#7 Twitter Advanced Search allows a business to enhance customer care

Twitter is a great tool when it comes to enhancing your customer care function. Consider that customers will tweet their experiences. Some tweets require that the customer support desk should respond in good time to avoid damaging your brand image. Use the Twitter Advanced Search tool to discover what customers are saying, and ensure that you respond appropriately. Through timely response, you can increase the retention rate, as your customers will be satisfied.

This tool is a great resource for your business. It will help you to discover important conversations, ensuring that you respond accordingly. Are you using Twitter for your business? Start using the application today and discover the enormous potential.

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Originally posted on Mentionlytics: https://www.mentionlytics.com/blog/twitter-advanced-search-complete-guide/