30 Twitter tips hath September: The best way to find real-time information

In September, we’re offering a Twitter tip a day. Send us your thoughts and suggestions.

[Tweet this tip]
Day 30: Instant market research begins with
http://search.twitter.com/advanced.

We talked about how to run simple searches on Twitter, and what search operators to use. But Twitter’s advanced search page makes it so much easier to find things of interest to you: keywords, brand names, movie titles, whatever people are talking about.

Seriously, this is an easy way to capture instant buzz. You can copy the RSS feed for the searches you create and perform most frequently. I routinely search for specific keywords within 50 to 100 miles of ZIP code 35203 (for Birmingham). In fact, I suggest ZIP codes for better precision. (If I looked for tweets within 50 miles of “Birmingham,” I’d have a lot of info about the cities in Michigan and England as well.)

You can hunt for sophisticated information, based on geography, or dates, or whether links are included. You can monitor your brand name, and your competitors’ brand names. You can even see the conversations your competitors are having, and vice versa.

Run the searches, and ease yourself into conversations. You’ll find it to be a remarkable tool for taking the pulse of the Twitterverse.

Follow @WadeOnTweets for more Twitter fun.
30 Twitter tips hath September