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How Can I Find an Old Tweet?

Heather Buckley — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 10:57:50 +0000

Image by Teresa Stanton

Twitter Tip: How To Find Old Tweets

Little Bo Peep has lost her tweets and doesn’t know where to find them….

Ever wanted to find an old tweet? Or an old conversation thread with a tweep? Well we had the same problem recently and can now help you out! Read on for our tips.

Want to fully optimise Twitter in your SEO Campaign? Find out how useful it can be HERE

If social media leaves you a bit lost in general and you feel you’re not maximising its marketing potential then our social networking training workshops could be for you. We’ve also got a free resource listing all the twitter tools a business could need if you are looking for more help with all things Twitter.

How to search for tweets

Twitter’s Advanced Search: Twitter’s own search facility allows you do search by date, user, mention, place and keyword. You can also limit the results to just those with links – handy if you’re looking for a specific website link. The main downers to this are that you can only go back by about three months. And the search results often won’t find anything at all when Twitter gets overloaded e.g. this query for happy xmas on 25/12/2009 strangely found absolutely nothing!

Twitter Search: Picks up all the tweets from a chosen Twitter account when “from:SBTTraining” with the appropriate Twitter username is used.

Google: Similarly, good ol’Google can help if you enter “photography competition site:twitter.com” with the site:… part instructing Google to search only that URL for your chosen search term. This will also work if you wish to search a certain user’s tweets – simply amend it to “photography competition site:twitter.com/username”. Like Twitter’s own search Google has its limits though, for example it picked one sole tweet up within the date range 1/1/2010 – 31/1/2010! In addition, Twoogel uses Google listings to search Twitter – so use this to avoid the site:… part.

How to find a Twitter conversation thread

Twonvo or TweetConvo: Enter the status URL of a tweet (you will be taken to this if you click the date beneath the tweet when viewing it on Twitter) and these tools will trace the original conversation or show all the replies a tweet has received. These tools are invaluable when you need to make sense of a series of “@username Yes I totally agree!” tweets.

We publish lots of quick Twitter tips such as How can I find out if someone if following me on Twitter? – just get in touch if there’s something you’d like covered,

What do I tweet about? 30 tweet ideas

Heather Buckley — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 08:55:32 +0000

One question I’m often asked by those who are starting to tweet is ‘What do I tweet about?’. So i have written 30 Tweeting Top Tips.

Even the most experienced tweeters get twitter block sometimes. Here are a few ideas to keep you going. Incidentally many of these suggestions make good blog ideas too. I did write a post on Blog Ideas earlier.

Want to use Twitter for SEO? Check out this post on TweetSERPing.

If you are new to Twitter and are only just finding out about Social Media and what it can do for your business, why not book onto one of our Social Networking Training in Brighton, Sussex.

1. Write helpful Tweets

At least half of your tweets should be an answer, a response, or some kind of communication or dialogue. Remember it’s about relationships.

2. Create a tweet when you upload a new blog post

Let everyone know what you are writing about, and make the tag line snappy. Next time you are wondering which links to click on in twitter ask yourself why you chose them, make a note then use the same technique.

3. Tweet other peoples blog posts

Every time you read something you think is interesting, useful or fascinating – tweet it.

4. Show you care

Often people let you know if they are having a bad day, say something supportive or cheering.

5. Be interesting

What do people want to read about? Look back over your tweets and make a note of the ones that got attention. to do this go to Topsy and type in your twitter name to find your most re-tweeted tweets. Alternatively type in another user name and learn from their successes.

6. Be First

Keep you eye on the latest news, watch for trending topics and tweet the latest use Twitscoop to find out whats trending. Even better write an up to date report on the subject and tweet about it.

7. Make Someone Laugh

Re-tweet the best jokes and write your own but be careful, it has to be funny!

8. Tweet a Fascinating Fact

It’s a good idea to keep a notebook with you as these will present themselves to you from time to time, on TV, listening to other peoples conversations (not that I do that!).

9. Recommend a product or Service

This can be a good way to build relationships, you might review a book or a Social Media application. Don’t forget to Direct Message or mention them to let them know.

10. Ask for a recommendation

Are you going somewhere? Ask for a good hotel, restaurant etc. Are you buying a new camera? Ask for advice.

11. Tweet about good feedback from your clients

When someone says something nice about you tell everyone.

12. Tweet about great websites.

Are there any inspiring or useful sites you keep going back to? Tweet about them

13. Tweet about special offers

While you want to keep direct sales tweets to a bare minimum, if you have a special one off offer tell all your clients about it, everyone likes a good deal

14. Announce something new.

Is there a new development/product in your field? Tweet about it.

15. Tweet about your Achievements and Successes

Have you won an award or landed killer contract, have you been listed somewhere impressive on the web?

16. Congratulate someone

Look out for other people’s success stories and congratulate them

17. Say thank you

While I don’t encourage thanking every re-tweet , you could thank a select few, likewise with followers, personally I’m not keen on automated thank you messages as you can spot them a mile away, but many people use them, it’s up to you.

18. Share new studies

Read some interesting stats or studies? Tweet them.

19. Share great video

Have you seen an inspiring, amazing or really funny on YouTube Video lately? Even better have you uploaded one yourself? Tweet it.

20. Make a prediction.

Do you think something is around the corner, tell people and say “you heard it here first”.

21. Give something away

Give away free pdfs – guides, reports, stats, ebooks. Do you have office furniture you don’t want anymore – offer free to collector.

22. Support a Charity

Is there an appeal you would like to support, tweet about it. Then later thank everyone who supported it.

23. Link to a photo

You can upload images to Twitpic or link to your Flickr account. If you use Tweetdeck you can attach images to you tweet.

24. Publicise an Event

Is there something going on locally, or nationally, or is there a good web seminar, TV Programme, Radio programme coming up?

25. Talk about an event you have attended

Let people know any nuggets you have gleaned

26. Ask a question

A good way to start a conversation as many people are looking out for others to help. If your question is controversial you may attract a lot of interest. Your question could be hypothetical – what would you do if….

27. Answer a Question

Always look out for these; if it’s a techie question it’s worth taking the time to look up the answer, the original tweeter will thank you for it and you will have a stronger connection.

28. Run a Competition

This is a great way to build followers, and traffic to your blog. Ask people to Re tweet your competition to enter and tell them to follow to find out if they have won.

29. Tweet and inspiring quote

Make sure they are great though, I see a lot of lame quotes floating around on twitter, and those people who just tweet quotes can be a bit tiresome.

30. Comment on other people’s tweets

Let them know you are listening, give them some feedback.

Twitterisms – Understanding Twitter Jargon

Heather Buckley — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:03:50 +0000

Are you a TwitternOOb who needs help understanding tweeps who twitterise everything? We’ve provided a mini twictionary of twitterisms for you:

If you are new to Social Networking you may be interested in our Social Networking training course in Brighton, Sussex.

Please add your own using the comments.

Tweeps, Tweeple, Twittizens, Tweeters

People who tweet

Twitterjacking

Pretending to be someone else, usually a celebrity see Gordon Brown

Twitthore

Someone who follows anyone and everyone

Twitterholic, Twaddict

Someone with a tweeting problem

Tweetup

A real face to face meeting of people who twitter

Twittersona

A created twitter character, see God, Satan, and my personal favourite Alexanda Orlov founder of comparethemeerkat.com!

Tweetwise

A Twitter Pro

Tweetworthy

Something that’s worthy of a tweet

Twinfluence

How influential you are on twitter.

Twired

So hyped up about tweeting that it’s impossible to sleep

Tweet Elite

People with thousands of followers

Twiticism

A witty tweet

Twitterati

Celebrities who tweet, or people famous for tweeting with loads of followers

Twitteristics

Your twitter activity, how often you tweet, reply and follow.

TwitternOOb

Someone new to twitter, a twitter virgin.

Twitterquette, Twetiquette

The etiquette of using twitter

Twittersquatting

Registering a trade name or brand on twitter with the idea of using/selling it.

Twitterstalker

Someone who finds your tweets a little too interesting

Twitterstream

The updates that appear on your homepage

Twittervangelist

Someone who tries to convert everyone into twitter users

5 Useful Twitter Tools – sort out your followers

Heather Buckley — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:35:06 +0000

So you have your Twitter account, you can see who you are following, you can see who follows you and you can see which of those you are following are following you.

Great, but now you want to know:

which people you are following are not following you
who has recently stopped following you
what are your contacts tweeting about
who is a useless twitterer!

Those interested in building up their online presence using Social Media may be interested in our one day Social Media Training course (our one day SEO Training course is also an invaluable complement). There are loads of Twitter applications out there that can answer these questions for you here are just a few:

TwitterCounter: THE Number 1 stats site for your Twitter account.
My Tweeple: My Tweeple lists your follower and those you follow with their bio snippet attached, this is really useful if you want to contact them outside of twitter as their website or linkedin account is usually listed.
FriendOrFollow: Who are you following that’s not following you back? Who’s following you that you’re not following back? A very concise and visual tool.
ChirpStats: To find out when someone has unfollowed you, simply follow @chirpstats on Twitter and then it will message you every time you are unfollowed.
Refollow - Allows you to filter out unimportant follows and group together different types of useful people you follow. Its a great way to manage your followers and friends.