Total Pageviews

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Twitter: Search Engine For “Now”

Regardless of what search engine you use, you know when you punch in those keywords, you’re going to get a million options, and not all of them recent—even on the first page of results.  That’s a lot of clutter to sort through, especially when there is no guarantee you’re going to find something happening “now” or that is timely and relevant. As a result of these frustrations, users are finding ways to further filter their searches for better results.  One way they are doing this is with Twitter.  With approximately 340 million tweets per day and over half a billion active users, Twitter is a gold mine for things happening now. 
 
For example, if you want to find a trending topic, such as something news related, most users know someone or many someone’s will be using Twitter to send out Tweets, often in real time. If something is going on in the world, there is someone, somewhere tweeting about it and linking you to the most up-to-date information.
 
Twitter is also full of new or recent content, making it a fantastic database for those seeking current information on a huge variety of topics.  For fast-paced industries, such as technology, having access to the latest and greatest can be the difference between edging ahead or falling behind.
 
Because a tweet can reach millions of users in a single blow and travels faster than cars, people and other forms of transportation—it’s also a great communication tool when you need to spread the word fast. For that reason, it was used to communicate and coordinate the protests in Eqypt—it truly is a powerful thing. 
 
For these reasons and many others, more and more people are starting their searches with Twitter instead of their stand-by search engines. This is something to keep in mind when you are contemplating your own content and planning your various marketing campaigns and social strategies.

 If you want to learn more about Twitter, its users and their behaviors,  I found this cool infographic.  Enjoy!

 
Twitter Cheat Sheet

 

 

No comments: