"Just how do you follow news on Twitter?" I've been asked this question several times. And I'm being honest when I say I really don't think much about it, simply because I've been doing it so long. But I've noticed that usually when I'm asked this question, it's from someone who is almost strictly a Facebooker. They view Twitter as some noisy, vast wasteland that they can't understand. So I decided to pull this together to explain how to search on news or trends in Twitter. This is only one way how. You don't even need a Twitter account to do this! And there is a plethora of options for doing this based upon third-party apps and services. This article will focus on how to do this from within Twitter only.
Before we get into how to search however, let me offer this word of caution. Just because someone says it, doesn't mean it's true. Anyone can say anything. So the view that Twitter can be a noisy wasteland is probably accurate. OK, let's do this:
First of all, you need a topic. With that topic you will use a Hashtag (#) Some of my favorites I've used: #Korea, #Egypt, #Libya, #Syria, #Android, #Apple, #iPad, and many more. Anyone sharing information about a topic that they want others to see will use the Hashtag so that when someone searches, they can see what this person tweeted. Twitter organizes these tweets from the most recent at the top, to older ones at the bottom. The big news today is that Rebels are about to enter Tripoli. So I am following the Tweets in Libya, Now that I have a topic, let's head over to Twitter and do a search.
Simply insert the Hastag(#)in front of your topic. I used #libya and Clicked "Search"
The power here, is that this is what people around the world are saying about that topic right now. Many of these tweets are coming from inside Libya, by eyewitnesses on the ground. But Twitter also does a good job of showing you popular links based upon your search. In this example, these are Tweets being shared by persons with information on #Libya. Below that is popular pictures and Videos that have been shared using that hashtag.
Click on to display the media and see images, that more than likely, you will never see on the nightly news.
Of course, Tweets are still coming in fast and furious if this topic is an active one, and Twitter will let you know that by displaying how many new tweets are waiting for your browsing pleasure at the top. Click to see all the new information.
There you go! I wrote this thinking Twitter Search 101. Very basic, but should be enough information to get you started. Pick a topic and have at it. If you are a member of Twitter, you can save a search and refer to it at your leisure. You can also build lists of people who you find interesting through search, and save these lists. That is probably a just duke future article.
If you are already on Twitter, hit me up. I auto-follow back!
Buds who Blog