Leverage the Long Arm of Twitter for Market Research
With about 15 million users, Twitter is ripe with real-time information. Even though this micro-blogging site limits entries to 140 characters, Twitter is the fastest growing social media tool. Many experts anticipate Twitter will become the most powerful social media force due to its real-time searchability.
What many people don't realize is that many traditional search platforms are not real-time. The information returned in searches is only as current as the last time the search engines gathered data and stored it in their databases. The beauty of Twitter is that its search functionality is in real time. If you want to know what people are talking about right now, type your keywords in Twitter and hit Enter. Within seconds, you'll have a list of real-time results.
I recently conducted research for a client and used both traditional search engines as well as Twitter. Needless to say, I was very impressed when I was able to access information that was posted less than 30 seconds earlier.
Because users are limited to 140 characters, many people use Twitter to refer to full-length articles elsewhere on the web. This way you get the best of both worlds. You get real-time feedback as to what people find important and you can read the expanded article for background information.
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Side note: As you begin to adopt social media, you most likely will want to create a LinkedIn profile. Because these profiles are searchable, you should use all of the fields to their full potential.
For a FREE presentation on how to maximize your LinkedIn profile, click here.