If you’re on Twitter, I’m sure you follow more than a few brands. Maybe you follow them for business tips, product updates or simply to see what their social media strategy is. All the best brands on social media do a good job of incentivizing people to follow them, whether it be offering freebees, valuable company info or making customers feel special by reaching out.
The last part seems really labor intensive; producing and posting content is a job within itself! Finding conversations to be a part of sounds difficult, and it feels like you reach fewer people with individual replies and comments. Not true, if you take part in targeted social listening the right way. Targeted social listening entails figuring out the kinds of conversations potential customers are engaging in, and then inserting yourself in the dialogue. Not sure what targeted social listening is? Check out my introductory blog post on the subject.
Take Taco Bell’s effective (and hilarious) Twitter account, for example. Not only do they put out funny and clickable content, but they are really on top of replying to followers and finding new people and brands to engage with.
But how do you find these conversations (and the time to reply)? Creating saved searches on Twitter will help you track down potential customers and make you look very social media savvy. With saved searches, you don’t have to spend an hour on Twitter a day to find people talking about you, your product or your industry.
How To Create Saved Searches On Twitter
- Come up with key search terms. I highly recommend terms for your company name, your product name, the phrase “Looking for” + your product name, your industry, your product category and distinguishing adjectives + your product name. For example, some of my saved keywords are “Affordable CRM” and “Personalized CRM.”
- Search and save each key term on Twitter. Type the keyword into the search bar on Twitter, and hit enter. At the top of the results page, open the tab that says “More options.” In the drop down menu, select “Save this search.” Do this for all your key terms. Now, whenever you click on the blank search bar, a drop down menu of your saved searches will pop up. I often open each saved search in a new tab by right clicking on the term so that I don’t have to keep clearing the search bar.
- Add new key search terms every month or so. This goes along with any social listening strategy. If you notice people often talk about your product name with another keyword you aren’t yet looking for, you might want to include that in your search. After using saved searches for a month, I noticed that people when people asked about CRMs, they said something along the lines of “Anyone know of a good CRM?” So, “Good CRM” became a new search term.
Looking for more social media tips? Check out these articles:
- 8 Ways To Generate Leads on LinkedIn
- Which Social Media Sites Should Your Company Use To Generate Leads?
- Your Best Conversion Tool: Facebook or LinkedIn?
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