I think that Twitter, more than Google, is turning into the best search tool for people in real-time.
I use it to find people who are talking about the same things I’m interested in.
For example, in my account, I’ve saved these searches:
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=minority+women+business
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=green+women+business
And I periodically log in and run the search to network with or follow other people interested in what I’m interested in.
I’ve used CoTweet.com to manage postings from multiple accounts (one for my personal Twitter account, one for my business Twitter account, and others for our client accounts through my web development company).
I use TwitterFeed.com to import the RSS feed from my blogs into my Twitter feed.
I’ve also added a “AddThis.com” button to my blog and website so it’s easy to “tweet” a post.
From this, I am doing better and better at finding other minority women in business and green, success-oriented, fair trade, organic, progressive, sustainable, eco-friendly, and holistic business owners.
I’m also enjoying the conversations, the ability to search by location and by topic, and the blazingly fast transfer of information (for example, a tweet to watch for the International Space Station as it flew by last night, with a link to the correct website).
What do you think? Is Twitter working for you?
You can Find me as Monica S. Flores @monicadear at: http://www.twitter.com/monicadear. I’m happy to connect if you send me a personal message, too.
Monica S Flores
Monica S. Flores leads large-scale web development projects in refactoring, redesign/redevelopment, digital platform buildout, & new product launches. She works with US-based & international associations, non-profits, public agencies, & startups on how to reach their communities online. Her focus is to build community, foster connectedness, & use her technology & management skills to make a better world. She believes each of us has an ability/obligation to use our knowledge, ideas, & talents to advance fairness, justice, safety, health, sustainability, & wellbeing. Find her books at Amazon or connect with her on LinkedIn.
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Twitter is good to keep in touch with others but there is so much abuse going on twitter as well. How do you track the messages from people you want to hear from?
Thanks for this very useful post! I credit it with getting me to finally relent and start my own twitterings a few days ago. Question about the searches – so do your searches for “minority women business” search in the bio or in the postings? I may consider myself a minority/woman business owner, but I haven’t quite stated that clearly on my twitter accounts. I’ve seen the hashmarks and such, but it seems a little… awkward to me. Any clarifications? Thanks!
Aansa – I typically follow up via e-mail with people I want to keep in touch with.
DL – I think the search goes through both postings and bio, but the bio is only 140 characters too. The hasmarks were popular prior to the search function being beefed up on Twitter, and one would use a # sign to signify something such as #minority #women #business but since the search capability on Twitter has been made more robust, you could jsut as easily do a text only search.
http://Search.twitter.com
In “Advanced” search, you may also find other Twitterers who are *near your location*. Use the Near this Place and Within this Distance search fields.
http://search.twitter.com/advanced
So, for example, where I live there are a few Twitterers but the tool allows us to find each other, then we can organize and create our own “meetup” in person.
I’m new to twitter, and learning as I go. Thanks for this article.
http://twitter.com/Penelopes_Oasis