Ever wondered how to search Twitter to find certain tweets, not just people or hashtags? Or have you ever searched Twitter but wanted to filter out certain words, phrases, or tweets themselves in the results? If the answer is yes, then you’re probably familiar with Twitter’s Advanced Search page. But to do your searches even more effectively, allow me to introduce you to Twitter Operators.
What are Twitter Operators?
Despite what it may say sound like twitter operators are NOT external tools nor third party apps used to conduct twitter searches. Twitter operators are a set of what I call “shortcuts” that can be used in Twitter.com’s search area. These shortcuts can be used instead of Twitter Advanced Search or in addition to it.
How To Search Twitter With Operators
Basically, the operators are just a set of words and punctuation, a shorthand if you will, that can cut the fat from your Twitter search results. Want to search Twitter for topical tweets, but want retweets omitted from your results? Using operator “-rt”, which means minus the retweets will do that.
You can even search tweets by location with a certain mile radius. How cool is that? So if you’d like to find out who’s tweeting about your business near by, you can! Operators “near: (city, location)” and “within: (number of miles)”
In the video below, you’ll see exactly how to search Twitter using these operators and others to find specific tweets about a topic, in a specific location, and around a certain date.
Now it’s your turn! Try what you’ve seen in the video with the list of Twitter search operators below. And if you have any questions leave them below in the comments section. Happy searching!
image: neilyoungcv.com
