Twitter turned is now a teen-ager. I turned 13 this year (2019). The first tweet was sent on March 21, 2006 at 2:02 PM by Jack Dorsey.
From then on, it has grown into a powerful social media marketing platform.
It is not the darling of the crowd compared to Facebook but it is one of the top 5 social media marketing tools that businesses use. Savvy companies know that when used well, it can help them achieve their company’s business goal.
Personally, it is my most favorite platforms. Why?
Because the communication barrier on Twitter is zero.
Let’s be clear first on this….
What Twitter is not
Twitter is NOT a broadcast media site. It is not a social media platform where you can inundate your followers’ news feed by repeatedly broadcasting press releases, blog updates, and sales posts.
Sadly, that is what some companies on Twitter focus their efforts hoping to make a sale instead of engaging with their followers.
What Twitter is
The basic ethos of social media hasn’t changed. It is not a one-way street conversation. It is about engagement and community-building. Conversation is a key and the most inexpensive step to grow brand awareness.
On Twitter, engagement with your market is often instantaneous. It is the closest to real-time engagement that you could ever have especially when you happen to be engaging when your audience is around.
Twitter conversations are as simple as talking about what they just tweeted.
If you want to grow your brand online and build a solid online community, then Twitter is your platform.
With the right set of expectations in place, you can find local connections on Twitter and grow your brand locally.
Now.
How to find your active local Tweeters
You don’t have to guess whether they are there or not, just use either of these tips to find them.
Use the onemilliontweetmap.com tool
With the one million tweet map tool, you can search your local Twitter users either by hashtag, by keyword or by their Twitter user name.
You can even zoom in on a specific place and follow where the cluster of conversation is happening. Then just click on the bird and it will show you who is tweeting and what that person is tweeting about.
Just look for relevant Tweeter to follow. Check the Twitter user’s profile if you want to follow, and engage.
Twitter local trends
Twitter Trends gives insight into what topics and issues that matter locally, and who is talking about it.
Twitter has a default for it but you can set it manually to your city.
The list on trends is dynamic; so the results are different every day.
Twitter’s trends’ conversation queue is unique for every city as you can see on the image shared above. So if you want to find the active local Twitter users in your city, then Twitter local trends are the best place to check, regularly to grow Twitter locally.
How to customize Twitter trends to your city
- In your Twitter news feed, called “Home,” look for the Trends section. If you are using the old or legacy Twitter version, it is just below “Home,” on the left side. It is on the right side if you are using the new Twitter.
- Next, select “Change.”
- Next, you will see the “Trends” dialog box. Type the name of the city in the “Search locations” space. If the city where your business is located happens to be small, select a city nearest to it.
- Next, the top hashtags, news, and people for that city will appear.
- Next, select a trending topic or hashtag. From here you can go through top tweets, latest posts, people, photos, videos, news, and broadcasts. See who is talking, add those people in the conversation.
Are any of them relevant to your brand or content? If so add that person to your list and join the conversation by adding value to it.
Search Twitter
Without changing local trends, search right inside Twitter to find twitter users and businesses around a local business location.
- Type: near:[your local business location].
- Any tweets from that location will appear, including the ones that mention that location. Then have fun going over the local tweets that are relevant and join in.
Twitter Advanced Search
Note: Places is what you will use here. And it only appears if you are still using the legacy version of Twitter. Like the image below. Twitter’s new look will not have that option anymore (see second image below).
You can only use the Twitter advanced search option if you are logged in to Twitter.com. Here is the link: https://twitter.com/search-advanced. Save that because it is hard to find. What I like about Twitter’s advanced search is that I can search for small cities while Trends would only show bigger cities.
Advanced Twitter search (the legacy version) has other options to customize it so you can do a more refined search when you are looking for active local Twitter users in your area. Use it while you still have it! There’s no telling when Twitter will force us to switch to the new version.
Just to segue on what I mentioned earlier about the new advanced search, this is how the New Twitter’s advanced search looks like (image below), the URL is the same but if you switch to the new look. You can still use advanced search to find Twitter users locally but the “Places” option where you can type in your city is gone.
Location-based Hashtags
As we all know when a tweet has a hashtag, Twitter would index that tweet making it searchable or discoverable. So a location-based hashtag is a great way to search for active local Tweeters.
Try searching for a location-based hashtag in the search bar on Twitter. For example, I live near Sacramento. I can search for #sacramento or #sacramentokings, to begin with. As I keep digging, I will most likely find other hashtags that local Twitter users are using.
Local Influencers
As a local business, look up on Twitter your local news sources, politicians and celebrities.
You can use the tools I already mentioned above like Twitter search and advanced search. Check who is following them and the ones that are engaging with them. Find out what they are talking about to get a feel of what is happening locally. And add those people to your Twitter list of local users.
It’s a Wrap
Now that we have taken the guesswork of finding and identifying your local fans on Twitter, what’s next? That topic will be covered on Part 2 of growing Twitter locally. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter so you won’t miss it!
Which of these tips do you use when finding your local Twitter users?
