todd m. sweet

How to Archive a Twitter Search Using Google Reader

One of the under-appreciated benefits of Twitter is an organization’s ability to track chatter about its brand, product, service etc. via a persistent search.  Unfortunately, Twitter’s search engine only goes back seven days, so you can’t rely on it to archive dated feedback.  What to do? Enter Google Reader.

Google Reader creates a searchable archive of all of your RSS feeds, not just the items you actually read, share or star.  Consequently, it is an excellent tool for archiving an incredibly large volume of data that can be curated at will using a variety of filters.  Here’s the process involved:

• Using Twitter’s advanced search, construct your query.
• On the results page find and click the “Feed for this query” link in the top right corner.
• This is the RSS feed for the search that you can now add to Google Reader.
• Rename it to something that is easy to understand, such as “Twitter - [Insert Keywords]”.
• Any new results will appear as a new item in the RSS feed.

I have a few searches set up that produce 100+ new items daily.  Because I don’t want or need to read every item on a daily basis I have placed these RSS feeds in a separate folder in Google Reader called “Archives”.  Every day I will highlight the folder and mark all items as read.  Even though they disappear from view I will always be able to search these items if need be.

Have you discovered any other techniques for tracking searches on Twitter?  I’d love to know.

Mashable - Twitter & Foursquare Become the New Loyalty Program at Tasti D-Lite

Is this the future of customer loyalty programs? Mashable takes a look at what one retailer is doing to help measure social media ROI.

Social network searches could be a hacker’s dream - USATODAY.com

The integration of updates from social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook into search engine results could be a boon for spammers, according to an article from USA Today.

Yet anyone can now post a Twitter message on a hot topic, say, “Copenhagen.” In less than a minute, a reference to that tweet will appear as part of the results for anyone Googling “Copenhagen.” It’s simple to attach spam or a link to a corrupted website, says Danny Sullivan, editor in chief of SearchEngineLand.com. Tainted posts moving quickly and intermittently into search results could be very hard to filter. “It’s an entirely new cat-and-mouse game,” says Sullivan.

One Status to Rule Them All? Twitter & LinkedIn Announce Partnership

Twitter & LinkedIn recently announced a partnership whereby you can update your status via either service and it will automatically be posted to both.  I think the concept of a universal status is an interesting development, but I’m not sure I’m quite ready to embrace a single persona across the web.  It may sound silly, but I still view each online community I participate in to be fairly distinct and consequently tailor the content I push to each.  Yes, the lines between Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn continue to blur, particularly as the services allow greater control over personal information sharing (e.g., Facebook friend lists).  However, right now I see my LinkedIn profile as my professional presence and don’t anticipate cross-posting the more impulsive items I might toss into my Twitter and Facebook streams.  Do you still separate your personas?

Update: Steve Rubel adds his voice to the discussion in his entry, <a href=”http://www.steverubel.com/the-case-for-a-status-update-a-standard”>The Case for a Status Update Standard</a>.