How to Search Twitter Like a Pro

April 28, 2011September 20, 2019 Matthew O'Brien

If you are like me, you probably find Google to be lacking when it comes to some areas of search. For example, Google is not very good at finding recent information. IMHO the best place to search for fresh information on a topic is to use the Twitter search function.

Twitter searches can supply great data on what is happening “now” on a topic, but without knowing the search operators, you are relegated to either searching for hashtags or keywords.

Luckily for us, there is a much larger functionality to twitter search. Here are the Twitter search operators and their descriptions:

twitter search	containing both “twitter” and “search”. This is the default operator.
“happy hour“	containing the exact phrase “happy hour”.
love OR hate	containing either “love” or “hate” (or both).
beer –root	containing “beer” but not “root”.
#haiku	containing the hashtag “haiku”.
from:alexiskold	sent from person “alexiskold”.
to:techcrunch	sent to person “techcrunch”.
@mashable	referencing person “mashable”.
“happy hour” near:“san francisco”	containing the exact phrase “happy hour” and sent near “san francisco”.
near:NYC within:15mi	sent within 15 miles of “NYC”.
superhero since:2011-04-27	containing “superhero” and sent since date “2011-04-27” (year-month-day).
ftw until:2011-04-27	containing “ftw” and sent up to date “2011-04-27”.
movie -scary 🙂	containing “movie”, but not “scary”, and with a positive attitude.
flight 🙁	containing “flight” and with a negative attitude.
traffic ?	containing “traffic” and asking a question.
hilarious filter:links	containing “hilarious” and linking to URLs.
news source:twitterfeed	containing “news” and entered via TwitterFeed

Matthew O'Brien

With over 20 years of experience in the digital media world, Matthew has worked for and with Fortune 500 businesses and has built companies from the start-up stage to exit strategy. He recently helped develop a data insight engine to bridge the gap between search, social, and mobile marketing to maximize the visibility, relevancy, and predictive success of online businesses. Matthew is the founder of MINT Social, an award-winning digital marketing company that accelerates online marketing results to help businesses get found and thrive online. Matthew has developed an educational curriculum for Universities on social media for businesses, is a founding board member of the Arizona Innovation Marketing Association (AZIMA), a board member of HeroZona Foundation and on the advisory board (Vinnies) for St. Vincent de Paul - Phoenix. Matthew is a mentor with ASU Entrepreneurship and Innovation Group, a speaker on social media and digital marketing, and is a subject matter expert with many online portals.