#TwitterSearch

#100DaysOfDigital #100DaysOfSocialMedia Day 4.

You know when they said the internet never forgets? I am almost certain they were talking about #TwitterSearch.

Twitter has the MADDEST search function of any social media app.

Amazing stuff really.

However some people still don’t know how to use #TwitterSearch

As usual I am here to help.

Let’s start: refined #TwitterSearch

1. The search bar in most regular twitter apps is this icon ?? on top (right mostly) of the screen.

2. Trying to search out tweets you or any Twitter user tweeted within a particular period, say 5 months or 2 years ago (or from any specific date)

Type: from:zegbua since:2013–06–15 until:2015–07–15

“from” should be your handle or the handle of the person’s you are searching.

3. Let’s say the subject is “President Buhari” and you want to know what this user tweeted between June 2013 and July, 2015. Type into the search bar like this.

“President Buhari” from:zegbua since:2013–06–15 until:2015–07–15.

4. If you cannot remember the handle or user name but you are certain you say a tweet with the words “super soft copy” in the tweet.

In the search bar, type the words “super soft copy” remember to add quotes at both ends.

5. Adding quotes at both end means you get to see only tweets with those exact words.

6. I posted a photo with the late Classic FM’s Sly in 2014. I wanted to search out the tweets (See pictures below).

7. Let’s say you want to search all the tweets where you were talking about “birth” but it brings out a lot of “birthdays” tweets, to refine the search you type in:

"birth -days"

It will show all tweets containing birth but not the ones with birthdays.

Or square but not square root.

Type: square -root in the search bar, only tweets with square & not squareroot will show.

Putting the ‘-’ sign in front of the word you are searching eliminates it from the search.

So if you ever need to search a hyphenated word, remove the dash from the search bar and use space instead.

8. Also say you wanted to search all the tweets 2 people have ever tweeted at each other.

Type both handles in the search bar without the @, e.g. “omojuwa mbuhari”

All tweets they have ever tweeted at each other plus mentions plus mentions containing both their handles will display.

9. If you wanted to search everything tweeted about a subject since a particular period. For example, fuel subsidy:

Type “fuel subsidy” since:2015–09–12

 You can further refine this search by adding a handle.

“fuel subsidy” from:zegbua since:2015–05–12

When you put “from:zegbua” or whatever handle in a search bar, it will only search tweets from that handle.

Yes, Facebook search is still a mess but hopefully soon they will improve until then remember, be careful what you post online. The internet never forgets.

The End.