Using Twitter to Search and Sift

It’s such a simple service, but the usefulness of Twitter confounds many observers and participants.

It’s easy to mock Twitter for the trivial content that gets posted by different people.

When I have time at home, I tend to put Twitter in a small Window, (using Twhirl), and it checks for new updates every 3-4 minutes.

The background noise is fairly easy to ignore, and it’s easy to stop following anyone who you find has nothing worthwhile to say.

Some of the more interesting folks post little snippets of info, links to online content they recommend, and questions that are niggling at them.

If you can’t seem to find “thought leaders” who are engaged in discussions via Twitter, then it might not be the tool for you.  Maybe the folks you’re more interested in interacting with are using some other method of connecting with a community of people.

Before giving up, I’d suggest seeing who a like-minded person is following.

Another option is to use GTalk (if you have a Google account), set Twitter up to talk to your GTalk account, and try using the “Track” function to watch the flow of commentary about a particular subject.  This is similar to Technorati or Google Blog Search, but in real time.

If a story is breaking, you can track references to a company, person or event, and see what’s being said by anyone who uses Twitter.  Also good for monitoring buzz about your organization, or a client.

Tip:  If you have a low tolerance for people commenting about subjects that may or may not be something they’re an expert in, you’ll probably find Twitter annoying.  If you can get past that annoyance and watch for topics of interest, you may find yourself drawn to some interesting discussions.

(This post actually started as a comment on the PR Junkie blog, but I thought it was worth sharing.)