If you want to learn how to conduct a Twitter search by location, this guide is for you.
Twitter’s search function has massive potential for businesses, though it’s often an underutilised feature. Once you know how to find tweets sent within a certain area, you could:
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- Find relevant people to network with in your town or city
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- Find leads and new business opportunities locally
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- Get real-time information about what’s happening near you
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- Discover what people are saying about your competitors
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- Join in with conversations and be part of the local community
- Search Old Tweets in an area
- Find PR opportunities from local media
Sounds good, doesn’t it? Now let’s look at how to do it.
1. Search by keyword
The simplest way to conduct a Twitter Search by location is to enter the name of the area you’re curious about into the search bar.
What’s important to note here is that this type of search will only bring up results that include that word within the wording of the Tweet.
That means that if you conduct a search for hair salon London, as in the example below, you’ll only be shown Tweets that contain the words ‘hair’, ‘salon’, and ‘London’. You won’t be shown results that were sent from London but don’t mention the word ‘London’ within the Tweet.
As you can see in the example below, you can narrow your results by choosing either ‘Top’, ‘Latest’, ‘People’, ‘Photos’, ‘Videos’, ‘News’, or ‘Broadcasts’.
An example of the results page after a basic Twitter search is performed.
2. Use Twitter’s Advanced search feature
Performing a Twitter search by location becomes more valuable when you use the advanced search feature.
To find tweets ‘near you’, do the following:
1. To start, type your query into the search bar and hit enter, just as shown in the example above.
2. On the results page, you’ll see a ‘Search filters’ box in the top left-hand corner of the page. Click ‘Show’ and then choose the dropdown that says ‘Anywhere’ and select ‘Near you’.
This will show all tweets containing your chosen keywords that have been sent from your area.
To find tweets in any location, or to have more control over the results:
1. Type your query into the search bar and hit enter.
2. At the bottom of the ‘Search filters’ box in the top left-hand corner of the results page, click ‘Advanced search’. You will then see the options shown below.
3. Enter your keywords and filter the results by language and accounts, if required.
4. Next, click ‘Add a location’ and search for the neighbourhood or city you’re interested in.
5. Select a date range, if relevant, and then hit ‘Search’. You will then be shown search results that match your query.
The advanced search options on Twitter.
3. Use Twilert
Just like Twitter’s advanced search feature, Twilert’s allows you to monitor users, exclude keywords, and search for tweets within a specific location or language. Additionally, Twilert will send you those tweets in an email, either at a set time or in real-time. As well as helping you to stay right on top of what’s current, it also makes it easier for you to check in without having to spend hours on Twitter.
To run a Twitter search by location on Twilert:
1. Start by entering your keyword into the search box, and then choose to filter by word(s) and/or by user.
2. Next, hover over the ‘Filter by location‘ dropdown and select ‘area on a map‘, as shown below.
3. You should then see a map. Click and hold as you drag the cursor across the location you’re interested in. Release to drop a pin, as shown below.
4. Once you’re happy with your search location, click ‘Save location‘ to return to your search results. Click ‘Next‘ to enter your alert preferences, and have Twilert notify you of any future tweets relating to this search.
Put your new skills to the test
To take advantage of your newly learned Twitter search capabilities, try setting yourself a challenge. See what you can gain from conducting a Twitter search by location across multiple different keywords. Finding the right search terms can take trial and error, so record your searches as you go along to narrow down what works.
Once you’ve got a list of useful search terms, try Twilert free for 30 days and get the search results sent directly to your inbox.
