Twitter is now one of the largest micro blogging website. How do you keep track of what people say about you in twitter?
Twitter is one of the largest social networks on the planet, with over 56 million active accounts. News on Twitter can spread so quickly and so virally that it can literally topple governments, help avoid natural disasters, topple companies or send herds of buyers straight to your website.
The sentiment of the Twittersphere is not to be trifled with. Knowing what people are Tweeting about really goes a long way towards helping you build and maintain a strong brand.
So how do you keep track of Twitter sentiment, without having to spend hours on the site every single day?
Follow the Thought Leaders in Your Industry
In every industry, there are people who have more than average influence. These are the people who, when they speak, people follow. These are the people that start discussions that often result in wildfire discussions.
These people usually have a significantly number of Twitter followers. They also usually have a strong reputation outside of Twitter. For example, they might have written books, they might be a prominent blogger or they could be the CEO of a prominent company in the industry.
Follow these people. By following them, you’ll be able to easily monitor what the most important people in your industry are saying. You’ll be able to also see what their followers are saying. You’ll see which tweets get a lot of people agreeing and which ones people don’t agree with. You’ll see what topics are hot right now and what topics are garnering a lot of retweets.
Learn and Follow Hashtags
Figure out which are the most important hashtags in your industry. In each industry there are usually several hashtags that people use over the long run, as well as many hashtags that pop up on a short term basis. Try to identify both the long term and short term hashtags.
For example, if you’re in the internet marketing field, longer term hash tags might be things like #makemoneyonline or #affiliatemarketing. In the short run, specific online marketing events like #adtech could be extremely important to follow but be completely unimportant next month.
Figure out what the important hashtags are, then save them to your list of favorite searches. Make it a habit of browsing these hashtags at least a couple times a week to see where the sentiment is around various topics in your industry.
Note: Hashtags are ways people mark Tweets as being about a certain topic. It makes Tweets easier to sort and find.
Ask Questions to Your Followers
One more direct way to get a feel for sentiment around a certain topic is to just ask. Twitter isn’t just about pushing out your own ideas and messages, it’s also about two way engagement with your followers.
Send a tweet out to your Twitter base asking a question that you genuinely want to know the answer to. People on Twitter are usually more than happy to share their opinions.
These are some of the best ways to stay on top of Twitter sentiment. Twitter followers are usually a very good indicator of early news. If sentiment is negative around a certain topic on Twitter, you can pretty much bet the rest of the internet and much of your audience will soon follow suit. Use these techniques to stay on in touch with what early trend setters are thinking.
