In the previous post I spoke about utilising Twitter Search to keep track of what is being said about you, your company and its products/services. Having read that, you should now have a basic grasp of your online reputation as far as Twitter is concerned.

There are more operators that Twitter offers that can help with other marketing functions, like demographics or targeting.

Near: and within:
These two operators work on a location base of users and therefore can deliver a very targeted message to potential product/service users. For example, you are having a promotion or giveaway in Stellenbosch.

You would like people in the vicinity to know about it (in a short time) and attend. By running a search near:stellenbosch (don’t use any spaces between the colon, or the name of the location i.e capetown for Cape Town) you will see all the active users in the area. But you will notice that the search has picked up users from further away, like Paarl and Bellville.

Now by combining the within: operator with near: you can target your specific catchment area, for example, near:Stellenbosch within:10km, and your results will show users within 10km radius of Stellenbosch. For an extra bonus, the Google Maps widget will show you a map of the area you are searching in.

Now that you have your users in the area, you can tweet them and encourage them to spread the word in their area by either telling their friends, via word-of-mouth or retweeting (RT) your message, creating a localised viral effect for your specific brand engagement in that area.