Social media search -- the ability to tap into thousands of real-time updates -- has long been a hot topic. It opens up endless opportunities for market and competitor research, content inspiration and, obviously, network building.
In this post, we'll aim to tackle some more advanced social search functionality so that you can make the most out of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Background information
Twitter search can be accessed from your Twitter home page, as well as from a separate subdomain. Twitter search focuses on real-time results; however, Twitter has introduced important algorithm changes that push particularly hot and "promoted" tweets above the real-time results.
Advanced search:
The official Twitter search is a powerful tool. From there (as well as by using search operators) you can:
Adjust your query (exclude any word/force any word/force the exact match, etc.).
Set the language of search results.
Filter search results by user name (to see tweets from a user or mentioning some user).
Set the local filter (to see tweets near a location).
Play with emotional coloring (using the smile emoticons) as well as search for tweeted questions.
Include or exclude retweets.
Restrict results to those containing links.
While the above options are certainly effective, the most useful one is hidden.
Twitter Advanced Search Operator: Filter Out Links
[img src="http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q62/anya678/social-advanced-search-twitter-02.jpg" caption="" credit="" alt="Show tweets with links"]
This supported operator gives at least some freedom in controlling your search results' proximity and variety. Let's hope Facebook will eventually come up with more.
Background Information
LinkedIn has a well-developed search platform that is broken into six independent sections: People, Updates, Jobs, Companies, Answers and Groups. All of these sections offer mixed suggestions (possible results from several sections) as you type.
[img src="http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q62/anya678/social-advanced-search-linkedin-04.png" caption="" credit="" alt="Linkedin Search suggestions"]
Advanced search
Each of the above sections has a huge range of advanced search options, listed below:
People: Filter results by location, relationship, (past) industry and school. More options are available for premium members.
Updates: Filter results by your connection level, see updates from your immediate network, from friends of your friends or your third-level network, as well as set the time range, location, etc.
Jobs: Filter results by how fresh they are, experience required, industry, etc.
Companies: Filter results by location, industry, relation, company size, fortune, etc.
Answers: Filter by categories. You can add multiple categories.
Groups: Filter by category and language.
With such a variety of options, you are unlikely to ever need any more of them. However, there are some really handy Boolean operators, which can make search even more efficient.
LinkedIn Search Boolean Operators
Exclude any term while staying within your topic. For example: blogging -coach. Compare the results below:
[img src="http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q62/anya678/social-advanced-search-linkedin-01.jpg" caption="" credit="" alt="Linkedin - exclude any word from search results"]Interested in more Social Media resources? Check out Mashable Explore, a new way to discover information on your favorite Mashable topics.