Roni K

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Location-based Search on HootSuite

Roni
Marketing, Social Media
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tel aviv bugrashov beach

The location-based search tool on HootSuite is one of the most valuable search features, and is especially useful if:

  • You are running a local business
  • You are looking for a job in a specific area
  • You are interested in local events and news about your community

 

Setting up a Geo search is easy. Here is how you can do it:

  • Go to HootSuite dashboards > add stream > Twitter > search
  • Type in your search term
  • Click on the little Geo icon to make your search local.

location based search on hootsuite

  • Your browser will ask you if you are willing to share your location with HootSuite. If you click allow, the search box will automatically be populated with the coordinates of your current location.
  • Once you click “add stream,” the stream will be created showing you results relevant to your search query in a radius of 25 km from your location.

How to Adjust Your Geo Search Parameters

  • To switch from kilometers to miles, simply replace the “km” at the end of the geocode with “mi”.
  • To change the required distance, you can write any number you want instead of the default “25” kilometers.

location based search on hootsuite

Get Results for a Location That Is Not Your Current Location

Let’s say that you are traveling to Barcelona and want to find out about events in the city through Twitter before getting there.

  • Go to Google maps and look for the address you are interested in – it could be for example the address of the hotel you will be staying in.
  • Click on the location showed on the map (mostly denoted by the letter A or B). Click on “what’s here” to copy the coordinates you found.
  • Insert these coordinates instead of the ones showing by default in your search box.

Social Listening Using HootSuite

Roni
Social Media
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Social listening and social media listening using hootsuite

One of the most valuable practices you can engage in with HootSuite is social listening, or social media listening, a.k.a social media monitoring or tracking. I would argue that it is perhaps even more important than “broadcasting” your message. Listening to what is out there, what customers are saying about your brand, can help you understand what kind of content you should share with them.

In this article I will share with you how you can use this powerful tool to get business intelligence, follow your competitors, and listen to your customers.

Engage and Monitor through Mentions Streams

Mentions streams are pretty straightforward. You can easily add a Twitter stream that will display all tweets mentioning your username. Having this stream helps you to easily engage with Twitter users who mention you without missing any of their tweets. However, relying solely on mentions streams can be a problem since:

  1. If customers are saying something negative about you, they will not necessarily want to communicate it directly to you -they might not use your Twitter handle when displaying a negative message (unless they are actually interested in getting your response)
  2. Customers may be mentioning you without even thinking / knowing that you have a Twitter handle, so they are talking about you without using it.

That is why using keyword and search streams are so important.

What Is the Difference between Keywords and Search Streams?

Keywords allows you to define specific words that you want to track, while search takes advantage of the Twitter search engine which involves an elaborate algorithm that takes into account factors such as searcher’s previous behavior, synonyms, influence, and more.

At the moment the keyword stream is only available for Twitter, while search is available for other social platforms on HootSuite as well.

Keyword Streams

Keyword streams search all Twitter content. You can use them to:

  • Find out what your customers are saying about you
  • Keep up with your industry
  • Look for a job
  • Follow topics that interest you

To add such as stream go to HootSuite dashboards > add stream > Twitter > keyword

A few examples of how you can use keyword streams:

  • If you have a real estate company in Toronto, you can use a few variations of the term “Toronto rentals” in order to cover as many related searches, for example Toronto Rentals, torontorentals, Toronto rent, etc.
  • For personal use – prepare searches regarding topics that interest you, for example: fitness tips, recipes, deals of all sorts: travel deals, freebies, etc., NFL updates, productivity tips.
  • You can use keyword streams to stay on top of your industry
  • Create keyword searches that deal with jobs in your area, recruiters and HR professionals

Click here to learn more about generating keyword ideas.

Note: HootSuite asks you to choose a profile, but as of January 2013 it doesn’t really matter, you will get same keyword results for your different Twitter profiles.

Search Streams

Add a search stream by going to HootSuite dashboards > add stream >Twitter/Facebook/Google +/else > Search. A few things you can try:

  • Use hashtags (#)
  • Compare searches with and without #
  • Click on “show examples” to get ideas for advanced search tactics
  • For example, use OR between alternate words , quotation marks to “lock the entire phrase”, etc.

I suggest that you experiment by adding all the streams mentioned above, so you get the feel for them and see which ones are most beneficial for you. Once you feel comfortable with these, your next step is to learn about advanced search tactics.

Using mentions, keyword, and search streams strategically will enable you to take full advantage of HootSuite as a social media management tool, and will help with your reputation management and CRM efforts.

Valuable Insights Gained from Two Years of Accelerating Awesome Startups

Roni
Entrepreneurship
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An article I wrote about lessons learned at INcubes was published on TechVibes today.

In the article I share the lessons learned and insights gained from two years of accelerating tech companies at INcubes. I am proud to be part of an organization that constantly learns on the go and seeks to improve. You can read the full article here, I’m pasting a teaser:

• A rolling model allows accelerators to choose the best companies. Our old intake model accepted companies twice a year into two cohorts, which meant we were constantly turning away excellent entrepreneurs because “timing wasn’t right.”

• Spoon feeding, in the long run, does not create strong companies. Companies can often experience an “after acceleration low” and find it hard to keep the momentum when the program ends. One of the reasons is that many accelerator programs focus heavily on specific deliverables (e.g pitch decks) without teaching companies the necessary skills to take initiative and drive themselves forward.

Miley Cyrus defeats Syria WMDs

Roni
Uncategorized
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I have to admit they won this time. Three months ago I had no idea who Miley Cyrus was, and never heard any of her songs. Today, I’m still not sure that I heard any of her songs (not that I know of at least), but I can definitely recognize her face on magazines near the cashier when I’m out shopping for groceries.

Three months ago, there was no single magazine with Miley’s face on it. Today, out of about 10 gossip/women’s magazines near the cashier, at least one of them will have Miley Cyrus on its cover.

What changed?

What changed is the surprisingly sexual appearance on the VMA in August 2013. Carefully crafted by the PR people in Miley’s production company, the show brought the buzz it was supposed to. Miley Cyrus’s twerking was the main story in CNN, on the same day that chemical weapons were reported to be found in Syria.

It is all a vicious cycle. CNN makes money on ads, so they optimize the top stories to what people want – what people actually click on. People choose to click on the Miley Cyrus article and not on the Syria article. After all, twerking is much more interesting than people being gassed to death in the Middle East.

The same incentives that control article placement on CNN control the actions of music producers – since the main revenue source for the producers is ads displayed before music videos. After Miley Cyrus topped CNN, many readers flocked to YouTube to search for Miley related videos, and became an audience for millions of ads. Each time an ad was displayed, Miley’s producers made money.

Miley is just another a money making product, and she’s probably not aware of it. I can’t honestly say I would’ve acted otherwise if I was her. Sexual admiration is for sure intoxicating and pleasurable in the short run. In the long run it creates dependence, trying to constantly re-live the glamour powered by more and more outrageous performances, provocative clothing, cosmetic surgery, etc.

Miley is a tool in the hands of capitalist producers. By adhering to our most primal instincts, such as sex, violence, and domination – the entertainment industry creates more demand and gets us used to receive these stimuli everywhere.

But we can’t blame the producers. We can’t blame capitalism. Corporations are here to maximize earnings, not to think of the damage they are doing to our “precious souls”. We have the responsibility. We have to choose what content we expose ourselves to. We are the ones that have to fight the urge to click on the Miley Cyrus article on CNN, and resist the urge to watch Miley Cyrus videos after reading the news. We can’t change them.