Twitter Releases New Tools for Individuals and Marketers

Twitter is not playing around. This week, the company announced several new tools designed to make the user experience better for the average Tweeter and the markeTweeter.

Adam Bain, Twitter’s president of revenue broke the big news at the AdAge Digital Conference yesterday and it’s got folks all . . . dare I say. . “a twitter!”

The first big step is the inclusion of geo-relevant ad targeting. Up until now, promoted ads were either on or off. There was no way to target them to users in a specific location, even though Twitter has that information for every person who uses the service. But now, Twitter has geo-targeted ad opportunities available in 210 US cities and 100 countries with more locations coming soon.

Next is analytics. Twitter has a new feature called the “Follower Dashboard”  which will be available to anyone who runs promoted products ads. Here’s how AdAge describes it;

The new analytics dashboard provides brands greater insights into the audience of followers they’ve built on Twitter — where they are, how they grew over time, their level of engagement — and a glimpse at their other interests. [It] enables marketers to get to know their customers based on various public signals; for example, user bios, the kind of lists they’re on and their locations.

In addition to these upgrades for marketers, Twitter has also released some new search tools that will help individuals find new friends to follow. Before the change, Twitter’s search engine was the worst. It was very specific in its parameters, returning only those results that had the key word in their name or bio. Not very helpful.

The new Twitter search actually finds relevant Tweeters based on your search term. Simply search, then click on the “more people results” link in the sidebar. Not specific enough? They’ve also released an advanced serach tool to help you refine the results even more.

I tested the new search with the name of my favorite TV show and it accurately picked up many of the actors and crew from the series, as well as fans who regularly mention the show in their Tweets. A huge improvement.

On a side note, TV fans should check out Trendrr.TV. This new site keeps a running tally of the top TV shows based on social media mentions. It’s quite fascinating in that many of the shows that appear high on their list don’t perform that well in the ratings. Could be we’re looking at a whole new way to measure which shows are performing and which are not.