How Can Librarians Effectively Use Twitter Search?

This short (3 min) Common Craft video has been making its way around the interwebs o'er the last week or so. It discusses Twitter Search and details ways you can use it to enhance your Twitter experience. Of particular interest to librarians is probably the bit about saving searches (and, though not mentioned, creating RSS feeds of search results).

Given the conversational nature of Twitter, the saved search and RSS capabilities could provide librarians with a means of capturing casual, unmediated feedback from users in real-time - about services? hours? exhibits? room temperature? - with little effort. For liaisons (like myself), you could use Twitter Search to get a sense of what's going on in the schools and departments you work with. I've set up Google Alerts for similar reasons, but considering the immediacy of Twitter content, Twitter Search strikes me as a more of effective way to get hold of conversational information (i.e., gossip) that is often so helpful in strategic planning.

'Tis something to consider, anyway.*



*And this comes from a late adopter and casual user.