How to Look at Tweets From a Certain Date
Have you ever wanted to go back in time and see what was being tweeted about on a specific date?
Twitter has a built-in search function for that.
Maybe you'd like to see what some of the reactions on Twitter were like when Google launched a major algorithm update.
Or maybe you'd like to reminisce on how far your business has come since the days you first started tweeting.
Now you can do that quickly and easily.
In order to search for tweets within a specific date range you'll have to utilize Twitter's advanced search functionality.
How to Use Twitter's Advanced Search Feature
First, visit Twitter's advanced search page.
This will open as a pop-over window on the web based version of Twitter.
Scroll all the way down to the bottom of the pop over window and you will see the options to add a date range to your search.
You can add a range of dates, or just one specific date.
In addition to searching by date, you also have the option to narrow down your search by any of Twitter's other advanced search options.
Those options include things like:
- Words used in tweets.
- Exact phrases used in tweets.
- Hashtags used in tweets.
- Tweets from a specific account.
- Accounts mentioned in in tweets.
- Tweets with links only.
- Amount of engagement (i.e., tweets with a minimum number of replies/likes/retweets).
Here are some examples of searches using these filters.
Example: Find Your First Tweets
Let's look at an example using several of the advanced search filters in one query.
Longtime Twitter users occasionally find themselves wondering what their first tweets were like and how much engagement they received.
With that said, we're about to take a trip back in time to look at the first tweets ever published by Search Engine Journal.
First, we must add our Twitter handle in the accounts filter, as shown below.
Next, we'll add a date filter.
We'll use the date on our Twitter profile that tells us when we first joined.
Just for fun, we'll create a date range until the end of the year so we can see all tweets from our first several months on Twitter.
Note: you have to enter a value for date, month, and year or else Twitter will disregard the date filter.
Now, the only thing left to do is hit the big "Search" button and see the results.
There it is, folks.
Our first-ever tweet was a news story about an ad partnership between Yahoo and Twitter.
And we received no engagement at all on any of our first tweets.
How times have changed since then.
Example: Find Tweets With Specific Keywords From Specific Accounts
Here's another example that may be useful.
Let's say you want to find all tweets from a specific account that contain specific keywords.
You may find yourself wanting to look up what Google has officially stated regarding specific SEO topics.
In this particular example let's try to find everything Google's official Twitter accounts have published regarding core updates.
First we'll use the keyword filters.
Consider the ways in which the keywords you're looking up might be used in tweets.
In this example, our subject might be referred to either as "core update" or "core algorithm update."
So we'll put in "core" and "update" to make sure we catch everything.
Next, we'll add Google's official Twitter accounts.
Google has many official accounts, so we'll only add the ones that are most likely to tweet important information regarding core updates.
From here you can narrow it down even further with engagement and date filters.
We're going to leave those filters alone for this particular example though.
Here's what we get after hitting the big "Search" button.
There's a snapshot of everything tweeted about core updates from Google's accounts in one place.
Summary
Those are two examples of how to use Twitter's advanced search filters.
There are nearly endless combinations of filters you can use to find the exact tweets you need.
Twitter's advanced search filters are relatively easy to use, but that wasn't always the case.
You used to have to type in the search operators manually, which required a deep understanding of the way Twitter search works.
Previously, searches by date could be performed by manually adding the "since:" and "until:" operators to your search.
Now you can simply fill out a form instead of memorizing all the various search commands.
Unfortunately, Twitter's advanced search isn't available on the mobile app.
If you'd like to search by date on the mobile app you can still do so the old fashioned way using the "since:" and "until:" operators.
Or you can use the mobile browser version of Twitter, which supports advanced search.
Want to learn more about the ins and outs of this powerful search feature?
Read: Everything You Need to Know About Twitter Advanced Search
How to Look at Tweets From a Certain Date
Source: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/twitter-makes-it-easy-to-search-for-tweets-by-a-specific-date/