Tweet Scan just launched a new product to help Twitter users keep track of what they say (with an optional add @replies). This seems like a really good idea for a couple of reasons.

First, I often search my own update log. Since updates only go back as far as ten pages, if I can’t find what I’m looking for, I have to use Twitter search and scroll through way more information than necessary. Just a moment ago I was looking for a person on Twitter whose user name is initials only. I wanted to point her to a possible lead. I can remember her face, but have difficulty with the initials. Short of asking her to change her user name, a searchable file would have made it much easier for me to provide her with a referral.

Secondly, a comprehensive listing of my tweets would be helpful for me as I review discussions, thoughts and even random stuff. It would make life easy for me to write follow up posts on things like the Twebinar.

I’m thinking David Sterry of Tweet Scan must have read my last post about people wanting to do business when it’s easy, quick and nice. A couple of additional features that Tweet Scan might consider for the future:

  1. After the one-time get you up to speed download, include a low-cost monthly subscription option. I can save the files in the same location by month without reinventing the wheel. That also gives them some increased/guaranteed revenue and builds customer usage, leading to customer loyalty.
  2. Make it easy for non-techie people to use the data. Provide an Excel option or a Google spreadsheets option.
  3. Make the downloaded file searchable by date, topic, etc. That provides even greater value. A step further would be to categorize topics in some way. Just a thought. Based on my previous experiences with open-ended questions on survey platforms like Zarca, I know the capabilities exist.
  4. Consider using information from the public timeline to sell downloads of specific topics. If I’m a web designer, I’d be interested in buying a download of Twitter users who tweet “new website.” Maybe not all the information is applicable, but I bet at least one or two good leads could be converted into business. And that’s just one example.

Great idea David. Thanks for making life easier. It’ll be fun to see how the product develops. Now, about that complementary message archive…

How do you search Twitter for your own information? What features would be helpful for you?