The easiest thing to do is to setup your keywords to be delivered via RSS to the feed reader of your choice (google reader, bloglines, etc). Then you can watch the flow and see if it's unmanageable, if there are overlapping results, etc.

Then the best thing to do is read the tweet and see if it even warrants you talking to them. Are they talking about a band that released a song called bird feeders and have nothing to do with you? Are they relaying a childhood memory, or are they actually looking to buy a bird feeder? If you can engage them on a human level then do so, if not, move on.

You need to look at the search results as possible leads and discern if they are qualified leads. By no means should any one be following anyone else JUST because they mentioned one of your keywords. It's all about context.

As for a case study I met one today on Twitter. Studio525 has been trying this out for a while and is seeing a positive conversion rate in his efforts.

Just like PPC it will take time and effort to refine your process, optimize for content and results, but once you get it down you should have a good setup that is bringing you some decent leads for your business as well as helping you connect to the community of people who use / like your type of products.

How effective is that? Is there an example, a case study?

I'm a little skeptic because I know how incredibly annoying it can be sometimes when companies search for keywords in my tweets and then follow me based on that. It's obvious that they're thinking I might be interested in their products. And I think that’s a little sneaky. I don’t want to be followed based on a strategic key word search by a company looking to make money. I want to be followed based on personal interest in me and what I have to say.

My second objection is that just because you mention let say bird feeders that doesn't mean you're looking to buy one.

If I was looking to buy one, then I guess it would be alright. But it seems very time consuming for a marketer to go through all these tweets and look for people who are actually interested in buying bird feeders and not just mentioning bird feeders.

Right?
What do you think?

The easiest thing to do is to setup your keywords to be delivered via RSS to the feed reader of your choice (google reader, bloglines, etc). Then you can watch the flow and see if it's unmanageable, if there are overlapping results, etc.

Then the best thing to do is read the tweet and see if it even warrants you talking to them. Are they talking about a band that released a song called bird feeders and have nothing to do with you? Are they relaying a childhood memory, or are they actually looking to buy a bird feeder? If you can engage them on a human level then do so, if not, move on.

You need to look at the search results as possible leads and discern if they are qualified leads. By no means should any one be following anyone else JUST because they mentioned one of your keywords. It's all about context.

As for a case study I met one today on Twitter. Studio525 has been trying this out for a while and is seeing a positive conversion rate in his efforts.

Just like PPC it will take time and effort to refine your process, optimize for content and results, but once you get it down you should have a good setup that is bringing you some decent leads for your business as well as helping you connect to the community of people who use / like your type of products.

How effective is that? Is there an example, a case study?

I'm a little skeptic because I know how incredibly annoying it can be sometimes when companies search for keywords in my tweets and then follow me based on that. It's obvious that they're thinking I might be interested in their products. And I think that’s a little sneaky. I don’t want to be followed based on a strategic key word search by a company looking to make money. I want to be followed based on personal interest in me and what I have to say.

My second objection is that just because you mention let say bird feeders that doesn't mean you're looking to buy one.

If I was looking to buy one, then I guess it would be alright. But it seems very time consuming for a marketer to go through all these tweets and look for people who are actually interested in buying bird feeders and not just mentioning bird feeders.

Right?
What do you think?