Today I’m going to show you a pretty cool trick that allows you to create a Yellow Pages-type directory from your Twitter followers, just by using the export function within SocialSafe and applying some fairly simple Microsoft Excel filters.

People often use Twitter to try to connect with and find people who may be able to help them in some way, and you’re more likely to get a response to a DM than you would if you just posted a lone tweet into the vastness that is Twitter.

Here’s what to do:

(Before you start, make sure you sync your SocialSafe journal so that you are working from the most recent data)

1. From SocialSafe, use the left hand navigation to go to Accounts

2. Click on ‘Select content to view’ and then click on ‘Followers’
3. Click ‘Export’ and select where you’d like to save the CSV file on your machine

   The rest of the instructions refer to Microsoft Excel, but it should be easy enough to work out the equivalent functions for other applications.
   

4. Once you’ve opened the worksheet, add filters to the columns by clicking (from the ‘Editing’ section of the Home tab) ‘Sort & Filter’ > ‘Filter’.
5. Locate the ‘Description’ column (usually E) and from the drop-down menu select ‘Text Filters’ > ‘Contains…’
6. Enter your keyword (perhaps ‘marketing’, ‘journalist’ or ‘C++’) and hit ‘OK’.

Hey-presto, you have now found everyone following you who has your keyword in their description. You can also refine this by applying the same filtering logic to other columns, such as ‘Location’. If you were on the hunt for key influencers or wanted to see how much their opinion may be worth, you can also sort your filtered results by how many followers they have.

I’ll be the first to admit that it’s by no means perfect, nor is it an exact science. But once you know what you’re doing with the filters it’s easy enough to play around with the search terms to find people who may be able to help you in a neat and timely fashion.

We hope you find this guide to be useful, and if any of you out there have managed to come up with your own uses for exported data from SocialSafe, please share them with everyone else by leaving a comment.