TOW: Using Twitter Archiving Google Sheets (TAGS)

Have you ever wanted to see how many people are tweeting about #NetNeutrality? Or do you want to look through tweets from the 2016 Presidential campaign to see how media covered the election? If you’re interested in scraping data from Twitter, consider using Twitter Archiving Google Sheets (TAGS) a program that collects tweets in a Google spreadsheet–making the tweets easy to analyze and visualize using digital tools.

Here is a brief instructional video to get you started:

Once you have enabled TAGS, your data will appear in a spreadsheet like the one below. This sheet will tell you who tweeted, what they tweeted, and when the tweet was posted. All of this information will allow you to trace a hashtag from beginning to end, to see what topics were most debated, and to determine who participated most. Such data can enrich our understandings of the reach of information and activism on Twitter. You can even make searchable location map of the top tweeters in your data set.

TAGS is a great tool to use to research prevalent social issues and an excellent way for students to gain a richer understanding of both their social media presence and their digital skills.

If you’re interested in using TAGS but don’t know how to get started, feel free to contact Educational Technology to get started!