Using Twitter Search to Find Interesting People to Follow

So everyone knows by now that Twitter is getting big. Really big. One of the most important things to figure out with Twitter, both for beginners and experts alike, is how to find interesting people that share your interests.

The challenge is that you don’t want to just follow people indiscriminately because it gets noisy in a hurry, but at the same time you want to expose yourself to new inputs.

Here’s a simple technique that will help immensely:

Using Twitter Search, perform a number of queries for specialized terms relating to your topics of interest, and follow people that are discussing these things intelligently.

Examples

So let’s say you’re like me and are in the Information Security field. Try some queries for:

• “pci qsa”
• “risk controls”
• “static analysis”

The results show a good amount of promise. In fact, I ended up finding @risktical in this test query, and he’s someone I follow already due to our similar interests. That’s a win for the technique.

Or perhaps you’re into Graphics and Design:

• “xhtml logo”
• “typography best”
• “css design”

In both cases the queries returned people in the midst of conversation on the very topics that we enjoy, and sampling this interaction is an excellent way to evaluate someone’s value as a follow.

So in other words, don’t search for value-add people directly. Instead, sneak up from the side by finding those engaged in the types of conversations that you’d like to be part of, and follow the people that are participating. ::

Related

[ When to Blog vs. Tweet | dmiessler.com ]
[ Why Twitter Works | dmiessler.com ]