Getting started on Twitter: Who do I follow?

Who do I follow?

Finding people to follow and getting people to follow you are very important. I believe you need at least a hundred of each before you stop feeling like you’re talking to yourself. On the other hand, don’t rush the process and try to get them all quickly. Take a slow, organic approach to building your network and following by taking your time to figure out who is worth following and let people find you by talking about what interests you.

You can follow anyone. Start small and grow who you follow incrementally. Don’t be tempted to run out and follow a whole bunch of people in the hopes that they follow you. You’re not likely to make the connections that you desire that way. Take the time to determine if an account is worth following. Ask yourself if the information or observations shared has value to you. In other words, do you find the account interesting or useful. You can figure this out from the person’s bio on their profile, their most recent tweets, location and frequency of tweets. Here are four ways to organically find people to follow. Quality is more important than quantity.

Here are some tips on finding people to follow:

1. Start with people you know are on Twitter - Use Twitter’s search tool to find them-and I mean real people, not celebrities-and follow them. You might also use the feature that helps you find people you know by taking a look at your e-mail address book or LinkedIn contacts.

2. Look at who is following you - At one time, the convention on Twitter was that you followed everyone who followed you. That is no longer true and not something that I’ve ever done. But if someone finds something of value in what you are saying, maybe the interest is reciprocal? It’s worth taking a look at them.

3. Look at “Following” and “Followers” lists - You’ll find these lists on each Twitter user’s page. The list of people being followed can be quite useful since your real life contact has indicated they think the account is worth following. Click on the headings to see who is listed. Decide if you would like to follow any of the people you find. When you find someone new to follow, take a look at their lists.

4. Who are the people you are following retweeting? -When someone you follow sees something in their Twitter feed that they think is worth sharing, they may decide to retweet (resend) it. In most cases, the account that first sent it is shown. Look for a user name following the @ sign such as @communic8nhowe. If you see an account come up frequently or even just once with something that catches your attention, click on the user name and look at the user’s profile page. Maybe you want to start following them too. Watch especially for people retweeted frequently that catch your attention.

5. Use search terms or hashtags to find tweets that use them - Finding these tweets can help you tap into a community of people who share your interests and you may find people you would like to follow. You can also use the “Browse interests” link to connect you to who is talking about what.

6. Use the “Who to Follow” tool on the Twitter website - It makes recommendations based upon who the people you follow follow. The more that follow the same person, the more likely you are to be interested-at least in theory.

Learn more about the importance of following on Twitter