Now it is time to expand your followers by using Twitter search. They don’t make this easy to find from your home page or profile, but the link can be found at the very bottom of Twitter pages.

Enter a topic you are interested in. I entered the word photography into the search box and immediately got pages of results and many potential interesting people to follow.

You can do this with any topic. Then apply what you learned in Part 1 and you’ll soon have a bunch more Tweeple in your circle of Twitter friends.

The people who follow you have lists of both followers and people who follow them, which are both great sources for new people you may want to follow, and who in turn may want to follow you. So every time you glean a new follower, go back and check their profiles and look through their followers and those they follow for more people that you might want to follow.

Warning. The Twitter rumor mill is rife with warnings about following too many people at once, a favorite Twitter spammer tactic, which can cause your account to be shut down. So stick to a reasonable number per session or day. How many is too many? I doubt you’ll get into trouble following forty or fifty new people a day. But you might if you’re immediately following hundreds, especially with no one following you back.

The goal is to find people who will follow you back, who have common interests, people you’ll want to carry on an online conversation with for years.

And don’t forget to do your part: quality tweets and an interesting profile will help your potential followers make the decision to follow you.

At this beginning stage of the Twitter game concentrate on finding quality people to follow. The quantity will follow quickly – if you choose the people you follow wisely.