TweetsUp.com

In a previous post we talked about ways to generate followers for new Twitter users. If you’ve taken that advice you should get a nice core group of people with common interests that you are following. Many will have followed you back.

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.

After you’ve already found your first group of people to follow at Twitter, and you have actually followed them, some of them will have followed you back. When you get the email notice that they have, click through to their profile and check out the people they follow and the other people following them.

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.

The first people you should follow at Twitter are the people you already know. They’re in your Instant Messenger contacts, perhaps your Skype, your email, at  other social networks like MySpace or FaceBook.

If you click on the “Find People” link in your Twitter profile, Twitter will want you to allow it to use your email account. Don’t. If you do so you will likely generate as much ill will as the few potential followers you might get. Technically you’re not, but people will take it that you are spamming them. At least that’s my take on it.

Twitter can interface with Gmail, Yahoo mail, AOL, Hotmail, and MSN mail. But again, I don’t think it is a good idea to let it, for the above reason. But there is a way you can send an individual email to people who you choose, by entering their email address into the box in the “invite by email” tab. So use the “invite by email” tab for friends you think might be or would want to be on Twitter.

So what else can a potential follower finder to do? Just use the “Find On Twitter” tab and just put your friends or contacts names into it. You’re bound to turn up someone you know. And you won’t be spamming them.

For grins Twitter also has a “Suggested Users” tab. When I clicked on it I got some rather large corporate Twitterers, and people like Britney Spears, Al Gore, and Lance Armstrong. Somehow I don’t think any of them are going to pay much attention to what I say.

And of course if you’re reading this, and interested in what I am, which is primarily internet marketing, social media and marketing, books of all sorts, and photography, you can start by following LowellRieger on Twitter.

Hey, if you’re reading this you already know me! So let me know when you follow me. Then check out who I follow and who follows me. You’re bound to find some interesting people to follow. And you are bound to get some who will follow you back.