Over the past few days I’ve blogged about What is Twitter?, Creating Your Profile, and What Should I Tweet About?. As promised, today I’ll offer a few tips on finding people to follow.

If you use LinkedIn, Facebook, or other social networking sites, you’re probably used to a system where one person initiates a relationship and the second person must accept it before the two parties are connected. Twitter is not like that. You can follow anyone you like, and they may or may not follow you back. Likewise, when someone follows you, you can choose whether or not to follow them as well.

One of my favourite ways to find interesting people to follow is to look at blogs I enjoy reading to see if the author is on Twitter. Most Twitter users will include a link to their Twitter profile in a sidebar or on their profile page.

There are a few things you can do right from within Twitter. For starters, click on “Find People” at the top of the screen. You’ll see four tabs:

• Find on Twitter: Here you can search by user name, first name and/or last name for specific people you’re interested in following.
• Find on Other Networks: Although it sounds like it will search your existing contacts on other social networking sites for Twitter users, it only offers the option of searching popular online email services such as Gmail and Yahoo. Personally, I’m less interested in following people I already know than in using Twitter to learn from people who are outside my normal circle, such as Darren Rowse and John Jantsch.
• Invite by Email: This doesn’t actually help you find people, but rather send them an email suggesting they sign up for Twitter.
• Suggested Users: Brings up a list consisting mainly of celebrities and Twitter staff. There might be someone there that interests you, but if you’re hoping that Al Gore or Lance Armstrong will reply to any of your tweets or follow you back, be prepared to be disappointed.

In other words, the “Find People” feature is very limited. At the bottom of the Twitter screen, you’ll find a “Search” link. Type in a keyword related to your main interest to find out who is twittering about that subject, and you will probably have better luck than using “Find People.” Enter #followfriday in the search box, and you’ll see recommendations from other users.

If you want some great customized suggestions, follow Mr. Tweet. Mr. Tweet will look at the people you’re currently following, your followers, and the subjects you tweet about, and provide a list of recommendations. I really like the fact that the list provides useful statistics that help me decide whether or not to follow each person, such as how often they tweet. This is an important factor for me. I’ve followed people in the past who tweeted so often that I just couldn’t keep up with them and it was having a negative impact on my Twitter experience. It wasn’t until I stopped following them that I started to really see the benefits of Twitter.