How to Find People on Twitter

You've finally taken the plunge and decided to sign up for Twitter. You've got your profile all set up, a slew of brilliant tweets stored in your head and now all that's missing is someone to read those brilliant tweets of yours. So how do you find other people that you know on Twitter?

Twitter actually makes it amazingly simple for you to find friends, family members and work colleagues that are already using Twitter. Chances are there are at a least a handful of people you know who are regular Twitterers and you didn't even know it!

So here is everything you need to know to find people on Twitter:

How to Find People on Twitter - Look Up By Name

Your first option is to just look people up by name. Simply type in their first and last name and see who pops up. However, if a person happens to have a common name you are probably going to get quite a few Twitter results back.

How to Find People on Twitter - Import Email Contacts

Your second option is to find people from other networks, which is a fancy way of saying importing your contacts from your email. To use this option, you simply sign into your email account and Twitter will automatically check your contacts for anyone who has signed up for a Twitter account. Don't worry; Twitter does not store your login or password. And you can search your email contacts from Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail and MSN.

How to Find People on Twitter - Invite People To Join

If your searches for Twitter friends are coming up empty then it might be a good idea to use the third option and that is to have Twitter send your friends and family an invitation to join Twitter. You have complete control over who receives the email and can send an invite to as many people as you'd like!

How to Find People on Twitter - Suggested Users

Finally, Twitter has an awesome tool that suggests users that you might like to follow. Most of the suggested users are high-profile Twitter users - celebrities, popular bloggers, news sites, etc. But each one brings something different and new and you may find that they are worth following.

If you're still at a loss about who to follow on Twitter, here are a couple of suggestions that might work for you.

How to Find People on Twitter - Use Mr. Tweet

Try following Mr. Tweet (@mrtweet). Mr. Tweet will send you a personalized report via direct message filled with Twitter users that you might be interested in following based on your Twitter activity.

How to Find People on Twitter - Use Twitter Search

And don't forget Twitter Search (http://search.twitter.com). You can search for any keyword here and find other people who are tweeting about the same subject, then follow those people.