There are many ways to locate other Twitter users, but quickest way to find people on Twitter is to enter their name
in the search box at the top of your Twitter home page.
In the right-side column, you'll see a list labeled "people results"
containing names of Twitter users who have the name that you searched
for as their Twitter username, Twitter real name, in their Twitter bio
or some combination.
Tweets that contain the word you typed also will appear, displayed directly in the main column.
Click "view all" to see the full list of matching Twitter users. It
will appear in the main column, replacing the search results for tweets
that also matched the name you searched.
This basic Twitter people search is the simplest way to find people,
but perhaps not the most effective. It only works if people have
entered their real name in their bio or signup form, and you've got to
spell it correctly.
You might want to bookmark
Twitter's main search page for easy reference.
Search by Web Address to Find People on Twitter
One good shortcut for finding people on Twitter is to type the name
you're looking for directly into your Web browser's address bar after
twitter.com.
If you were looking for Samantha Rain, for example, you'd type
http://twitter.com/samantharain and see if that is indeed her Twitter user name.
This works occasionally, but not if people have used a variant of
their real name to create their Twitter user name. It has to be
precisely the same name for this method to work in finding people on
Twitter.
Search Your Email Address Book
Another good way to find people on Twitter is to mine your email
contacts by importing them to Twitter and see which ones are using
Twitter. If you want, Twitter will search your contact lists in most
popular Web-based email services and look for matches with its database
of Twitter users.
This function is accessible under the "Who to Follow" area of
Twitter. Click the "Find friends" link, select your email service
provider and then enter your email address and password to give Twitter
permission to remotely connect to and search your email contact list.
Twitter will present a list of matching Twitter users and allow you
to selectively follow certain people by checking a box next to their
names. Then click "follow" and you will be following all the ones you
checked.
Twitter offers a detailed explainer on how to
import your email address book to find people.
Twitter's People Suggestions
Twitter offers a "suggestions for you" feature that presents you with
a list of Twitter users who tweet on topics that Twitter's computers
have calculated are relevant to your interests. The calculation is based
on who else you follow and interact with on Twitter.
This feature also is accessible under the "Who to follow" area, via a link that says "view suggestions."
To see the entire list of suggested people, click "view all" under
your suggested user short list. Read this article on how to get Twitter followers" for more about the site's people suggestions.
In late 2010, Twitter added more sophisticated topic-specific people
recommendations. When you search a keyword or specific topic, it will
show you suggestions for people to follow who tweet a lot on that topic.
Clicking on the "People" tab near the top of the main search results
will show you more people tweeting on your topic.
Researching popular hashtags (keywords preceded by hash symbol) is another good way to identify people worth following on topics that interest you.
Mine Tweets for Good Tweeters
This may be stating the obvious, but reading tweets and following people
who write interesting ones is an excellent strategy for finding people
to follow. There is really no substitute for this practice, which should
be a core part of anyone's Twitter strategy.
You, after all, are the best judge of what interests you, not some algorithm or Twitter yellow pages directory.
Other Ways to Find People on Twitter
That said, some third-party directories of Twitter users and
specialized search services can be helpful if you are trying to find
people on Twitter.
One good Twitter user search service is Tweepz, which allows you to
filter your searches to target specific Twitter fields such as location,
bio description or just name. Click on the "advanced search" link on
the
Tweepz home page if you want to do a filtered search on Tweepz.
Twellow, WeFollow, Listorius and WhoShouldIFollow are examples of people directories for Twitter.
This article on how to find followers on Twitter has more tips to consider.
Use Twitter's Help Center
Finally, Twitter's own help center has a useful page outlining the basics of
how to find people on Twitter. It's a good place to check for updates and changes in case Twitter changes its search tools.