6 Unconventional Ways To Connect With Like-Minded People On Twitter

Building a strong following on Twitter starts by connecting with the right people. By following others with similiar interests you can have a near constant stream of people checking out your profile, reading your tweets and often visiting your website.

If you find the right people they will follow you back, creating a lasting connection. I have learned a few tips and tricks and discovered several of my own along the way towards building my own following.

These are outside-the-box techniques that can precision target the right crowd of like-minded people for you.

1. Follow people who favorite your tweets -

Using Favstar.fm, the authority site for favorite Tweets, you can quickly view everyone who has selected your tweets as their favorites.

View the most recent favorites from your stream and return the favor by following them! Once you sign in with oAuth you can follow selected people right from the Favstar site.

2. Follow people who tweet links to a certain website -

BackTweets is a new service that has recently been launched by the people who brought us BackType for monitoring Twitter activity related to articles (seen in action here on DotSauce below comments).

Using BackTweets you can type in any domain and be presented with a list of everyone tweeting links to that website.

3. Follow people who tweet a certain article -

A couple months ago I shared a unique method for using the Bit.ly toolbar to quickly follow people who tweet a specific article or blog post that you like.

Sign up for Bit.ly (which is awesome for viewing all your click analytics anyway) and drag their handy toolbar bookmarklet to your browser bar. Follow the link for easy instructions on following everyone who tweeted any article you enjoy.

4. Follow people on relevant Twitter lists -

While this method isn’t unconventional per se, it is often overlooked. Lists made by your friends and industry leaders can be a great way to discover new like-minded people on Twitter.

If you’re at a loss for lists, you can find a wide range of lists organized by category at Listorious and additionally view the most popular lists and the most popular listed individuals.

5. Follow people who tweet certain words -

A simple search for a hashtag, keyword or phrase can be a powerful way to connect with people of interest. You also have the option to subscribe to an RSS feed for a specific search. Get involved and engage in conversations with the people who are talking about your exact interests.

Small business and other professionals can use Hummingbird software to automate this process.

6. Follow people who your friends might recommend -

This app (AutoFF) is intended to provide an automated list of Follow Friday recommendations. It scans anyone’s 100 most recent tweets and finds people mentioned most.

To find interesting people to follow, simply type in the username of a friend or colleague to discover a list of people they have interacted with recently.

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