Twit101

I am not going to deny it is pretty easy to find people on Facebook. I have found dozens of friends from as far back as grade school. This is part of the problem. you already know these people.
I don’t know about you, but I have noticed going on Facebook is a lot like going back to high school some days. The drama, the gossip, the he said she said crap.

Common Interests

One of the main benefits to going on Twitter and looking for people, you can find link minded people by searching what they are talking about. I am sure it you did a search for [OMG] or something similar, you could find those type of people.

Get In There And Search

For the average person, even though it may seem like it, the goal of a Twitter account is NOT to see how many followers you can get. The goal is to find like minded people who you can converse and share information with.
This may seem like a daunting task when you are just starting out. You may even feel like the new kid at a really big school. The beauty of Twitter is, most people are there to do the same thing you are. Even if the person you are following has thousands of followers, they may reply to you is you have something interesting to say.

Test Drive Them

If you found someone through searching a keyword, you don’t know really know what they are like. Unlike Facebook,Twitter also allows you to follow anyone you want; you do not need to be accepted as a friend. This opens up the door to “try” someone out.

You can follow them for a while and see what they are all about. If you don’t like what they are all about, you can easily unfollow them. The process of test driving the people you follow is even easier since Twitter added Lists.

Lists

Twitter Lists have created quite a stir recently. I am not going to go into details on how to use your lists. My suggestion here is to add all of new people you follow into a private list name New People or Test Drive or something easy for you to remember what it is. Check this list to see what and how often people are updating.

Another option I use is to send certain new people’s updates to my mobile phone. The messages are sent via SMS (text). Doing this, I can see how many times a day they update and what kinds of things they talk about or link to.

Conclusion

There really isn’t a right or wrong way to make friends on Twitter. There IS however a much greater chance for you to get involved with and be recognized by many people who may not accept you in the high school-ish world Facebook can sometimes be.

Is it easier for you to find people with common interests on Facebook or Twitter?

image credit slava