People can be found on Twitter to follow using “find people”, if their name or account is known by the potential follower or if they allow their email as a search reference. Another way to find people is if they put in a Twitter profile which includes a title to look for, such as “coach” or “author”. However, these methods will only help find a few people since many more may appear that do not really meet the user’s desired requirements. A more targeted approach to finding people to follow (following) and who might follow back (followers) is necessary to insure getting the best information from experts or the right potential audience.

Twitter is such a popular communication tool that many directories have been created around it that may be used to make following the desired people easier. Many of these directories are free or have a small fee for professional use. Some also provide space for Twitter users to say more about themselves than is allowed on the 160 character Twitter profile, thus making it easier for others to find out more and decide to become followers of a particular account. Below are ten of popular directories currently available for easily finding people on Twitter by a keyword category or the user’s location.

Category directories:

1. Twellow (twellow.com) – Known as the Twitter yellow pages since it updates with new accounts added to Twitter

2. My Twitter Directory (mytwitterdirectory.com) similar to Twellow, except Twitter accounts must sign-up to be seen here.

3. Tweet Find (tweetfind.com) – Directory of users by category who sign-up to be listed.

4. We Follow (wefollow.com) – Similar to Tweet Find but with more category tags.

5. Twit Who (twitwho.net) – Works similar to Tweet Find.

6. TwitR (twitr.org) – Similar to Twit Who but with lots more tags at the top level instead of sub-categories.

7. Mr. Tweet (mrtweet.com) – Directory is by community of users rather than by category but it can be used the same way. Once user is following others on Twitter, signing up with this tool can provide a daily intelligence report of new people to potentially follow.

Location directories:

8. TwellowHood (twellow.com/twellowhood) – This is another tab on Twellow that allows geographical searching for users from a map.

9. Geo Follow (geofollow.com) – Text-based search by country, state, or city of Twitter users who sign-up to be on directory.

10. Local Tweeps (localtweeps.com) – Allows search for Twitter users who sign-up to be on directory by zip code.

Using the best directory to meet business and social networking needs from these ten along with the popular communication tool of Twitter should help make following the people desired a little easier. Review several directories and then consider which directory gives the most efficient targeting approach to finding the right people to follow and who may follow back in order to get the best information desired or to find the correct audience for tweets.