Friend Finders and People Watchers – Follow new people, find new followers

Twitterfall - recommended

http://twitterfall.com/
This tool examines tweets.

Sign in to this site using your Twitter credentials.

Enter search terms in the Custom area.  Optionally, add a location in the Geolocation area.  Adjust the Settings to make the tweets appear at a comfortable rate.

Read the tweets people send.  When you find a tweet that matches your niche, you can communicate with the person who sent the tweet.

Usually, you will want to Follow this person, and hope that in a few days they follow you back.

You can also @reply to what they said.  This message will go to them, and will go to everyone who reads your Twitter profile, and to anyone who searches for their @profile name.

You can also Re-Tweet their comment.  If you think that someone’s tweet would have value to your followers, Re-Tweet what they said and your followers can see it also.  It is possible for the person to see that you re-tweeted them, and they often appreciate it.

You cannot send a Direct Message (DM) unless you are both already following each other.

Use the buttons on the right side of the tweet to perform the common functions.

Tweeple Rank - recommended

http://www.tweeplerank.com
Find people based on tweets, profile/biography, or tags.

Twitseeker

http://twitseeker.com/
Find people based on what they are talking about or what is in their profile

Nearby Tweets

http://nearbytweets.com/
Enter a location (zip code, city, country), some search terms, and a radius, and this tool finds people tweeting about your topic in an area.

This is useful for finding local trends, and for seeing which topics people in an area are talking about right now.

You can use this to find out what events are coming up, so you can participate in them.  Is there a home and garden show coming up in your area?  If so, then you know that it is time to get your products in there to show them off!

Twitterholic

http://www.twitterholic.com/
View the highest ranked Twitter users based on followers or other stats.

Twittervision

http://twittervision.com/
A map of the world, showing the location tweets originate.  It zooms around the map so you can see where a tweet came from.
This is useful to find out where Tweets are coming from, where trends are forming.

Twitter Counter

http://twittercounter.com
This tool compares up to three different Twitter accounts and charts their history based on number of followers, number of friends, and number of updates (tweets).

Monitter

Featured Users – not recommended

http://featuredusers.com/
This is a site to place an advertisement for your Twitter account.  You buy “ad impressions,” and other people who come to this site can see them.

TweepMe – not recommended

https://www.tweepme.com
According to their site, “TweepMe is the easiest way to get new followers on Twitter.  When a new member joins, every other member automatically follows the new member, and the new member follows them back. The process is gradual and happens over the course of weeks or months depending on the number of TweepMe members.”

Usefulness:  Quality is better than quantity in most cases.  You would rather have 10 interested followers than 1000 people who ignore your Tweets.

We recommend against using automated tools for gaining Followers.  New Followers should be gained organically, not by trying to trick the system.

Tweet Wheel – Do Not Use

http://www.tweetwheel.com/
This site is already dead.  Supposedly, it would let you see which of your friends connected to each other, but the domain became unregistered at some point.

Twitterless – Do Not Use

http://www.twitterless.com/
Do not follow the instructions on the twitterless site.  The account’s last statement is on 1/28/2009 and says they are overhauling the site and to stay tuned.