1. Go to joinmastodon.com and look for servers with topics that interest you, or that have a lot of users. Go to those servers home pages and then follow the admin. That admin will likely boost interesting posts on that server, and as you follow people, your social graph will naturally expand into that server.

2. Go to search.twitter.com and run a search for "Mastodon." You'll find lots and lots of people posting links to their Mastodon profile. Follow anyone that interests you.

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3. Follow absolutely anyone who gets boosted into your timeline because they said something that interests you.

4. Go check the bio and profile of people you follow. Follow the author on any interested boost. Click the hashtags in their bio. Follow interesting people there as well.

That's all I've done, and I've found almost 2,000 interesting people since April.

BUT, you can do something I couldn't...

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5. Go view my profile! I boost lots of people, and welcome many others in my timeline. Follow anyone that interests you. You can also peruse my follower/followed lists. There are so many people there!

This is more work than Twitter, I get it! But the difference here is you get to build the exact social graph you want. Some machine meant to sell advertising isn't warping or influencing what you do.

The extra work has been well worth it to me. I love the community I have found here.

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The key thing here is that it takes time to build your social graph. It's a completely organic process.

Which serves as a really nice detox period for your nervous system as you move away from the engineered compulsion of corporate social media.

Try and enjoy it. :)

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