to find topics... go to search box and type your "word". EVERY post or member that has that particular word will show up in the feed. Once you have the "word" searched, click on the first link that shows something like... steemit/"wordsearched" and it will take you to the trending posts. Now you can also click on the "new" tab (upper left of screen) and see all members that have posted new posts on that topic.
Friends? Start within the same search... follow the authors of favorite posts. Make sure to comment (insert smile here)- keeps the interaction going
Thanks. I did this, but it's not as user-friendly as it could be. I wish someone would create a Steemit bio search to start, and maybe a user-by-topic tool that analyzes posts to evaluate which users post on which topics most. Maybe I'll be that someone in future, if I have some time to hack it.
Keep in mind steemit is still in the beta phase right now. We have all written posts about how we would improve steemit. We all have ideas... every so often steemit changes something and we all express our happiness, or scowl with grunts because we don't care for it... lol