Finding and tracking people
When you find a scholar whose work appears to inform your agenda you can set up a Google alert if you judge that this person is a key player in the intellectual terrain in which you are working. There are other tracking options but a Google alert is easy to set up and delete if it proves to be not useful.
Twitter can also be a useful resource for locating and tracking people. Not every academic uses Twitter but even if they don't, other scholars may refer to their work via this medium.