A Better Way To FollowFriday On Twitter

Do you use Twitter? If so, chances are good that on Fridays, you see a number of people sending out messages which contain half of the users they are following on Twitter followed by #FollowFriday at the end. I’ve participated in one or two of these events and I don’t think they are doing the trend justice as much as they once were. As Andrew Mueller points out, it’s turned into a giant promotional orgy with no substance.

I think it’s better if people would recommend one person at a time that we should be following and then provide substance with that recommendation. This means recommendations will be of higher quality and everyone wins.

So if you participate on Twitter and want to revive the spirit of FollowFriday, use the hashtag #rec which stands for recommendation. The short length of the tag provides ample opportunity for you to provide reasons as to why we should be following that person.

8 thoughts on “A Better Way To FollowFriday On Twitter

  1. I literally get dizzy on Follow Friday, watching lists Tweeted & RTed, then the original poster RTing the RT. WTF? One such poster, excitedly reports today a high ranking on a Follow Friday list. Uhmm … OK. Something to be proud of. While, one of my favorite Tweeps has just announced her policy of recognizing 3 special souls on any given FF. Now we’re talking!

    So, yeah, I’m going to take on the policy of a limited number of recommendations, with a reason. I have to decide whether to use the #rec hash or #FF, either way,glad to see there is a movement to bring us back to the spirit of WHY we’re recommending someone in the first place. I do follow everyone on the same list as me, but mostly when Tweeted by folks who I respect. Usually make some good connections that way. Lists with integrity–whoooooo!!!

  2. I’ve recently begun following every person whose grouped in with my name on a #followfriday list. I call it “feeding the beast”. it’s one of many pointless social media experiments i’ve been conducting on Twitter. This particular experiment……i conducted 3 times over a period of as many months, waiting til the results were conclusive. Basically, for some reason, if you have the time …it’ll increase your follow number by 30% in just over 3 days.

  3. Good idea, I think I will try this suggestion. I’ve been pretty much ignoring any followfriday tweets because of the reasons stated. Twitter is becoming horribly self promotional these days.

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