It’s Friday again, which means #followfriday, where Twitter users recommend people they think are good to follow by sending a Tweet saying ‘#followfriday @username because blah blah blah’
Well, to my mind, that’s what we SHOULD be doing – but in effect what tends to happen is this:
“#followfriday @username1 @username2 @username3 @username4 etc”
Now, anyone who knows me knows that I’m not one for telling people HOW to use Twitter. I can tell you categorically, however, that I pay no attention to those type of lists. I’m sure that YOU know why you’re telling me to follow someone, but with a list like that *I* don’t.
But if I see ‘#followfriday @username because of some great reason to follow’, then I have an idea of whether I want to follow that person or not.
So today, instead of sending out 140 characters consisting of just usernames, have a think, and tell me WHY I should be following someone.
Here are 5 of mine for today:
- @charlieprofit - a great radio show at www.charlieprofit.com, with great guests
- @indiaknight - one of my fave authors, with very funny tweets
- @carcaredirect - green motoring and looking after your car
- @shaungisbourne - telemarketing expert with a great new product – PhoneMentor
- @Jason_Pollock – filmmaker and writer who posts really interesting links
Get the picture? I know that 140 characters doesn’t give you a lot of space to get reasoning across, but it is possible, and it gives more context – not only to the people looking at your recommendations, but also to the people you’re recommending.
Of course, you may have ‘groups’ of people that you want to recommend, and in this case I tend to group them by expertise:
- @rachaelphillips @10yetis @nigel_morgan – great and knowledgeable PR ppl
- @adrianhiggs @robertz @sallyormond - copywriters for print and web
- @rebekahHarriman @redboxva @juliemullem - VAs to help save you time
How you do it is really up to you, but be aware that the people you are recommending stand a better chance of being followed if you take the hard work out of it and tell people WHY they should follow!
I look forward to seeing your #followfriday recommendations today!
(And of course, you can follow me @NikkiPilkington if you like my Tweets!)
Tags: follow, followfriday, friday
@robertz Hi Robert, I came across you in “#FollowFriday – it?s not just a list!” http://tinyurl.com/qehqcy In case you missed it
RT @janineshepherd: some interesting info on #followfriday to make it more meaningful http://bit.ly/16cSGB
some interesting info on #followfriday to make it more meaningful http://bit.ly/16cSGB
RT @MissShonah: RT @janineshepherd some interesting info on #followfriday to make it more meaningful http://bit.ly/16cSGB
RT @janineshepherd some interesting info on #followfriday to make it more meaningful http://bit.ly/16cSGB
RT @MissShonah: RT @janineshepherd some interesting info on #followfriday to make it more meaningful http://bit.ly/16cSGB I agree!!!
http://is.gd/xG1R #FollowFriday Do not just list names please.
Hi Nikki. I totally agree with you, and started to make my own list of people I recommend to others on #followfriday. I started 3 weeks ago, and I’m categorizing it based on different groups of people that are inspiring in some way or another.
http://tinyurl.com/rdfnms & http://tinyurl.com/ow7qbs
Working on today’s list as we speak. Have a great #followfriday!
- Arnt
This is good advice, I similarly ignore lists of Usernames, so the ‘reason’ gives a bit of a hook and catches the eye. I will try the technique now.
I’ve been seeing the follow friday hash tag for a quite some time now. Thanks for explaining the details of how it works. Having the descriptions of why to follow someone is so helpful to those being credited. It’s an excellent feed back loop.
I agree wholeheartedly! I only follow after taking a look at the tweets. I feel it would be more rude to unfollow later…so I need to know if we have something in common. I love it when people say why to follow. I have been doing it that way. More time consuming, but makes more sense to me. Thanx for a great post…just retweeted!
I am sometimes confused by #followfriday, it is sometimes rather random. I check the profiles of people whom I may want to follow but they are mostly weird, empty or unhelpful. Thanks for this post. Very useful. Rgds Vince
Thank you, Nikki, for an excellent post. I have long been frustrated by teh lists of names, and used to wonder why they were being nominated… I even asked a couple of folk why they had suggested others!
I hope this starts to see a change in the use #followfriday
I absolutely agree – although I tend not to blog my recommendations, I have considered it in the past (and probably would do if I had any exceptional ones).
To be honest I struggle to think of really good recommendations at times – so I force myself to make the best one or two I can each friday, because I do believe in the idea of #followfriday.
I also blogged along the same lines a while ago – because if people just post spamlists of names, ff will die out very fast!
You can see my post, on my personal blog, here: http://is.gd/1BSlm
This is very good advice. I also think little of all those “lists” of names.
This is definitely the way to do it.
But isn’t Twitter designed for lazy people with short attention spans?
Hey Nikki,
Just read this post, though it was great information and I discovered (only after I wrote my post this week) that I’ve come to much the same conclusion. I do have a slightly different take: challenge yourself to only #followfriday 1 person this week. I think it’s a much more powerful to recommend one person than to do a list. I’d love to hear what you think of my proposal!
Very good point. I will look forward to writing down reasons for next week’s #FF
I thought Twitter was designed to get as much info out with the least use of words. I thought blogs were designed for more lengthy information sharing. Clearly I am not an expert in social media and therefore by that reckoning I must be wrong. If I wanted to extoll the virtues of someone I would write a blog on it. If I just want to quickly draw someone’s attention to someone who they might find interesting I thought just providing their twitter name would be enough for you to have a look and make up your own mind.
That is what I do, if someone recommends someone on twitter I will take a look at their profile to see who they are and what they are saying and then decide. I don’t decide to follow based on a few extra nice words on a tweet.
I am one of those people who not yet being ‘down’ with the finer points of Twitter etiquette have produced lists on #FF. I did it because it made sense to me.
My questions: Is this a hard and fast rule or twitter law that everyone should know and obey? Or is it just something that is understood by experts in social media?
By some of the tweets I have read and the comments on this blog I can see that it clearly upsets a lot of ‘Social Media Purists’ so I for one will totally stop doing #FF on twitter and write better #FF recommendations on my blog. I can then put one tweet out with a link to my blog (of course then you will have to read my blog to find out who I think is worth following).
Another question is: Would that cut the mustard?
Hi Ian
The post above doesn’t actually say anything about writing a blog
It just says ‘give people a reason to follow’ – that can be achieved in 140 characters.
As it says: How you do it is really up to you, but be aware that the people you are recommending stand a better chance of being followed if you take the hard work out of it and tell people WHY they should follow!
Like I say Nikki I am not a Social Media expert, but I reckon I do have a little bit of common sense and don’t need to be told why to follow someone. A suggestion is fine and I will make the enquiries and decide for myself. I know someone commented that people who don’t give a reason to follow someone could just be because they are being lazy, well the other side of the coin is that those people who need to be told why to follow someone are just being too lazy to find out for themselves..
)))