I caught a Facebook post / Twitter status from @grahamjones this morning – it appears that he’s had someone unfollow him on Twitter because they see his #followfriday recommendations as spam.
It’s true to say that if you follow a lot of people, then it’s difficult to see the real content in amongst the constant #followfriday messages on a Friday, and if someone sends numerous FFs, then it could get a little annoying.
But I’m a great believer in Follow Friday – I think it’s important to recommend people for your followers to check out, so what to do?
Well, to my mind the best thing we can all do is write a blog post every Friday. In the post, tell us who you want us to check out, and why. And when you tell us why, don’t just say ‘great tweets’ – that tells us nothing. If you like someone so much you’re recommending them to your followers, then do them justice – use your blog post (which gives you more room than 140 characters) to tell us what’s great about them.
By using your blog post as your Follow Friday, you’re ensuring a few things:
- No complaints of spam – simply send out one or two tweets throughout the day pointing people to your blog post.
- More traffic to your blog – while people are reading your FF recommendations they may check out other parts of your site. And the people that you have recommended will probably retweet your post, sending even more people to your site.
- More thought – if you’re taking the time to write a blog post, it means you need to put more thought into WHY you’re recommending someone and actually explain it – a lot harder than just tweeting a list.
- Less duplication – by writing a blog post every week, you’re unlikely to recommend the same people every week, as tends to happen a lot.
Win win all round I say 
#ff is like all things, great when it starts and has meaning, but when ‘Friday’ has become bigger than recommending people, it has lost its sponteneity.
Nikki,
Often the started to tweet because they don’t want to blog anymore, because let’s face it, writing a blog does take a bit more time than tweeting.
I agree completely with the idea on not adding #FF noise to already crowded Twitter stream. It’s true that it’s getting harder and harder to justify the merit of the constant onslaught of #FF list, that these days I almost completely ignore them.
I also like the idea of doing the recommendation off-twitter, on the blog, and link to in from twitter, which is why I created this http://mediasosial.com/socialnetworking/the-ultimate-list-of-people-to-follow-on-twitter/
There are some problem with this solution though, mostly because most people are just lazy
Another problem is that not eveybody’s got a blog. Which sort of defeats the purpose.
For these people though, I suggest that they do one person recommendation per tweet, and give a reason. This would at least give the recommendation more sense of genuineness.
This is a great idea, but I still love Follow Friday. I find great people to follow – which has become a bit harder with all of the spammers and ‘internet marketers’ on the network now. I agree that when people send out huge lists of people, it’s a little annoying – I certainly prefer when they tweet one or two names with an actual reason to follow the person/people.
Thanks for writing this!
Great idea. Might give it a try. Gotta say, though. I think FFs are spam when someone just lists as many users as they can. HATE THAT. But if the person explains WHY I should follow that person, then it isn’t, in my eyes, spam.
I’m thinking about unfollowing someone because his #followfriday clogs up my reading other posts. I also think #followfriday is good. I keep mine to a few who really impressed me for the week. Followiing someone who post every minute is so annoying some of his stuff is good. But too much of a good thing is too much. This is a great article!! You rock!
I agree and I started last friday to do it on my blog ! :
http://sybillinartnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/follow-friday.html
Hi Nikki,
Great idea again on the best and most productive use of #followfriday.
Thanks
Gary