If you have been on twitter for awhile I am sure you have encountered the #FollowFriday phenomena. The idea behind this was to share a person or group of people that you feel your follows should follow as well.
In recent months the #FollowFriday has become frantic and the meaning has started to lose it’s value.
I have seen the following trends…
- Multiple people being listed with the hash tag #FollowFriday. It seems to some it is a contest to see how many people they can fit one tweet.
- Multiple #FollowFriday tweets.
- No reasons provided as to why we should follow the people listed.
- People retweeting others #FollowFriday for no reason.
- People retweeting #FollowFriday that they are listed in.
I will start off by saying you can do whatever you want on twitter in regards to #FollowFriday. If your doing what your Social Media plan is and it is working then by all means continue.
If #FollowFriday does not change then the purpose of it will be soon lost. More people are starting to see the tweets as just noise. Less and less people actually are following because it is seen as noise. When there is no value in doing it to anyone then it will die.
My suggestion is that if your going to do a #FollowFriday tweet you should limit it to one person or one group of people that have something in common. You should be able to provide a bit of details as to why we should follow.
An example is…
My #FollowFriday is @example. He is a father, an entrepreneur, a hockey fan and good at helping me with php issues.
What do you think? How do you do #FollowFriday?
Kevin M.
May 29, 2009 8:42 am
Great points! My criteria (which I haven’t mentioned in my tweets) is people who have engaged with me throughout the week whether it be a RT or a reply. I want to recommend people who are active in engaging others. I will definitely think through your recommendations! Thanks for sharing them!
Tris Hussey
May 29, 2009 12:51 pm
I agree with you. I don’t understand the RTing of FollowFridays. I like to thank people who include me on their list, but don’t know if I need to thank people who RT the list.
Gary you idea is smart. I don’t often do a FollowFriday, but I did one today for the folks I’m blogging with for Future Shop. Simple and effective.
Now lets not bork it.
Jay Man
May 29, 2009 12:58 pm
Hi Mate
I’ve been on twitter since Feb 2009 so fairly new still. However I get it. I do get Twitter. I felt that #followfriday was just a load of @names even in my early days. I started #bigfanfriday as an alternative to it 3 weeks ago. I think the #followfriday is beyond repair now. My premise for #bigfanfriday was that you picked 1 person at a time and gave reason for. I’ve been doing it now for 3 weeks, and have a small following also doing it. It will grow every week. Check it out and support if you want.
Cheers Jay
blogadmin
May 29, 2009 1:02 pm
There is a following now for #onefollowfriday which I think FollowFriday should just be.
Education and passing it along to those that crank out the noise is the only way to fix FollowFriday.