I’m in 10,825th place in the #FollowFriday Twitter parade. Where are you in this mess of people?
Known to North American English speakers as a number sign or pound sign, the rest of the English speaking world calls the # sign a hash sign–which is preceded before certain words on Twitter for tracking purposes and identifying trends. By visiting hashtags.org, you can peruse through the most popular tags and trends today.
As you can see, the #FollowFriday hash tag is the most popular. Conceived in January 2009 by Micah Baldwin as a means of sharing two Twitter friends with his followers, hundreds of thousands of people use the tag every Friday–but the original purpose has spiraled out of control.
By example, here’s Micah’s first FollowFriday tweet succeeded by three tweets I was mentioned in recently:
First FollowFriday tweet by Micah Baldwin
FollowFriday tweet by Brook Wise
FollowFriday tweet by Noland Hoshino
FollowFriday tweet by Dan Philpott
Micah’s first tweet has value. Where’s the subsequent worth?
In recent months, Stacy Lukasavitz had enough with the mayhem and stopped participating. Neal Wiser summarized #FollowFriday case studies and offered his thoughts that while the concept has indeed spiraled into meaningless drivel, some people still use the tag correctly and don’t lump everyone into a single tweet.
Perhaps Micah said it best, in a blog post two months ago:
I love the fact that so many people feel so strongly about keeping #followfriday useful for everyone, and that so many people feel such ownership over the meme, that they are all so vocal.
Like Stacy, I haven’t actively used the tag in my tweets in several months. But then again, I recommend Twitter users every day–when retweeting their thoughts or web links, when thanking them for prior advice, or when singling out unique people.
Do you use the #FollowFriday tag? If so, do your recommendation tweets resemble the mishmash from Dan Philpott and others above, or like Don Knox’ blend here? Where are you–or are you–in the parade?
UPDATE: I forgot to mention that this is a follow-up to a May 2009 blog post I wrote on this subject.
Related posts:
- 10 Twitter Users Share Why They Use Twitter
- Case Study: How 11 Mayors use Twitter
- 1 Way to Be Popular on Twitter
Comments:
Ari Herzog is an online media strategist and Newburyport City Councilor-Elect.
978-558-0008
ConvoTrack
{ 1 trackback }
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
I agree Ari. Seeing a list of people means much less to me than hearing a cogent reason why I should follow someone.
You’re also right that retweeting and other mentions of a person is way to continuously recommend Tweeters of value– and that should happen everyday, not just on Fridays.
I stopped doing the #followfriday thing a while back, and took it to my blog instead. Lets me offer a “real” reason to connect with someone that hopefully allows my readers to decide for themselves just a little bit more easily.
New from Danny Brown: Why Mediocre Blogging Can Still Be Great
I suppose it depends on what you are marketing, but “#followFriday seems very late web 1.0/early early 2.0. We are already on early 3.0, yes? In other words, FF is pretty much a one way communication versus building a relationship. What do you think?
What is Web 3.0? Depending where you look, the world is very Web 1.0.
I augmented the #FF concept with the idea of adding a specific hashtag to each twitterer I #FF. e.g. #FF @sciencebase (#science).
I also thought it might be nice to have #TS (#ThankyouSaturday) where people who had been #FF’ed could say thanks…shame Thursday doesn’t follow Friday, #ThankyouThursday sounds so much snappier…
Great post, and a great question. I’ve all but stopped participating in FollowFriday, mostly because I’m too busy, but also because my RTs ARE my recommendations (at least for that tweet). It should be noted that I’ve seen a growing number of people who are adding actual reasons into their FF recommendations. I hope more people will follow.
New from Neal Wiser: What I Said & Where…
I like the idea of Follow Friday but dislike the application. I get Follow Friday shout outs from people who don’t even follow me and I wonder why and does that lessen what I do have to say? I don’t do Follow Friday except in the occasions where a friend is getting started on Twitter and needs some help understanding the follow/be followed thing. Also, for the company I manage their account, I choose one person and write a blog post about them. Makes it more special and meaningful. For the most part, I try to avoid it like the plague =)
Recently someone listed 132 names in a series of #FF posts. Pointless! I would much prefer just a couple of names with a reason why I should follow them. Hint: dames with a brain says nothing about the person listed (although it does say something about the one saying it).
My rule: If I can’t think of a specific reason to FF someone, then I should not be doing it. I list a couple of folks who have somehow contributed to my world the past week – a tip, link, information, lead, joke, conversation, something.
#FollowFriday was exciting at first but that’s just about it. I don’t do it as often as before due to things I prioritize in doing first. It’s also a good way to attract followers though.