I’ve only been using twitter for about six weeks now, and in learning the culture that has developed in Twitter, I’ve jumped right in and done the #FollowFriday thing. But I find myself more and more asking, what’s the point to this, do we really need it?
I think the concept behind #FollowFriday was a good one. Every week, on Friday, each member of the twitterverse has an opportunity to say to the world, “Hey, I follow this guy/gal, maybe you should to.” The idea is great, but the actual application has turned out to be something completely different.
As I understand it, if you are trying to follow your #FollowFriday stats at sites like www.topfollowfriday.com, that not all of the recommendations that are being posted count. The hashtag must be #FollowFriday, not #ff, not # follow friday, or any other version of the hashtag. I also understand that any #FollowFriday in a Retweet, or RT is ignored. But this brings me to a major point….why do we count these at all?
No, I’m not going to try and say that I haven’t looked up my stats, obviously I have because I’ve posted a website for them here. I’m just not sure that they mean anything at all. The only thing that can be said for certain is that whoever has the most #FollowFriday recommendations has the most followers who have sent out thier name with the correct hashtag. It doesn’t necessarily mean anything else.
“It means their the most popular” – Maybe, but doubtful. There are several reasons other than an actual recommendation that someone might put out a #FollowFriday recommend.
1. Get the attention of the person that you are giving the #FollowFriday to. Now I’m not sure that this would be very effective, but given human nature and our need to be acknowledged, I’m certain that people have given recommendations so that that person will send back a reply saying, “thanks for the FF”. In your head, “wow @Zaibatsu noticed me.” Well, that may be true, but given that @Zaibatsu has over 82,000 followers, even if you get a reply, that’s no guarantee that he’s going to take the time to check out your bio and your tweets. If you want to get to know him, send him a tweet. #FollowFriday can be kind of a passive agressive request for followers.
2. Quid Pro Quo- You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours. I’ve been guilty of this. When I notice that I have had a #FollowFriday recommendation, I want to be courteous and send one back. But this is totally contrary to the idea of #FollowFriday. You’re saying, “Hey tweeps, you should follow this person.” Maybe I’m being a snob, but if you are really trying to provide content that is interesing and engaging, then you don’t want to recommend people that your followers really will have no interest in. The next time, they’ll just ignore your #FollowFriday recomendations.
So what harm does it do? It ruins Fridays on Twitter. I currently have 5 columns of tweets open that I can see all at one time in TweetDeck. More than 50% of them are #FollowFriday recommendations. Just a wall of names. I’m currently following around 300 people, and at any given time of the day, I am actually following all of them. Any tweet they put up I see. #FollowFriday @TweepOne. Now suppose each of them recommends 5 people. #FollowFriday @TweepTwo. That would be 1500 recommendations that I’m supposed to check out. #FollowFriday @TweepThree. Maybe it’s just me, but there is no way I’m going to go through 1500 people each friday to look at their bios. #FollowFriday @TweepFour. This wall of names just becomes noise. #FollowFriday @TweepFive. So the easy answer to that is to filter out #FollowFriday in TweetDeck. #FollowFriday @TweepSix. Some people actually put infor with their #FollowFriday recomendations. #FollowFriday @TweepSeven. Infomation like, why they follow a person (which is actually the information that I want). #FollowFriday @TweepEight.
So if you were annoyed by having all of those #FollowFriday recommendations in the last paragraph, that’s what it’s like for me on fridays now. Trying to pick out the nuggets in the great ocean of #FollowFriday tags. And I don’t find this to be any more desirable:
#FollowFriday @TweepOne @TweepTwo @TweepThree @TweepFour @TweepFive @TweepSix @TweepSeven @TweepEight @TweepNine
#FollowFriday @TweepOne @TweepTwo @TweepThree @TweepFour @TweepFive @TweepSix @TweepSeven @TweepEight @TweepNine
#FollowFriday @TweepOne @TweepTwo @TweepThree @TweepFour @TweepFive @TweepSix @TweepSeven @TweepEight @TweepNine
I’m much more likely to follow a person because I see that they talk to one of my tweeps a lot, or they post about a subject that I’m interested in. I would recommend that we stop counting the number of #FollowFridays that people get. Since I don’t think that’s going to happen, then we should consider, do we really need FollowFriday at all?
A couple of other good posts about #FollowFriday:
#FollowFriday is dumb! - by @iamkhayyam
Twitter FollowFriday SPAM - by @murnahan
How #FollowFriday all started: Follow Friday, Oh My!
Thanks for reading. @rreedpc
UPDATE: There seems to have been a lot of interest in this topic as you can see by the comments posted here. I would encourage everyone to read the post “To #FollowFriday or Not To #FollowFriday” on the merits of FollowFriday on Sophmom’s blog.
Thank you for saying what needed to be said!
By: Darryl White on May 15, 2009
at 1:03 pm
Yes, but surely FollowFriday is less annoying than all that “Thanks for the RT!” “Welcome to all my new followers!!!” The artificial, self-serving, manic self-promotion of the twitter culture is what wears me out.
By: Ron Charles on May 15, 2009
at 1:05 pm
Those too can be annoying, but sometimes you want to acknowledge your grattitude. Maybe that’s best done in a DM.
By: rreedpc on May 15, 2009
at 1:51 pm
Don’t forget you can only DM someone if they follow you. I’ve quite often tried to send someone a DM and had to resort to public reply or ditch the tweet altogether. Most annoying is when someone DMs you (because you follow them) and you can’t DM them back!
By: Caitlin (@niltiac) on May 16, 2009
at 10:38 am
I love giving proper attention to those that I follow who might be of interest to others….
BUT!
You have to be responsible & make sure that you are selective, targeted & have a reason.
The WORST example of a #FollowFriday and ultimately #FF abuse, was a gal that pushed out SEVEN tweets full of people I should follow.
I stopped following her.
Every single person she told me to follow had ZERO value to me because they were just one in a list of MANY!
Be selective of your #FF tweeps you want to share. Put them into some sort of category so that your followers have a REASON to check them out.
About every other #FollowFriday I take 3-4 tweeple & I do a quick blog post about why I think they are worth checking out.
More value-less spam.
-jen
@jenharris09
By: jenharris on May 15, 2009
at 1:08 pm
I think that’s a great idea, to blog about those that you would recommend. I might have to adopt that. Thanks for the post.
By: rreedpc on May 15, 2009
at 1:48 pm
Wow. Thanks for clarifying this. I wondered what it was all about. I didn’t know it came down to a ranking. I thought it was a generic shout-out of sorts, and, as you noted, a recommendation from one follower to another. I do think it is less useful than it could be were it used sparingly and purely as a recommendation, not as a way to check to see how bright you were burning. Thanks again from jeanie straub aka @colorado_music
By: jeanie straub on May 15, 2009
at 1:22 pm
Just to clarify, I don’t think that it’s only about the ranking, but I don’t think that it necessarily serves the purpose that it was originally intended for. Thanks for your comment.
By: rreedpc on May 15, 2009
at 1:53 pm
If you ared referenced in FF then you will be a graded follower (?)
http://twitter.grader.com/followers/RReedPC
By: @fcseh on May 15, 2009
at 1:55 pm
I haven’t ever seen that site before, but it seems that it grades the followers of someone. I can’t imagine what scale you would use to do that.
By: rreedpc on May 15, 2009
at 2:02 pm
Follow Friday is definitely useful if done right. When I first started doing it, I was just tweeting with bunch of users in one tweet and sending out about 3 – 5 tweets with over 25 users in them.
Then I said its useless because it gets ignored for the most part as you said which I agree.
Instead what I do now is mention two important people which I think other should follow.
It not only helps alot because users see whats special about these people but it increases the chances of being followed.
I think if everyone does follow friday this way, it will be heck alot useful.
By: Syed Balkhi on May 16, 2009
at 12:30 am
When I give out #FollowFriday recommendations, I usually put them in a certain category like
interactive tweeps, young entrepreneurs, tweeps who shares cool links, tweeps who shares great quotes, inspiring people, designers.
What do you think of this idea?
By: Gloson on May 16, 2009
at 3:50 am
I think it’s a good idea. My concern is that if the millions of users all continue to recommend 50+ people each week, that generates 50+ million recommendations, most of which will be overlooked. Another thought I had is I wonder what twitter looks like to a new user if their first day is Friday. They could really get turned off because of not understanding what they’re seeing.
By: rreedpc on May 16, 2009
at 9:42 am
I’ve never heard of this #followfriday ranking. I’m not convinced that a lot of people use or consult http://www.topfollowfriday.com.
I like #followfriday but there are caveats. I like people to group their recommendations by theme and give me some sort of clue what the people are about. For example, I’ve picked up people to follow who tweet about food, travel or green issues via this method. Alternatively, if I really like the person making the recommendation as a tweeter and they just give one or two recommendations, then I’m likely to take up the suggestion.
By: Caitlin (@niltiac) on May 16, 2009
at 10:42 am
I don’t necessarily think everyone or even a lot of people use the ranking, just that FollowFriday seems a bit out of control, and that there are other factors that may be motivating people to put out #FollowFriday recommendations. I’m not against FF, just not sure that it is very effective. There are positive reasons for it, but also a down side.
By: rreedpc on May 16, 2009
at 11:42 am
You’ve done a great job of describing what’s wrong with #FollowFriday when practiced by the overly self-conscious and unobservant. One of the best things about Twitter is that we can just choose. If someone we follow posts gratuitous properly or improperly hashtagged #FollowFriday tweets, which lack adequate description, then we can 1) unfollow this person or 2) ignore them on Fridays. #FollowFriday is essentially the same as the long-time practice of givin’ a little “Link Love” in the blogosphere. It might be introducing a friend new to the medium, or pointing out someone who’s particularly clever or funny, and it’s best to just say so. This isn’t as much Twittiquette as it is a life-skill. Demonstrating a generous spirit coupled with an awareness of how what you say and do is perceived by others as it rattles through the universe applies to real life interactions as well as virtual. Superfluous #FollowFriday by the socially unaware might be a minor irritant in your tweet stream, and it might clog up the hashtag and/or retweeting rankings, but I see no reason to throw the baby out with the bathwater when it’s easy enough to just look at something else instead.
By: Sophmom on May 16, 2009
at 11:47 am
I should have added, thanks for an interesting post. You’re also right that using Follow Friday to direct your followers to something you really, really like, something that they might like too, makes them more likely to not just continue following you but to perhaps pay even closer attention. Like this:
#followfriday @trappedinawell Still the cleverest thing happening on Twitter. Drop something.
http://twitter.com/trappedinawell
By: Sophmom on May 16, 2009
at 12:33 pm
I think you have a valid point on the merits of #FollowFriday. I think we should be acknowledging those that we follow for what they contribute to us, and recommend them to those following us. Aside from what it was supposed to be, I question whether the #FollowFriday tradition as it is now actually still serves it’s original purpose. I’m not out to destroy FF, I just wonder if anyone is really getting anything out of it, or if we keep doing it because it’s part of the culture. When it comes down to it, it’s probably both for a lot of people. Thank you for your comments.
By: rreedpc on May 17, 2009
at 12:21 am
thanks for sharing..
i used to send #followfriday with many twitter username..
unintentionally become spammer..
huh..
By: wniizzati on November 4, 2009
at 8:45 am
Thanks for your comment. I think that the practice is fine if used sparingly. Especially when we first start out we want to tell everyone who we like, but the good intentions are lost when our followers can’t really find a meaningful recommendation amongst our wall of @name posts. Now I usually only recommend poeple if I truly think they povide something unique, or if I’ve gotten to know someone well enough that I think everyone would benifit from knowing them.
By: rreedpc on November 4, 2009
at 8:52 am