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My opinion on followfriday

April 24th, 2009

First: What is followfriday? If I’m not mistaken, it was started by @micah (Micah Baldwin) with one simple tweet. He catalogues what happened next…

Of course, since it was picked up by some of the big dogs on twitter, it got going pretty quickly. So quickly that it spawned a series of websites, top among them:  followfridays.com and topfollowfriday.com.

Today, @bigheadasian questioned whether the trend of followfriday was wearing out… and since today’s problogger challenge post was all about opinions, I figured I should share mine as well. First and foremost? I’m thinking I need to go buy boycottfollowfriday.com as all trends come to an end, and it might be a really good url to own! Second, I am getting a little sick of the people that offer up 20-30 people every week as their followfriday list. The more and more I see followfriday, the more and more I want to be like @swoodruff who has has boycotted it! Instead of putting tons of names out on twitter, he created a segment on his blog just for his followfriday recommendations. In his first post, he explained why he chose to eliminate the recommendations on twitter, and take them to his blog. I love his reasons, they make perfect sense. Just seeing a list of peoples twitter names with no explanation why is not beneficial to anyone. Social media is about communication, connection and community – so lets work on recommendations with reasons so the community can understand them better! I have made it my goal to only recommend one or two people each followfriday and include a little reason why. Not only does it make it easier for people do decide whether to follow them, but it is more special for those that I recommend.

What do you think of followfriday? How can we make it better or should we all boycott it?

Oh, and for those who think this opinion is due to a lack of followfriday’s for me, that isn’t the case. Also, I do appreciate every single one of my followers that does recommend me!


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Related posts:

  1. FollowFriday Followup
  2. A list post about a list post. Or something like that.
  3. Imploring you to de-lurk

Kirsten

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Categories: My Creative Thoughts | View Comments

  • I completely agree with the thought behind this post. I'm not sure that I've ever checked out the name of someone who shows up in a 7-person list in one Follow Friday tweet. The lack of context makes me think of someone recommending a movie only by telling me the title (or recommending seven movies by only listing seven movie titles). Give me some context and I can decide if it sounds appealing to me before I check it out. But if I make the effort to rent and watch a movie I know nothing about because you only tell me its title and I don't like the movie at all, why would I even sort of pay attention the next time you recommend a movie to me (by title only)?

    On that same note, think another element that should be kept in mind when people are sending Follow Friday tweets is your own personal brand and how you want to be associated with someone you recommend in a no-context Follow Friday tweet. If I click a name and that person's last four tweets are profanity-laced rants, it's probably not a person I care to have in my Twitter stream every seven minutes. Now, whether you realized it would happen or not, I'm associating you with my negative opinion of your recommended Follow Friday Twitterer. Even a one sentence "@madeupperson may rant a bit, but his blog posts are always insightful" lets me know that it's worthwhile to get past the first impression. I know that's probably an extreme example, but I feel like the more context you add, the better off everyone is. It’s not a must, because I’m of the opinion that people should use Twitter however they feel like using Twitter. I just know that, for me to even consider clicking a Follow Friday suggestion, I prefer some information on why it’s worth my effort to do so.

    <abbr>Mike Billeter’s last blog post..Why I'm sick of “How NOT to use Twitter” posts...</abbr>
  • Today was the first day in several months I didn't partake in followfriday, although for different reasons that abstention.

    That said, over the past month, I opted--in lieu of clumping ten names in one tweet which provides zero value--to suggest only TWO accounts and providing a reason for each.

    <abbr>Ari Herzog’s last blog post..Can You Help My Twitter Growing Pains?</abbr>
  • Peacekeeper357
    I do appreciate follow Friday but agree with the same shortcomings you mentioned.

    I view it as a way to introduce people you follow to others, but feel that it should be kept to just a few tweeps, and sent with a short explanation, perhaps 1 name per tweet or by using a blog.

    Mel just elevated it to an art form.

    I do look forward to follow Friday though, knowing I am going to be "introduced" to some more cool tweeps to follow.
  • Mel
    So interesting to see myself inadvertently going the way of a (trend?)

    Save for a couple of tweets, I never really got into the FollowFriday culture. Not because I didn't have good tweeps to recommend, but mainly b/c I didn't think I could really give them the context they deserved in 140 characters of space... so, with today's post, I started blogging my recommendations.

    I still like FollowFridays. Always have. It's just that I think it needed something more... I think a blog post to support the recommending tweet will help give more meaning to follow fridays.

    <abbr>Mel’s last blog post..Twitter Folow Friday - My Inaugural List April 24 2009</abbr>
  • I tend to agree with you as well. I am not a big fan but like your approach as to do fewer with a reason why. And now we have Thankful Thursday and Music Monday...gah!

    <abbr>Andi’s last blog post..Joey Totes make carting your groceries a breeze</abbr>
  • Kirsten, thanks for the mention. I am finding it to be overwhelming in its current incarnation, but I do like the idea of a more reason-full sharing...

    <abbr>Steve Woodruff’s last blog post..Why I Follow…Thomas Clifford</abbr>
  • I have to agree with the idea that FollowFriday has reached a point where many people plug too many recommendations at once. @kid_disco mentioned being sick of FollowFriday and other twitmeme's today, but he shared what he felt was a good use of follow Friday in this example.
    http://twitter.com/MichelleRobbins/statuses/160... I think it's a great way to share both who AND why. I'm not sure I would dedicate a full blog post to FollowFriday recommendations.
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