#FollowFriday is great in theory, but often turns out badly in practice, so I have a hard time recommending it…although it works well for some people.
First, here’s what you should do instead: Ask for and give personal recommendations (Example 1 Example 2). Also see 10 seconds a week to find great Twitter users
What most people talk about is that it clutters up streams, making it hard to view tweets. Of course, there are tools and apps that you can use to filter most of them out, but it’s a hassle.
But what I find bad about #ff or #FollowFriday hashtags is that the recommendations are too often low quality. Why is that?
- Since they’re public, people can be afraid NOT to recommend some people for fear of repercussion, e.g “You recommended them but not me?! How could you do that?!”
- People also use them simply to trade promotional favors, as in “You recommend me and I’ll recommend you.”
- People try to insinuate themselves with influential users by recommending them. It’s fine if it’s a sincere recommendation, but often it’s just a way of trying to get the attention of a more powerful user.
- Since they’re public, it’s hard to draw the line over time. Do you recommend your top 10 favorites? Top 11? Top 12?
- They’re often not targeted, insufficient reason given for favoring. Who cares if someone like person A—what you want to know is what makes person A good for you to connect with.
- Many people use them primarily to promote people who are active and follow back. Just looking for users that follow back is a poor use of Twitter.
The Oatmeal sums up the #FF impressions of many people:
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I understand and agree with the author’s point completely. But there is the other side pulling at me to where you want to at least acknowledge some great people in some manner.
We do go further by sharing to Twitter our lists of our follow Friday folks, as well as many other lists shared throughout the week. But alas, we are part of the problem. But in time I’ll work something up where we can do better.
I think the main questions are of balance and quality and community.
High quantities of lower quality tweets are always a problem, no matter what they are. The trick is to find balance, and to look for ways to add quality.
FollowFriday builds up communities, but if the very people you are serving feel they have to filter you out, your purpose is not met. If your followers are fine with how you tweet, then you’re doing it right. There is no simpler test
I make no excuses for participating and I have declared my love for Fridays over and over again. So I’m standing here like the deer in the proverbial headlights. Please don’t dismiss the fact that I am excited about the people I recommend so much so that I want the other millions of people using Twitter to know who they are…including you Dave, a knowledgable source I personally have learned so much from. Plus it’s Friday for pete’s sake…you would know better than I but what major things in the Social Media world get said on a Friday (not including news about natural disasters, etc.)?
I’m going to feel bad if you all filter me out, but I’ll probably remain the newbie that I am when it comes to Friday.
Just because something is overdone or not done well by many folks, doesn’t mean it has no value. I’m certainly not against the idea behind #FollowFridays!
It’s like a lot of issues with Twitter: the tweet is all we have, so when tweets are used too heavily for one thing (such as hashtag chats), they become more noisy, and less useful for other things. But you can put #ff/ #followFriday tweets in a separate stream in many clients. And there are tools that accumulate #ff recommendations for you so you can still find them if you filter out the tweets.
And, if your followers are fine with how you tweet, then you’re doing it right. There is no simpler test.
Hi Dave! I am new to Twitter but already am finding myself avoiding the site completely when Friday rolls around because of the FF tweets. I will have one good tweet in between 50 – 100 #FF tweets. The stream is unreadable at times. I had a question for you though. What tool lets you filter tweets out of your stream? Could I continue to follow the person but still take their tweets out of the normal stream. The person I’m speaking of is a personal friend, but she sends 50 – 100 tweets a day and they are ALL ebay auctions she has posted. Once in a blue moon she has something to say that I want to hear but I don’t want to offend her by unfollowing her – we all know she can see that I was the one who stopped with other tools. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!
There are many ways to achieve this, depending on where you tweet from. One of the easiest tools is TweetDeck’s global filter. http://www.muuter.com/ is another choice. If you want to provide your username, I can see your stats and possibly make additional suggestions. You can just tweet me if you like
great stuff once again Dave! I get really annoyed with the low quality/favour like #ff oftentimes. I really try to think of my followers when I do a #ff not about the person the #ff is about. Well, in the sense, I think about how my information on the that user could help my followers most, of course I think about the guy too, that’s why I am following him. Ok, that got quite wordy, hope you still get my point
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You hit the nail on the head, Dave! Great pointers. I used to run those long, boring #FollowFriday trains before. Not now-a-days! Instead of recommending ‘group of ppl I’m interacting daily’ in tweets, I created & curating a Twitter list (close to my heart ~ really) & suggest it to the public. It works great…
Twitter lists to the rescue! I think that’s the best idea overall. You’re doing it right!
I tend to think that the way most people use Follow Friday these days – it has diluted considerably in its value.
Unless you provide a reason why someone should follow your recommendation, why should anyone take it on blind faith to go ahead and follow the person you recommend?
A good Twitter strategy takes in to account the people you are following – so these days I need a really good reason in order for people to make it to my list. So please, if you’re going to offer someone up for #FF, do them and me a favor and give me a reason!
Cheers!
- Don
aka @donpower
aka @Sprout_Insights
Well said, Don!
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