… or not so much.
Follow Friday. Every Friday morning I open my twitter feed and it’s flooded with #ff, #FF, #followfriday, etc (ad infinitum). Now, for as long as I’ve been on Twitter, I have never understood the trend. I mean, I get the idea, but to me it kinda smacks of a forced commercial holiday that makes you feel obligated to buy a card and ‘celebrate’ some arbitrarily designated special day ’cause everyone else is doing it… Valentine’s day comes to mind (so does Mothers’ Day. Don’t hate.)
Why do we need to dedicate a day to recommendations? Can’t that happen all week long – as you discover interesting people, you pass them along to your friends? Try “Check out @example. We just had a really interesting convo about xyz.” If your followers are interested, they will check it out. Otherwise, it’s just a popularity contest.
I find it interesting that very few (if any) of the social media peeps I follow on Twitter participate in #ff. There’s probably a reason for that…
Hi,
since you say “I find it interesting that very few (if any) of the social media peeps I follow on Twitter participate in #ff. There’s probably a reason for that…”
i’d assume FF is not a major problem for you.
I dont’ FF , usually just ignore it.
Yes some in stream, makes friday a little less efficient perhaps, but no biggie.
A lot of people have mentioned do ff and give reason, one tweeter at a time,
That’s a lot more work, isn’t it?
But then…. imagine if FF people acutally did that…. THAT would render Friday a NO TWITTER day altogether.
Sometimes you just eat the pudding that’s served. After a while it don’t taste too bad.
cheers.
Yeah, I don’t do ff. I don’t let get to me, but I see people obsessing about it – that they’ve forgotten someone, or that if they don’t choose someone, then that person’s feelings will be hurt, or that no one is ff(ing) them. I think that defeats the purpose – then they are choosing ff people just for the sake of it, which kind of renders the whole thing useless.
Most of the ff people in my feed do recommend one person per tweet with a reason, which is great – but it can also happen on Monday without a hashtag. There is no reason to stress out on Fridays.
Sarah, I do participate in #FF but I also try to help quality people I meet on Twitter grow their followings on other days as well. If I find someone with interesting things to say, I feel a responsibility to share them with others.
That said, a lot of people do the #FF all wrong. Rather than an impersonal list of user names, I like to mention one person per tweet and really say why I recommend or endorse this person. Sometimes I may mention two people if they are both experts on the same topic.
The point, I think, is that the fuel that runs the Twitter community is generosity. It’s kind of like taking the time to write a thank you card to someone. If we just get into the habit of doing it, it creates a better community for everyone.
But you are absolutely right, don’t limit being a good Twitter citizen to Friday.
Good point. I like the analogy of a ‘thank you’ note!