HOW TO: Participate in Follow Fridays

29Apr11

Follow Friday (aka #FF or #followfriday) is a phenomenon on Twitter that has been around as long as I can remember.

The purpose of Follow Friday is to share with your Twitter followers people who you feel are worth following and why. This helps the Twitter community grow and our networks to become bigger and bigger over time by connecting with people who are seen as valuable by those who we already follow.

Basically it’s a great way to recognize your favorite tweeters.

Originally the hashtag was #followfriday, but most use #FF since character space is so valuable on Twitter.

Common Mistakes

Many people who participate in Follow Fridays, simply do this:

However, I would argue that this provides no real value and doesn’t capture the spirit of what #FF is all about.

Try This…

When I worked with my former association, one thing our Twitter account was really good at was helping members connect with each other. Keeping in line with that purpose helped fuel our FF choices.

For example, every Friday I would do one post alerting PAs of other PAs on Twitter and one alerting PA students of other PA students under the context of getting to know each other:

#FF – Get to know your fellow PAs: @jeflnyc @kred85 @mgerchufsky @cmbarry @PATravis”

This allowed my followers who saw my tweet to know why they should follow them, not just that they should.

Another good example was a shoutout I received last week from a theatre company I’m working with:

This tweets gives context to the theatre company’s audience and allows them to connect deeper to the artists they are working with. This is right in line with the mission and artistic endeavors of the company.

Also, don’t forget your etiquette. Thank them or do the same in return!

So though a Follow Friday may seem like something simple, there should still be a driving force behind why you are participating, and what meaning it will hold for your audience.

Additional Reading

#FollowFriday: Anatomy of Twitter Trend

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