Why I don’t like #followfriday?
I know today is Friday. I know it’s Follow Friday (this is the link to the Mashable Tumblr post that explains what Follow Friday is). Why is it that I don’t like #followfriday? And YES, I am VERY well aware that many people have recommended ME on their #followfriday tweets (THANK YOU, THANK YOU!).
The reason why I don’t like #followfriday is the same reason that I find it exclusionary. How can I choose only a few of the people whom I follow and recommend those? Furthermore, I *know* that there are a number of people who follow ME whom I don’t follow back. How sincere will my recommendation of any of them look if I am actually NOT following them? (and I’ve explained the follow/no-follow at length in other posts and over email).
I understand the positive nature of the idea – to recommend a few folks that people find interesting to the general readership of Twitter. But frankly, it gives me this rather uncomfortable feeling that, were I to use it, I would probably fill a full screens of tweets with Twitter IDs of interesting people, which (not surprisingly) would lead people to want to unfollow me!
Perhaps the one way I’d feel a bit more at ease would be if these would be “targeted #followfriday” (i.e. if for example, Twitter announced – today is followfriday for food twitterers, that kind of thing. At any rate, I am very flattered and grateful to those people who recommend me on #followfriday, but don’t feel offended because I don’t plan to participate in #followfriday myself.
Related posts:
- Build online relationships, promote others as you do yourself
- Reflections on Twitter, “grow your network organically” and #nofollow
- The Top 10 Productivity Tips: A Summary
- Those Twitter interactions
- Reflections on Twitter etiquette
I try not to read too much into anything to do with popularity contests or getting upset about someone not recommending you (that pretty much lowers Twitter to elementary school level).
I like to think of it the same way as sharing a link or story on your site — you’re giving exposure to something you personally find useful, that others might enjoy as well. Whether it’s a news outlet, a store, a person, or a business, some people might actually want to know what you recommend as a useful resource/followee on Twitter.
I tend to be in the same boat Raul, not a big fan of any type of popularity contest, I think it’d be a lot more constructive if people revealed their “methods for finding like minded people on twitter”. We’re all very different beings but I think the reasons we find ourselves on twitter are fairly universal.
My reasons for not participating in #followfriday are sort of related to yours. Friday is usually one of my busiest and most stressful days of the week, so I usually don’t have time to think about who I want to recommend and will only occasionally have time to check out the recommendations of others. I don’t want to just randomly pick people, I’d like to put some thought into it and recommend certain people for certain things (ie. social media, writing, spirituality, food, etc.) so people can check them out if they are interested in that area.
I suppose this would make more sense to me if I used Twitter… but in theory, I agree; anything exclusionary doesn’t sound especially fair.
Here via NetChick today!
Interesting I was about to do a #followfriday today.
It seems like a good way to see who you think is interesting.
btw NetChick forced me to come here.
Okay not really I wanted to come here.
hi…
thanks for dropping by…
hope to see more from u…
shall we do some link exchange?
Don’t look at FollowFriday as exclusionary. It’s not meant to even necessarily recommend people to the general readership. I approach it as an introduction. I always try to put out new people each week, and I basically try to recommend groups of people who may not know each other but who might like to meet. This way, you begin to form communities of people with similar interests or who enjoy discussion of various topics that are stimulating, interesting, & can lead to mutual personal growth. Maybe I’m a bit of an idealist in this regard, but it’s served me well and allows me to keep my FollowFriday tweets to a manageable minimum, maybe 5 a week on average. Of course, I’ve only been around on Twitter for about a month and have only around 700 followers, so it’s not like I’ve got a million to choose from. Still, I try to meet new tweeps all the time and eventually add these to my list of online friends as opposed to just followers. I mean let’s face it, many of the people following anyone are probably just doing it for the followback rather than to make a connection, at least at first. It’s what gives people relevance on Twitter, whether we like to admit it or not. I can’t imagine actually remembering all 700+ followers I’ve amassed, but I really do try to get to know the ones I find interesting, even based on something like an appreciation for the person’s screen name (my friend @Dutchrudder is a perfect expample, as it’s a reference to the movie Zack & Miri Make a Porno). Anyway, I don’t expect to change your mind, but maybe at some point you’ll find that you’ve got a reason for recommending people, even if it’s just retweeting a recommendation from one of your favorite Twitter friends, someone you follow and admire or enjoy. Never say “never.”