Comments on: #FollowFriday: a great Twitter meme gone horribly wrong

By: Veronica

Veronica — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:45:58 +0000

I think you’re absolutely right! It’s the same old argument about content and whether or not it matters. For those who use it, it matters.

I never go through and look at the followers that are suggested, unless they are from a tweeter that I respect and see lots of good content from in my stream!

By: Kelly Rusk

Kelly Rusk — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 15:23:30 +0000

Thanks for the support everyone! I do get pretty worked up about stuff like this because contrary to popular believe, the internet is _not_ free. Someone, somewhere is paying for servers and bandwidth etc.

So I don’t think I’m being snobby by saying we should respect each other and the medium, because someone might get sick of paying for all the crap one day!

By: Ana Lissansky

Ana Lissansky — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 17:53:35 +0000

Hi Kelly,

Absolutely agree with you on the fact that #follofriday should be used less frequently and provide CONTEXT. Even recommending a hashtag I think is great (and I have found these useful) when provided with a description of the topic/event.

By: Gini Dietrich

Gini Dietrich — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 17:08:56 +0000

Kelly -

I obviously agree with you! It’s frustrating to me that you can’t do any real work on Fridays because you get lost in the endless stream of @names. And I HATE it when people recommend me who have never engaged or talked to me. Guess there is a ‘bot for everything!

I like doing the blog post every Friday because it makes the people I recommend feel good, it drives traffic to our blog, and it isn’t an endless stream of names.

Gini

P.S. Hi Joe!

By: David Scrimshaw

David Scrimshaw — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 15:33:54 +0000

I would say that you’ve made a good start towards “lightening up” by unfollowing the FF Flooder and giving them a gentle word about why.

By: Andrey Bozhkov

Andrey Bozhkov — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 13:42:17 +0000

Hey Joesph, hey Kelly,

Although I have not had much experience with #FollowFriday, I do agree that people should put at least a little bit more effort into their recommendations. Quality > quantity is what I always keep in mind.

Un-following someone seems like a perfectly fine option to me if you know that person will not tweet about anything worthwhile. Although, I’ve been wondering: should you directly un-follow someone or send them a DM, wait for their response and only then un-follow?

Andrey

By: Kelly Rusk

Kelly Rusk — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 13:20:05 +0000

Hey Joe,

Thanks for commenting & I do agree, #FollowFriday is still the best way to find new followers.

I may have been a tad dramatic with my headline, now that I think about it!

Kelly

By: Joseph Thornley

Joseph Thornley — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 04:01:07 +0000

Kelly,
I think your approach of unfollowing someone who doesn’t provide you with a good signal to noise ration is the right solution.

#FollowFriday recommendations have introduced me to some great people who I might not have discovered as quickly on my own.

I do agree that a thoughtful recommendation trumps a simple list of names. So, I follow the format of recommending one name in a tweet providing a reason and context. And I look for others who do the same. With this approach, I think #followfriday serves a real purpose and will be around for a long time.