What is Follow Friday on Twitter and How Do I Get Involved?

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Well it is the best day of the week again, Friday, and that means one thing for those on social media…Follow Friday! Now, if you were like I was, you heard of it but really never knew what the heck it was. Let me help you out. I will tell you about the origin, the intent, how it works and tips on how to be recommended for Follow Friday.

The Origin of Follow Friday

The beginning of Follow Friday is more simple than you think. It was not something that was planned nor was it something that was created to be the next big thing. It started as one idea, one tweet from one tweep. Who is this person you ask? Well, it is Micah Baldwin who tweeted this simple little tweet:

Now as you notice, Micah did not put #FollowFriday or #FF into his first Follow Friday tweet. This came from one of Micah’s followers, Mykl Roventine. This was his mention back at Micah:

Neither Micah or Mykl realize how fast this trend would grow on twitter. Micah recalls the events of that day on his website:

I sent direct messages to a few of my friends: Chris Brogan, Erin Kotecki Vest, Aaron Brazell, Jim Kukral and Andrew Hyde (who decided to not participate, calling it a “spammer lovefest”) asking them to retweet a simple message “Follow Fridays – suggest someone to follow / everyone follow / use the hashtag #followfriday”

And, then I headed into the office and my first meeting of the day.

When I got back to my office, and finally fired up my machine, #followfriday tweets were flying all over twitter. It was wild.

Near the end of the day, almost every half second, a tweet went out with the hashtag #followfriday.

What is the Intent of Follow Friday?

For the true intent of Follow Friday, we must go back and look at Micah’s orginal tweet. As Micah stated, you are to suggest a person to follow, and everyone should follow that person.

Now it has morphed into not only being one person, but several people. You want to be sure to pick tweeps that post quality materials. The point is that your followers are following you because they share a similar interest. If you suggest someone that does not share you interest, you are only hurting your followers.

How it Works

So the best part of Follow Friday is anyone can do it. You can do it if your following 20 people or 2,000 people. It is as simple as making one tweet with #followfriday or #ff and listing at least one person that meets the criteria listed under intent.

Once you post your recommendation to your followers, several of them will follow that person. It is really that simple.

How to be Recommended for Follow Friday

Very simple, be a great person to follow.

The beauty of Follow Friday is that it is not about spam or self promotion. It is about you recommending someone to all of your followers. In order for you to be listed, one of your followers must recommend you.  Here are some tips to get recomended:

• Be Active
• Do Not Spam
• Retweet often
• Interact with you followers
• Also participate in Follow Friday
• Post quality tweets related to your interests and the interests of  your followers

Basically, think of what criteria your using to recommend your Follow Friday people and do the same thing.

Fun Websites

So with every trend, websites always pop up. Here are two fun ones to check out.

• http://topfollowfriday.com/
• http://www.followfriday.com/

These sites show you who is being recommended each Friday. Enjoy!

Your Thoughts?

Please tell me in the comments below what your thoughts are on Follow Friday.