How to: Do a Proper Follow Friday on Twitter

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What is #followfriday? Every Friday, you’ll see thousands of people on Twitter using this phrase in their tweets. So what exactly is #followfriday? Follow Friday is a way people recommend their followers in their tweets to other followers to follow on twitter. Don’t get it? Alright imagine you’re in a PARTY. There are tons of people in that party, most of them you don’t know. Maybe me you know me, then I’ll shake your hand and recommend you to my other friends (followers) in that party (twitter). I’ll tell them “Hey meet Mike, he’s a great guy! he owns three successful business”

Then my friends (followers) will get interested in knowing you and you’ll be friends (they follow you on twitter)

Here are some mistakes that you shouldn’t make.

DON’Ts

1. Recommend WITHOUT reasons.

I know that you want to recommend as many people as possible but without any reasons, nobody will look at them and consider following them.

Why you shouldn’t do this. Using the same party situation like above, imagine me shouting “hey meet these guys here” Firstly, I sound like a crazy person. Secondly there isn’t a personal touch in it.

2. Recommend everyone on your list.

Its alright to be friendly but recommending everyone on your list is not a way. First you’ll be spamming the timeline, secondly it looks spammy. Why you shouldn’t do this. Again imagine me going around the party shouting hey meet him, hey meet them, hey meet him, her and him. At first maybe people will listen. After going on for 10 minutes. Do you think anyone bother listening to me anymore?

So how do you do a proper follow friday? Some of you might have a small list of followers, some might have a bigger list of followers. Here are some methods you can use.

DOs

1. Send personal follow friday tweets

This is a proper way to do a follow friday. It has information about the person rather than just tweeting follow him, her, him, him, her, her. It gives you the information of what kind of of guy or girl they are and why you should follow them.

2. Small groups

If you have tons of followers you can use this technique. Recommend four to six people in your list and tell people why they should follow them. Its clean and it has a reason why as well.

3. Create a twitter list and call it “follow friday”

You can also create a list and call if follow friday. Since you have tons of followers it is going to be hard for you to recommend everyone on your list. However you can add them in a list and name it follow friday and ask your followers to follow the list or follow the people on the list.

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  • http://twitter.com/meincoach Leo Faltin

    I like to answer in a way that uses the addressee somewhere within the text instead of at the beginning of my reply tweets. Thus, my reply can be read by everyone of my followers and automatically recommends my communication partner to them. By this procedure, write-only tweeps are automatically excluded.

  • Dymestar18

    Wowzer! And I always have a tendency to do #FF’s in groups, simply because I don’t have any time during the day. So I kind of rush through it. I’ve also decided to do my Follow Friday mentions once a month this year, because it’s a big hassle to do that every week with many followers. But today, one of my followers shared this article and, after reading this, I realized it is a peeve for some people. And certain strategies do work better than others.

    Yes, I’ve done number 1 in the Dont’s section many times before, but there were also times when I did numbers 1 and 2 in the Do’s section. And the Do’s section is very beneficial, ’cause people would either thank me for mentioning them, retweet it, return the favor, or follow the very people that I’ve mentioned. That has worked compared to just listing for mentions sake. So I’ll make the effort to do that more often! :)

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  • http://twitter.com/hdwebsite HD WEBSITES

    SELF PROMOTION!!! =) #followfriday @hdwebsite lol

  • http://www.slice-works.com Meredith Rabil

    Great post here with smart and easy Do’s and Don’ts. I am going to begin trying just one #FF and give a reason as to why. Typically, I do #FF’s for people that I made a specific connection with during the week. I have found that to be helpful because it can further the relationship.

  • http://www.kameelvohra.com Kameel Vohra

    Hi Aaron, I really like the idea of asking people to follow your lists! It’s not only easier, but a constant resource for those that miss your followfriday tweet.

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  • Inkscrblr

    This is what I have been doing as well.

    Impersonal lists are very boring

    Paula
    @inkscrblr
    Thriftymommastips

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  • HowNotTo

    Wow some of these comments were only written two years ago, I’m not as behind as I thought. @hownottogetmarr Got it.

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  • Dave

    Oh boy! I have been totally guilty of the “mass FF” thing! Of course, what you say about it makes perfect sense. Good call, my friend, I will take that sage advice to heart. I raise my coffee cup to you!

    Thanks! Dave

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