This post grew out of several simultaneous conversations I had on Twitter on the morning of Friday March 27th, 2009. It began with me asking: Is Follow Friday almost over?
Before I go any further, please allow me to reiterate something I stress on my Twitter homepage: I am NOT a social media expert. I’ve never pretended to be a social media expert and never will be. The opinions on this blog are my own, until you comment. I welcome hearing from you. I learn the most once I step away from the keyboard and listen to you. Also, I will use no names in this post. I’m aware the comments can be researched but I’m not sure the names are relevant.
Here is a taste of the responses I received to, “Is Follow Friday almost over?”
X: LOL! No such luck, Sweetie! We need to invent a really strong breakfast cocktail, a Follow Friday, to help us make it through!
Y: Now that websites exist that are showing #FF rank (can you believe it?), I see it going on indefinitely. It should've been 1 week.
Pecan: Even one week a month would have been fine but 52 times a year?! *slams head on water bottle*
Z: I think it just started. You don't like follow friday?
Pecan: It started many weeks ago.* I liked it when it was a novelty. It is good to appreciate 1's followers. But not lists & lists every week. *Follow Friday was started on January 16th, 2009 by Micah Baldwin.
X: The dirty little secret about Follow Friday is that people--even the people who tweet them--ignore them.
Pecan: What is so secret about knowing people do the same thing I do?
X: The point is that people who play that dastardly little game seem to think they are helping others to build numbers, but no.
Pecan: I think they are (helping) among the newbies. People with lighter streams are the only ones with time to read those lists.
B: Agreed. It detracts from the 'special' of it in a way that birthdays would be less special if they were celebrated every month.
Pecan: Then you understand what I mean. I'm not against #followfriday. I just don't think it should be EVERY Friday.
C: Sometimes I feel like rebelling and listing my recommendations on a different day, so people might actually read them.
Hopefully from the above you can discern I like the idea of showcasing the people I follow but I don’t like the frequency with which this is done. To me, the more I see of one thing, the more it appears as static in my tweet stream. I am also disheartened when I see a tweet that lists nothing but a group of user names preceded or followed by #followfriday. This does not tell me why the tweeter thinks their recommendation should be followed. Maybe it is enough that I am following the person who tweeted it to my stream? Maybe that should be enough but I am still getting to know some of the people I follow and this takes time. I value the tweets that tell me something about the person being recommended – they are funny or wise or kind, a talented developer, a great writer, or a tremendous humanitarian. I’ve since learned I am out of touch.
A new follow contributed to the conversation:
Mentor: Re #followfriday- then you have missed the point
Pecan: Why don't you educate me then?
Mentor: It would take too long to do properly: short version - Friday occurs once a week, ergo Friday Followers follow once/week . Logic?
Pecan: If it would take too long to explain on Twitter, why don't you write a blog post about it as a service to the rest of us?
Mentor: I don't have a blog site, but if you u really don't get it, I'm happy to place some advice on yours.
Pecan: If I can find the time, I'll write a post about #followfriday and you can educate me and the rest of us there.
Mentor: My pleasure...and yours, I'm sure. Deadline???
I’ll admit that last tweet tweaked me because I said I would write a post “If I can find the time” only to find myself being asked about a deadline. I do feel manipulated into giving up time to get this out of the way during the busiest part of my month. (Please don’t get any ideas because that won’t work again.) The benefit to getting this out of the way is, I will hopefully soon know where my thinking is flawed. Now it is your turn.
