I’m going out on a limb here and saying that the old twitter hashtag for “Follow Friday” (#FF) is officially dead.
Early on in Twitter’s existence it meant something for people to recommend you on Friday. Follow Friday meant you were among their favorite people to follow on Twitter and everyone should know it. It was beneficial because then users were still trying to find out who to follow that was of any quality.
NOW the only things I see #FF being used for are:
- Meaningless lists of users (super lazy twitter users, just list their followers in alphabetical order using an automation tool) There is absolutely no reason to follow these people.
- Other Twitter users list you in the same list every week regardless if you’re still following them or not. What meaning does that carry? Gee thanks for the thought (or lack thereof). It’s just a ploy so gullible people Retweet it and boost that person’s “Klout” (I’ll save my rant on Klout for another time).
Follow Friday used to have meaning. People used to do it with purpose. The best example I’ve seen is listing ten people every week with a specific reason why those people should be followed. The problem with that is there are only so many people you can list before you either repeat people or just give up.
I tried to take that concept a step further and focus on one person in a weekly #FF Blog Post. I quickly fell off that gimmick. C’mon with as infrequently as I blog, did anyone seriously think I could keep that up?
I am officially declaring Follow Friday (#FF) dead. If you happen to stumble upon someone on Twitter that deserves a shout out, don’t wait for Friday to let your followers know. Just tell the world how awesome they are!