News and views from the award-winning author of the novels The Skinny Years, America Libre, House Divided and Pancho Land

Friday, June 26, 2009

What's your take on Follow Friday?

Follow Friday on Twitter was conceived as an opportunity for tweeple to recommend someone whose tweets they admire -- especially if the person is new to Twitter. Unfortunately, some tweeps have used Follow Friday for a variety of different reasons which have become annoying to others.

So I'm asking for your opinion:

Do you follow the people recommended on Follow Friday and want the tradition to continue?

Do you appreciate being recommended on Follow Friday and support its continued use?

Do you think Follow Friday is abused and would like to see it end?


Leave a message to this post and I will share the results on Twitter.

Thanks most kindly,
Raul

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I use FF to honor the tweeters i respect and like. For that i would like it to continue. I do check out interesting looking suggestions but not so much any more.
Thanks, Jo Ann

Jimnnoke said...

A good idea when used reasonably to recommend interesting new folks to follow. But when it's overused it looses it's meaning and becomes clutter. If I want to see all you're followers I can look at your twitter page.

I think it's funny to get recommended by folks who HAVEN'T followed me, hoping the recommendations will follow them!

2NewCats said...

The puzzles of Follow Friday are these: Should we have to decide the relative importance of persons with whom we exchange thoughts, ideas and opinions, but who are essentially unknown to us? How does it feel to leave someone out -or to be left out? What happens if we do not participate in Follow Friday?

Follow Friday can be a nice way to tell others about the "friends" we enjoy on Twitter, but we should not feel obligated to participate or to respond to it.

Kristina Thorpe said...

I think it started out as a nice thought and has become very abused. What's the sense of the long strings of names w/no qualification. When I have the time, and the inclination, I write a short, thoughtful introduction to people I follow. I try to group like minds together so that if tweeters are writers, journalists, thinkers, marketers, the reader can choose what/who they like to follow. I want my follows to have value/add to the conversation; that's why I chose you, Raul!

The Mustang To Paducah Period Pieces Blog said...

Thank you, Kristina! Personally, I am growing ambivalent about #FF. I hate for my older Twitter friends to think I am neglecting them in an infatuation with with new ones. So my list keeps growing. I can see that, at some point, it will become unwieldy and have little value.