Follow Friday
Posted on 01 May, 2009 at 16:42 PM
There are already 22 Comments
About the Show
David and Marc talk about the value of Follow Fridays on twitter and how we can adapt our followfriday style by including reasons for a follow.
At the moment we believe that there is just too much noise and for that reason people aren't even paying attention to the people we recommend. At the end of the day the point of follow friday was to encourage people to follow but and the moment people are just skipping the tweet.
Another point we bring up is the fact that we need to start promoting another design voting site which is not designfloat...
Your thoughts?
Links mentioned in this post:
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User Comments
Dary SWS 01 May, 2009 16:54:36 PM
I'm with @iamkhayyam on this one.
I did try a more expansive #followfriday rather than the list posts/walls which are getting a tad tedious.
I've now started using #followtoday with a reason why people should follow someone, every time I think someone deserves a recommendation - the beauty of which is that I can use it any time I choose.
Whether #followtoday will catch on - who knows?
kyle steed 01 May, 2009 16:58:18 PM
Congratulations guys, you've managed to offend all my little @ signs that I love to use on Fridays. Yes, I too am guilty of giving follow friday shout outs with just a list of people and no reasoning behind them. But I really like the idea of refining the lists and putting some meaning behind them.
Sometimes I've seen the number of followers I get on Friday increase dramatically over the rest of the week. I think it all depends on who gives you the follow friday link. But regardless of that, it just boils down to what we want more our of twitter, more followers or more meaningful connections?
For the design float/design bump argument, you guys should check out OneUP by OneCSS that Aaron I. is working on. (www.onecss.com/oneup/)
-peace-
Robin Cannon 01 May, 2009 17:00:30 PM
Couldn't agree with you more. I've limited myself to three people reason each week. I simply don't have the time to go and check through lots of profiles when I have no idea *why* I should follow someone. Certainly being named on #followfriday doesn't seem to provide any major benefit in terms of increased followers (or at least it's very limited as to *who* can give you a follow boost).
I've been using DesignBump in preference to DesignFloat pretty much exclusively in the last couple of months. It's far more reliable and as you say it really provides value traffic, without it being particularly difficult to get onto the front page. DesignFloat just drove me crazy with its unreliability and lack of any explanation.
David Perel 01 May, 2009 17:10:22 PM
@Kyle - Sorry dude :P
Thanks for the link to One-Up. I will definitely be punting that site a bit more... especially coz I dig Aaron.
@Robin - Indeed, I am seeing more and more that Design Bump is a really good voting site... although I really don't like their redesign :P
Daniel 01 May, 2009 17:11:39 PM
I think everyone that has ever tweeted has at some point thrown out 100 names of people to follow. When I see a list come through it takes me forever to go through the names and see if they are worth following. Descriptions of why you should follow is a great idea. Or start doing a follow friday theme. Today its about CSS, Next friday it's about Top South African Bloggers who wear the same hat as me. That might help weed through the muck and mire. I say 90% of the people who use twitter will never catch on, this new #followfriday will probably only catch on in our design microcosim. Which is fine with me.
And since Designfloat is always down, I have been starting to use www.undrln.com/
Adam Daniel Mezei 01 May, 2009 17:18:27 PM
It'll evolve, brews. The way I see this #ff thing panning out is that we'll ending parsing off into elites and newbies or occasional users. Those that have a certain critical mass of twitter followers will be the ones we'll make a greater effort at following or breaking through the echo chamber...
I know it's anathema to describe the web as potentially elitist, but we do it with books, the business world, and educators...so why can't we have a hierarchy -- a valued, legitimate one, not some fluffed up followers list -- on Twitter.
--ADM
meredith 01 May, 2009 17:22:29 PM
This is worthy of repeating: "it just boils down to what we want more our of twitter, more followers or more meaningful connections?"
Rob MacKay 01 May, 2009 17:47:37 PM
hehe another great vid...
I love to give reasons for my Follow Fridays, because like you guys said it not only gives value to the tweet, and shows people a reason to follow - but it also gives that person who you recommend a boost!
I find I follow more people through FF that have been recommended that way, than the 140 char squeeze. You just cant read it, and where are the reasons why?
Detail people detail..
(Thx for the mini-shout-out btw lol)
Pariah Burke 01 May, 2009 19:00:36 PM
Finally someone else publicly calls out DesignFloat's numerous technical issues. I feel bad for the owner, but frequent downtime--not to mention losing the entire DesignFloat database early this year--keeps me away from Float. DesignBump and VoteTime are both more reliable. VoteTime in particular, being a service of StyleTime, is very open in its communication. Either one is a better alternative to Float.
Robin Cannon 01 May, 2009 19:35:09 PM
@David - Yeah, can't say that I'm a fan of pastel blue and pink as a design ethos either!
@Daniel - I love the idea of themed #followfriday. I think that would go a massive way towards making it more useful and worthwhile again.
Kawsar Ali 02 May, 2009 02:55:30 AM
Finally someone spoke. Thank you guys for saying this. Designfloat is garbage now.
Sean 02 May, 2009 05:46:39 AM
I've only done followfriday 2x - Only when I figure I have important people to recommend. doing it every week just because is just spam
Sanid 02 May, 2009 12:46:45 PM
Nice video , as always :) Well people Designfloat changed their hosting a few days ago it should work fine now , I think. I think people like me that are getting like 5 -10 followers a week should not do it every friday coz its just spam if you recommend the same people over and over to the same followers.
Khayyam Wakil 04 May, 2009 10:44:03 AM
You actually took the words out of my mouth....
Here is my very first video blog that addresses this: bit.ly/1cpTZg.
Which resulted in the #imjustfollowing fellowship: bit.ly/2hoy4
Glad people are beginning to wake up.
Cheers [_]D
David Perel 04 May, 2009 12:22:41 PM
@Khayyam - Hey man, thanks for the link dude. I love your point about being back at school, we had a good laugh about that :P
divinefusion 15 May, 2009 17:40:36 PM
totally on board with #followfriday. Reasons are great and make it more personable, as well as cut the noise. Especially if you talk to several people who don't follow each other and you can make specific recommendations like "@obox meet @svgrob for helpful, RT's and fun convo"
Marc Perel 15 May, 2009 18:03:14 PM
@Divinefusion - That's a very good suggestion. Introducing two like minded people is something I hadn't really thought about.
That's taking follow friday another step, love it.
Gavin 22 May, 2009 16:11:54 PM
Hi Guys,
I understand completely what you're saying. I've always thought #followfriday as spam, the time in looking through profiles without knowing who the person is can't be worth it surely.
You've hit the nail on the head to set a new trend by telling everyone why they should be following the people you're putting up.
Nice idea! :)
Gavin
Dr. Gigabyte 05 Jun, 2009 21:41:40 PM
It was earlier today that I posted a video on the same topic. We are each trying to make the internet a better place I suppose.
You have a great site resource here. Inspiring to many I am positive.
Thank you,
Dr. Gigabyte
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Lou 01 May, 2009 16:50:28 PM
I agree with you guys... I've been guilty of shouting out all the people that #followfriday me but I should just do a handful at a time.. thanks for bringing this to our attention.