by Jo Linsdell

Created on: July 15, 2010   Last Updated: July 16, 2010

Micro-blogging site, Twitter is currently one of the top social media sites on the web and a popular way of networking and marketing online. Members use Tweets of 140 characters to update their status. Several ways have been invented on Twitter by its members for encouraging interaction between members and getting people more involved in the twitter-sphere community. One of the most popular ideas to come about is Follow Friday.

How did Follow Friday start?

#FollowFriday started with a simple tweet by Michah Baldwin which read:

“I am starting Follow Fridays. Every Friday, suggest a person to follow, and everyone follow him/her. Today its @fancyjeffrey and @w1redone.”

What is Follow Friday?

Follow Friday takes place on Twitter every Friday. Tweeters post the usernames of other twitter members that they consider worth following. It’s a great way to build your number of followers whilst promoting others and helps build a quality network on twitter.

When it started, #followfriday was limited to tweets in English but has since spread to several other foreign languages.

Who takes part in Follow Friday and how does it work?

Thousands of members take part every Friday by updating their status bar with the hashtags #Follow Friday or #FF followed by @ and the usernames of the people they recommend.

Tweeters who follow a large number of people on Twitter often choose to break their Follow Friday's down and post them as groups. For example, for great posts or for retweeting etc…

Another way to Follow Friday is to #FF a certain person and explain what prompted you to recommend them to others. For example #FF @username because he is always the first to reply with feedback when requested or #FF @username because she offers excellent information on industry events.

Why take part in Follow Friday?

Follow Friday is an excellent way of interacting with other tweeters and getting some extra exposure for yourself at the same time. Many people who get mentioned in Follow Friday will #FF you right back to say thanks for the support.

It's also a great way of finding new people to follow. A person who shows up often in others Follow Friday mentions is likely worth following. Twitter has millions of members and yet they manage to stand out from the crowd and get mentioned. This means they know how to make twitter work and are probably offering good content.

Tweeters will often retweet others Follow Fridays and so if you get recommended you could find yourself being promoted to millions quite easily.

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