Community Marketing Blog: #FollowFriday Twitiquette (Twitter Etiquette)

This past week I attended an awesome conference for growing small business, hosted by Network Solutions and The University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business. The conference was particularly great because I met with fellow industry members and bloggers in the area.

We all sat in the same section of the room (where the power cords were) and were tweeting to each other throughout the day discussing the presentations and panelists.

Personally, I find that I get a lot out of conferences by actively participating in them through the use of Twitter. I get to connect and meet industry professionals during breaks and it adds to my understanding of the material in the conference.

This past Friday, I gave my Twitter Followers their names under the hashtag #FollowFriday. Follow Friday is a tradition on Twitter to recommend quality Tweeple to your Twitter followers, so that they may in turn follow them. I was also recommended in several #FollowFriday tweets, and I obtained several new followers—which is great for increasing twinfluence. I especially appreciated that their tweets listed the reason why I was being recommended.

Anyway, I also receive un-substantiated #FollowFridays, but a reason for following me isn’t cited as a part of the tweet, which doesn’t let your followers know why you think that person should be followed.

Good #FollowFriday Tweet:

gwickes: #FollowFriday from #GrowSmartBiz Blogger Bullpen: @shonali @wickedjava @meganmcq @VenessaFrench

My point is that simply recommending people without a reason isn’t as effective as having a genuine purpose to recommending them. For future FollowFridays, I would like to recommend the following twittetiquette:

Personalize your Tweet: Tell your audience who/what/why they should follow the individual.

#ff #ff followfriday @JeremyHerbel because his blog is hilarious and he follows @thebloggess, so clearly he's smart too.

Use the hashtag(s): Don’t forget the #FollowFriday or #ff tag. (If space permits, do both!)

Relate your Recommendations: If you’re recommending more than one person, make sure the people are related in some way so the reader isn’t confused.

Add Value: Don’t recommend users who are promoting themselves. By recommending people on Follow Friday, your recommendation illustrates your network and understanding of who is adding quality to the conversation.

Don't forget the ‘Thank you’: If you’re recommended from someone, don’t forget to send along an @reply or DM to thank the individual for tweeting about you.

wickedjava @MeganMcQ @gwickes thank you for the #FollowFriday

VanessaFrench @MeganMcQ Thxs for #followfriday shout out! It was a pleasure meeting many of the folks from the blogger bullpen in person! #GrowSmartBiz