Follow Friday Concept

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If you're already on Twitter, you may have noticed the Follow Friday Concept that's usually hash-tagged #FollowFriday or #FF.

Hashtags are are common concept on Twitter, and have the tendency to grow your reach, when people are using the link to search for the theme of what people are talking about that's been hashtagged.

By using the Follow Friday concept, you're opening up your possibilities to be seen by a wider range of people, as well as be open to reciprocity with Twitter users you have mentioned.

The basic idea is that every Friday when you sign onto Twitter, you pick a number of followers who have given you value over the week, that you want to ‘advertise' to your followers to get them to follow them as well. Obviously, the biggest compliment you can get is by making it into someone else's Follow Friday, so here's how to deal with both mentioning people, and what to do when you're the one being mentioned.

To Send a Follow Friday:

Go through the list of people who have interacted with you this week, or perhaps pick one or two users who's tweets you value every single week. They don't necessarily need to be your followers, in fact, it's best if they're not following you already as they may start following after you mention them. Some examples of Follow Friday mentions are below that you may choose to use. There are two types to choose from:

The chronic tweeter: Your Follow Friday may be something along the lines of: "#FF to new followers @x @y @z @a @b and @c"

With every Follow Friday, it's important to mention the reason why your followers should follow these people. You might like to mention their interesting tweets, or the cool links or photos they put up, or just the fact that you look forward to their tweets every week. A tweet like this may be: "#FollowFriday to @xyz – she always posts up the best places to visit around Auckland"

You can expect Follow Fridays in return, so it's better to tweet this early in the day so the people you have tagged are able to see it and then can reciprocate in a timely fashion. Strategising with your Follow Fridays can help your reach into the Twitter community. #FF to a business or person with a larger number of followers can be more effective than tweeting a person with a few followers.

When you get mentioned in a Follow Friday:

People may have re-tweeted your Follow Friday Tweet, in which case the Twitter etiquette suggests you thank them in a mentioned tweet afterwards, as they are opening up your appreciation for them to their following.

You may also get mentioned in someone's personal Follow Friday. This is a great compliment, and the way to thank them is to Re-Tweet the tweet to reciprocate the goodwill, and thank them in a separate mention.

Do you add Follow Fridays into your Social Media schedule? This can grow your reach exponentially over Twitter, and get you noticed, so make sure to execute this is one easy strategy this week.

Image courtesy of AskAaronLee.