#FollowFriday Antedote/Addendum

Although I’ve had a Twitter account a while now: @JointWinWin I haven’t been as actively engaged as I should have. This all changed when I was introduced to Tweetdeck by Felicia Slattery during an interview in the MAD Marketing free webinars series.

Anyway, long story short, I had no clue what the hashtag #followfriday was all about and did a bit of digging. So I found out it was a way to recommend others you think are worthy of recommendation/following.

With me?

Watch the video below and then see the full text for how I did it after:

What I didn’t know and hadn’t discovered until after I’d sent out some #followfridays was there is an etiquette involved (My favourite Will Rogers quote keeps me sane on such things: “We’re all ignorant – only on different subjects”) – so I’ll not beat myself up on duffing up.

I’ll not go into massive detail here and will instead direct you to a different resource on the subject which explains it all in great detail: Follow Friday Too Much of A Good Thing.

Some people have become so incensed with #followfriday tweets they filter them out and even unfollow others who practice it.

#FollowFriday Alternative?

So I got to thinking, is there a way to recommend others you are following in an automatic and unobtrusive way, keeping the spirit of #followfriday.

Looking at another tool – Tweetlater, the answer is yes.

I’m not a proponent of autofollow Twitter tools having had a good think about it a while back (there is such a capability in Tweetlater btw) but whenever someone follows you, you have an opportunity to have your thank you message say something extra to them.

From a marketing perspective, too many people use/abuse this opportunity to try and sell to a new follower. I don’t subscribe to this particular approach.

I propose an alternative though:

Why not use the automessage capability in Tweetlater to recommend some of your favourite Tweeters?

This capability could of course be hijacked as some form of twitter coregistration but that’s not the intent – be selective and give a reason as to why you are providing a recommendation.

It’s very easy to setup rotating recommendations using Tweetlater, for example, here is the exact rotating autoresponse messages I have setup for all the MAD Marketers who participated in the inaugural Make A Difference free webinars. I know they will add value to each and every person they come in contact with and have no hesitation to recommend them:

{Thanks for the follow, I recommend you follow @david_preston who is an offline marketing specialist|Thanks for the follow, I recommend you follow @feliciaslattery who is a communications expert|Thanks for the follow, I recommend you follow @kevinriley who is an information product expert|Thanks for the follow, I recommend you follow @bobjenkins who is a great business teacher and mentor|Thanks for the follow, I recommend you follow @williecrawford who is a genuine, down to earth and brilliant marketer|Thanks for the follow, I recommend you follow @shelhorowitz who is an expert on business ethics and marketing|Thanks for the follow, I recommend you follow @fatlossquickie who will get you into shape|Thanks for the follow, I recommend you follow @kimdushinski who is an expert on mobile marketing|Thanks for the follow, I recommend you follow @drmani who is an expert marketer and heart surgeon doing good|Thanks for the follow, I recommend you follow @chrisfarrellcom who is an expert marketer}

(Feel free to use the list below as a basis for your own autoresponse recommendations)

Why not use the autoresponse message to add value to others rather than trying to shove a marketing message straight into someone’s face when they first follow you – a great way to get an instant unfollow btw.

If you like this idea, tweet JointWinWin

And as for a hashtag for the idea:

#noffrequired

All the best,

Tom

PS – Will post a slideshow and video on how to do this later – am on the road at the mo so time is short!

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