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integrating social and direct marketing

12
Oct

#FollowFriday: Twitter Strategy To Identify & Attract New Followers

Posted by dean

Micah Baldwin TwitterCourtesy Webpronews.com

One of the best Twitter strategies is to participate in what is called #FollowFriday. Although there are a vast array of Twitter strategies, participating in #FollowFriday is one of the best methods to identify and attract new followers. Susan and I participate in #FollowFriday to identify and recognize followers for our innerarchitect, napavalleynews, susanhanshaw, and deansguide Twitter accounts.

#FollowFriday: A History

#FollowFriday is a hashtag group event that happens every Friday. It was created in January 2009 by Micah Baldwin as a means for Twitter users to find other users–a networking event beginning every Friday morning. Today, It is not only a social event but it is also a strategic tool with many benefits

#FollowFriday Benefits

  • Testimonials: by asking people to follow your follower(s) you are providing them with a testimonial
  • Value: you add value to your network by making people aware of valuable resources (other Twitterers)
  • Networking: by providing #FollowFriday recognition for someone you are opening the lines of communication for others to thank you, contact you for information, or ask you a question
  • Targeting: #FollowFriday allows you to target followers you wish to attract
  • Differentiate & Stand Apart: by customizing your messages, using descriptive adjectives

#FollowFriday #1 Strategy

Tip #1: If you want to stand apart and differentiate yourself, provide the best value for your network, and create a new stream of followers for you then write very specific “recommendations” that describe the person recommended and their niche. Like minded people (often) want to follow others in the same niche with expertise. Below are two examples- what everyone does now and how to differentiate yourself.

  • What everyone does now- “.@deansguide .@susanhanshaw .@innerarchitect #Followfriday.” This  does not provide a reason to follow these people, it does not describe them, it does not identify their business niche
  • How to differentiate yourself: “If u want great soc media info #Followfriday .@deansguide .@susanhanshaw .@innerarchitect” This short description identifies the niche as social media and describes these people as valuable sources of information. The added benefit is the fact that people can see you are providing custom “copy” and truly taking the time to give a valuable recommendation

#FollowFriday Example for One: you can create messages for multiple people but with very important resources, write something like this:

FollowFriday example

Category : twitter

4 Responses to “#FollowFriday: Twitter Strategy To Identify & Attract New Followers”


Dave Oct 23, 2009

After seeing all your #FollowFriday today, your advice leads to way too many tweets and is a good way to get yourself unfollowed.

My advice? Keep the reason for #FF short, just a few words, and list everyone together.

dean Oct 23, 2009

Dave,

The article is about how to “differentiate” yourself on Twitter during #followfriday. With that idea in mind. . .

We agree to disagree. If you want to simply list your #followfriday recommendations then you have your own style or strategy.

In my case, adding more description has lead to MORE followers. I don’t understand why people would “unfollow” someone who takes the time and effort to describe the value of following that particular person or company.

In any case, this is not a numbers game. If what works for you works, then do the bare minimum. If a person wants to “differentiate” themselves from the pack, then this is the most effective strategy.