Enjoying An Extended Follow Friday
Follow Friday lasts a while here!
Living in eastern Australia, I’m ten hours ahead of GMT, and about 14 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time in the US.
This means that I still receive #follow Friday tweets on Saturday!
Not that I mind, because it gives me the chance to poke around, and see who my friends are recommending.
It ties in well with my day today. I’m able to relax, and apart from updating my blog and playing on Twitter, I’ve walked around the yard with my daughter’s boyfriend and had a friendly chat, as well as doing some chores and running #four daughter to work.
Social networking is part of life both on and off line!
And it doesn’t have to be hard, neither is it all about advertising or promotion.
For example, we had a new supermarket specializing in whole and organic foods open here this week.
I made a couple of visits there, and on Thursday ran into Kim.
I’ve known her since way back when I had hair, so we took the chance to catch up on kids, spouses and what we’re doing now.
I spent about 30 seconds on an elevator pitch and gave her my card.
That pitch was part of a conversation that lasted about ten minutes, but it wasn’t the focus of the conversation itself.
Kim works for a local newspaper as well as studying at university.
Her husband Gary is involved in real estate.
I knew that I didn’t have to give her a card for Gary, simpy because she’d mention the fact that we’d run into each other.
This is what makes networking on Facebook, Twitter or where ever on line easy as well.
It isn’t having thousands of followers on social media sites that will bring success, but rather, relating to the people that you already know!
How you present to them, and how you conduct yourself, will determine whether they bother to tell others about you!
Back to Follow Friday:
One of my new “followers” had this update on their profile:
16000+ Followers in 90 Days. Fully Automated. Twitter Traffic…
That is their one and only update, and with 25 followers, I can see that they really know what they are talking about.
Will I follow them?
I don’t think so Tim…
Another one had this to say:
WOW you can get hundreds of followers a day at…
and again, with 94 followers, they obviously know what they are talking about!
Unfortunately, just one update and claims such as these do little to add credibility, or inspire confidence!
Who do I recommend?
Real people who have real conversations, and who interact with others, like:
Roxanne Swift Pat Williams and Susanna Hutcheson
These are just three of the many people who have added to my day today!
Quick Tips:
I sorted through new followers and followees today using Twitter Karma. If you use this service, I’d recommend leaving a donation and telling others.
I’ve found and am using Su.pr from StumbleUpon To get an invitation, simply go to the site, and follow @Stumbleupon on Twitter.
Apart from shrinking urls, it gives stats such as the number of followers, number of clicks to urls shared, and lots of other interesting stuff!
It also adds functionality (?) to StumbleUpon itself.
What automated tools do I use?
None in the auto follow department, apart from trying Socialtoo at one stage.
I use CommenTwitter on my blog, which means that your comments will be tweeted (after I approve them 😉 )
I also use TweetBoard so that visitors can tweet from here!
Posts can also be tweeted from here using Tweetmeme!
Have a great weekend.
Ours will be spent with family, apart from a fireside gathering with a few friends at the local Irish pub tonight!
You might also like: Follow Friday On Twitter July 03
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Thanks Allan – for mentioning me in your blog. (blush, blush) I agree that automated services on Twitter work completely opposite of what “social” networking is about. I will have to check out the TweetBoard one day when I am not running after my 3-year old.
@swiftbusiness I make a point of mentioning Twitter folks that are real and interact with others!
TweetBoard is a great tool because it allows visitors to Tweet from your site.
CommenTwitter is a great way of linking the conversation on your blog, to that on Twitter!
Cheers, and thanks for the visit! 🙂
Allan! I’m completely blown away. Here I was reading and thoroughly enjoying your blog post when MY name jumped out at me. I’m honoured! And floored.
I’ve been receiving those “get hundreds of followers a day” invites regularly too and there is only a tweet or two on the page but in my case, two of them had thousands of followers! I figure many people must be using an auto-follow service. The numbers are impressive but, like you, I want to interact with real people. If someone is using an auto-follow service, I’m not sure how active and involved they are on the account. I like to look at my followers, read their bios, check their web sites and I particularly look at their twitter stream to see whether – and HOW – they interact. I remember looking at yours because, at first, I thought you were a spammer because of the “gold” in your twitter name. I perused your stream and realized that you were the real kind of “gold.” Interactive, caring, engaged. Exactly what I look for in a follow! 🙂
I appreciate the mention and particularly like the idea of extending the follow friday in a blog post that explains WHY you follow certain people. I think it’s a brilliant idea. And, as you have probably guessed from this comment, I have great difficulty communicating in less than 140 characters. 🙂
.-= Pat Williams´s last blog ..Welcome to the USA =-.
@cletch the benefits of blogging #follow friday are amazing! I saw the noise about #ff some time back, but didn’t join in because I didn’t want to just send a list of names to everyone.
I added CommenTwitter to my blog so that comments were Tweeted in real time, and answer my visitors by using their user name (when I can, which is a good reason to use @username with your real name).
This way, everyone gets to see who their friends are meeting, why they are being recommended and the whole community benefits!
Have a great weekend! 🙂