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Twitter, Follow the leader and how to irritate 732 people all at once. #againstFFabuse #IwillfollowyouifIwantto

Y’know, I rarely get irritated enough to vent on twitter.  And usually when things bug me I simply close the app, webpage, or whatever and move on to something else until Twitter gets its head back on straight.

But every week the same thing happens and every week I end up rolling my eyes or swearing at my timeline for the same thing.

Follow Friday.

Follow Friday is a great idea, to an extent.  It’s a way to meet people, to extend your network, and so on.  When you’re new on twitter it’s almost necessary as people spread your name and introduce you around.  It’s like a big day of hosting and greeting and shaking hands.

But the abuses of the #FF tag have gotten ridiculous, and, quite frankly have irritated me enough to vent there and now to spend my writing time letting it all out in a blog post instead of writing on what I should be, my WIP.

So.  Disagree with me if you like, but for me, here are some basic #FF etiquette guidelines

  1. Don’t use a tool, app, or service.  Period.  All they do is take the list you follow and spam your followers with it.  Be nice.  Don’t do it.
  2. Gratitude is wonderful.  Thank people who tag you with a #FF, but do not add in every other person who was included in the #FF with you.  Seriously, if I see you do that in my timeline that will make me less inclined to follow you.
  3. Limit your #FF.  Please.  I don’t need you to spew fifty #FF recommendations into my timeline.  And honestly, after the first one, I won’t read the rest.  Do a handful.  Let specific individuals shine.  Then next week do a different group.  Honestly, there is a Friday in every week in the year.  Fifty two of them.
  4. Make your #FF count.  Tell me why I should follow someone .  Just tweeting “#FF @SoandSo” honestly means jack shit to me.  Why should I follow @SoandSo?  Is he or she witty?  Or a great photographer? Talks food, poetry, or just plain shit all day long?  Do they make you laugh or cry or scratch your head?  Think about it.
  5. And last, but definitely not least, do NOT RT #FF.  You know that person you groan to see who’s always talking about how great they are and what someone said about how great they are and how, seriously, don’t you know how great they are. . . .  Are you getting the picture here?  Good.
No one wants to be just one in a crowd and no one just wants to have a string of twitter handles streaming down their timeline all Friday long.  Stop worrying about the numbers and think about the people that you follow and who follow you.
There.  End rant, vent, and lesson.

 

3 thoughts on “Twitter, Follow the leader and how to irritate 732 people all at once. #againstFFabuse #IwillfollowyouifIwantto

  1. I totally above all else agree with #2. I think often people say “Thanks” and lump in everyone because it appears as if someone in that line follows them that doesn’t. i get that a lot with new or wannabe writers. Where they say “thanks” for the #FF and there’s me in there. And I don’t follow them nor did I FF them. And honestly, I’d probably follow them back if they just followed me, spoke to me, struck up a rapport with me. But when I see that, I tend to not want anything to do with that person.

    Maybe it’s petty, but it irritates me. Thank the person that put out the FF and delete the rest of the names unless you have a back in forth with those people too.

    :-/

    But I am glad it’s not just me who gets annoyed by that! Misery loves smoking hot company ;)

    XOXO
    S

  2. As a ‘tweet and runner’, I often do not stay around long enough to be followed, let alone participate in #FF. Naughty me!

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