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Is #FollowFriday Still Cool, Twitter?

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This week I read a blog post by Bill Dorman who is lamenting the turn of events in social media – the “no one’s home, but the lights are on” syndrome many of us are feeling. In that same breath, he asked, “Why isn’t #Follow Friday cool anymore?”

Is it? Is the previously popular Twitter weekly hashtag, #FollowFriday or #FF, during which peeps list all their faves so others know whom to follow, now passé?

What’s your take? Here’s mine…

** I welcome and appreciate all #FollowFriday tweets; in fact, it’s darn nice to be acknowledged by someone who takes their time to put a list together and include me. Mark C. Robins is one of the most thoughtful and never misses a Friday. I am in awe of this because people are just not doing it any longer. (Mark is with  Lawyer Locate in Canada.)

** Twitter has changed forever. I lament the Twitter of yore. While I wasn’t an early adopter in 2008, I did jump on in early 2009 and was hooked…for life (we’ll see). There were rainy Fridays (kinda like today) that I watched the tweets roll in and interacted all over the world. No longer.

** My Twitter stream is laden with links. That’s why I’m trying not to add links to that many tweets any more. I want to keep my tweets authentic and humanistic. Because you ought not to RT a tweet with a link unless you open it to verify, I have changed my RT patterns, too.

** Back to #FF, as I just digressed…I hasten a guess that relationships on Twitter are more superficial than before? Do peeps take the time they used to to develop in-depth friendships as before? I’m saying no, and this contributes to the lack of recommendations.

** What about time? If your time is as limited as mine, then this is the biggest culprit.

** How about channel overload? G+, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Tumblr blogs, your blog, Foursquare, Yelp…OMG! We are at the peak of sensory overload! Our cups runneth over! How can we develop new relationships the way we used to via social media enough to #FF?

** Like any trend, the newness wears off, and the “abuse” (I use this lightly) of #FF caused a bit of negativity. When the bots rolled in and started to add lists of peeps haphazardly with #FF, that’s when we became suspect of #FF recommendations from peeps we didn’t know. Shall we blame it on the bots?

So, finally, Bill, #FollowFriday is still VERY cool when:

1. It comes from a genuine and authentic place – your heart.

2. It recognizes someone for a job well done, gratitude, an impact, an influence, and more.

3. You want to bring a smile to someone’s face who needs a lift.

4. You want to be a coolio friend who recognizes someone else’s accomplishments.

5. You want to plain old #RocksHot.

So, I’m gonna just #FF this entire community right here…you guys do #RockHot. THANKS!

Sunday Sweets With My Twitter Friend Jenn

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It’s not Sunday anywhere until Saturday, so #Follow Friday, @JennWhinnem.  She needs a little boost of support, love, encouragement, and friendship today as she manages a medical condition she rarely speaks about and you’ll never know she has (until you do).

Yesterday, Jenn sent flowers, and they were purple to match.  She knew someone had a broken heart, and she focused not on herself and her convalescence, but on someone else she knew needed a hug. That’s the most amazing gift one can give – generosity to others, focusing outward, and sending love when she’s the one who should be on the receiving end.

Jenn is one of those special friends who will make you laugh, make you think, and make you marvel at the quality of writing she shares with us on occasion. She’s a regular guest author here, and she’s graced the likes of Shakirah’s, Mark’s, Jon’s (and who knows who else’s) houses, with really cool pieces.

Jenn now works at the Connecticut Health Foundation as the communications officer where she’s implementing vlogging, social media, blogging, and a bit of PR, if I’m not mistaken. I’m missing her on the Twittersphere as a result of her recent gig, but I’m so glad someone is benefiting from her many talents.

I’ve often asked Jenn for her opinion about Facebook strategy and building out pages; if she didn’t know the answer, she’d go find it and send me a link – immediately. She seems to be in the know about the latest applications and will share with anyone who asks so they know, too.

I’ve never seen Jenn not smiling. Perhaps today’s gift in kind, Jenn, will ensure your pearlies are visible to those around you.  One thing is for sure, you’ve managed to be the most selfless person I know – putting me in front of you during a time when you should be first.

Do You Amplify the Echo Chamber?

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I could probably link every word in this post with a blog that’s been written about the echo chamber; it’s a popular topic, and yesterday’s article here spawned some further fodder. I share a list for you, and ask you for your contribution, please.

You are amplifying the echo chamber if:

* You’ve created a stream of Twitter faves who are social media leaders and early adopters.

* You’re in Triberr (either one or more tribes, no matter) and your tribes are filled with inbreeders.

* You follow like-minded peeps in your space and don’t branch out to find new peeps from other verticals.

* You comment on the same blogs over and over.

* You’ve formed a comfy clique and don’t want to take the time to expand your horizons.

* You’ve depicted yourself as untouchable, inaccessible, and just a plain old social media rock star.

That’s my take…and, I am going to be changing it all up real soon — after I stop sucking wind this summer.

(Well, actually, I hope you’ve noticed you may not know anyone behind these links. I believe this is a great start — to share link love for those I don’t know to broaden my horizons.)

Is Twitter Broken?

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The future of Twitter is anyone’s guess, and you can imagine I have some opinions on that (who, moi?). I mentioned recently, something’s afoot in social media land and I couldn’t quite tap a crystalline here’s-what’s-wrong answer.

I think I’m getting closer.

Since Triberr hit the landscape, and I’ve seen everyone in my social media circle (hi, >) run to adopt, my stream is, ahem, littered, or shall we say cluttered, with Triberr short url links to everyone’s blog posts. In fact, in my list of favorite peeps, there’s nary an original 140 without a link to Triberr. OK, maybe not ever, just frequently. (This is NOT bad; it’s an observation that’s bothering me a tad.)

Back in the day when I launched Twitter 2 ½ years ago, it was absolutely a channel to create community and engage authentically. In fact, to Mark W. Schaefer I owe much of my community growth as we began the same time, and his blog {grow} was our (community) home base.

In the last many weeks, I’ve noticed a change in my Twitter stream content. (Have you in yours?)

* There is less original thought to anything without a link attached.

* Followers who are real people are fewer and far in between; there’s a plateau and brick wall obstacle in the speed with which you can create a genuine community.

* There are more spammers sifting through the cracks and sending DMs with links from my trusted peeps. I opened a few of those just this week several times; clever, too: “Jayme, is this you in this video?” I fell for that.

* I have often promoted Twitter to my clients as the hub from which links stem and drive traffic to blogs, landing pages and websites. This is still sound strategy, but it’s becoming more of a challenge to get peeps to open links.

* This is where community building comes in, STILL. To build a community, you need to be a trust agent. To be a trust agent, you need authentic content, to develop authentic content, you need to be original and not spammy. To be successful you need to cut through the clutter of automation and keep the real you  you.

I’d love to get your opinion on this; who else is seeing this something happening with Twitter? (And, OK, Twitter is NOT broken, necessarily, it’s evolving to a new level for the masses; it’s the post-engage phase where ROI takes over.)

Twitter Police Needed For Citations

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When I first dived into Twitter, my initial impression was “why is everybody yelling at me?”

For the first few months of my involvement, it seemed anyone I followed was ranting about/bemoaning the “bad behavior” of other Twitter users. Don’t do this, don’t do that. It was extremely off-putting.

And then I’d run into the “Don’t tell people they’re doing it wrong! You can’t do it wrong!” No wonder people drop off Twitter. Who can keep track of the etiquette when it contradicts itself? It would seem from all those ranty tweets and posts that you certainly COULD do it wrong. WTH, everyone?

Of course…I became one of those people! I cringe when I see the ALL CAPS TWEETS. Meaningless #FF tweets. Or on Facebook, which I joined after Twitter. Really, song lyrics as status update – are you a 13yo girl? Does your JOB know you play Pet Society this much? Hide hide hide hide.

Still, even as I was sucked into the etiquette police, I wanted to write something about not yelling at everyone so much. Especially lately. But this morning I woke up to this item from one of my favorite shopping sites, Modcloth.com: The social media citation pad.

Where are my programmer friends at? We need to digitize this. Let’s just do it. Like a version of someecards. We can just cite people in a tweet and get on with our lives. CITATION: ACRONYM ABUSE! CONSIDER THIS A WARNING. Each citation will be accompanied by a picture of a sad dog – maybe Jon Buscall’s basset hounds!

We can do this.