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FollowFriday, Hashtags, and #rec

May 15th, 2009 · by David Bradley >> 5 Comments

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twitter-buttonJeff Chandler has suggested a new #hashtag on twitter – #rec – and that tweeps use it in conjunction with #Followfriday (#FF) as a way to “recommend” fellow users. He also suggests that we all start recommending friends one at a time instead of in bunches on FollowFriday…

Well, in principle it sounds sensible, but I’ve taken to recommending 4-5 twitter users each Friday, I don’t want to have to tweet each one, one at a time, so a couple of weeks ago, I hit on a new way to delineate each, but also allow for some cross-pollination too. I add a hashtag after each twitterID I list.

So, today’s #FF looked like this:

#FF #FollowFriday @kejames (#science), @WeAreGeek (#geek), @milagro88 (#shoes), @chrisgrayson (#art)

Each friend I recommended gets an #FF so that you know I think they’re worth following but they’ll also show up when people are scanning for their associated hashtag as will the others in the list. This means you get to see 4-5 of my recommended friends all at once via a variety of different ways on twitter, everyone’s a winner, and the friends I #FF have usually been grateful for the publicity.

Chandler’s point is that #FF has become nothing more than a promotional orgy lacking substance. Well, there are different ways to skin the proverbial feline…

Incidentally, if you don’t know what a particular hashtag is or would like to define one, head on over to tagdef.com where you can look up known hashtags very quickly and define new ones. Then, of course, there’s http://hashtags.org/, which lets you search for hashtags to find out what’s happening with those tags on twitter.

Thanks to kejames for alerting me to Chandler’s idea.

5 responses so far ↓

  • Kenna // May 15, 2009 at 4:05 pm

    I ditto this… not sure why we need a #rec and think that #FF, #Follow Friday can be enough if done well. Tweeters can determine if the FFs they see are just orgies without substance or if they are something they want to follow. #rec will be no different than #FF in no time… see no real reason to change what is working, at least for me.

  • Karen James // May 15, 2009 at 4:33 pm

    Thanks for the hat tip, the #FollowFriday, the #FF AND the #science!

  • David Bradley // May 15, 2009 at 4:40 pm

    @Kenna I agree, that’s why I started to use a hashtag with each tweep I follow, it just seems to be a good way to demonstrate that you’re not just recommending someone for the sake of it.

    @Karen No problem Karen. I defined #scientwist on tagdef.com, just for fun.

  • Mike Templeton // Jun 11, 2009 at 4:55 am

    With the continued acceleration of tweets coming through every Friday under the #followfriday banner, I think your proposed idea about associating a hashtag with each recommendation is very cool. It helps add more context to your recommendations and makes it easier for me as a user to understand why you are recommending them.

    Also, if you are interested in another take on hashtag definitions, usage statistics and more, have a look at What the Hashtag. We’ve built a service that actually tracks and analyzes hashtags being used on Twitter, plus gives people the ability to add additional context to the hashtag like website links or Twitter accounts.

  • David Bradley // Jun 11, 2009 at 8:25 am

    Yeah, please spread the word, I think it could be a lot more powerful than straightforward FF’s

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