My current job is in social media. I’m starting to live and breathe it too since majority of my time is spent online, reading through my Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Reddit feeds. I’ve learned so much through reading and observation, including how effective the Follow Friday meme is on gaining more followers on Twitter.

Here in the Philippines, we’re not too big on using this hashtag or meme. And I think it’s sad. Based on the accounts I’m handling and my own experience in participating in this weekly Twitter event, it’s an effective way to not just gain new followers, but to thank the people who have conversed with you.

This week, I decided to start a #FollowFriday craze for foodies who retweet and tweet with us on Certified Foodies. I’m not sure if people will finally take on or participate in this weekly, but I’m doing it anyway because I LOVE tweeting with people who have the same interests.

#FollowFriday is also a great way for you to start on Twitter. If you have a business that just got on Twitter, whether you’re selling signature clothing, burton snowboards, or even digital art, you can use this hashtag to spread the word about what you offer.

From my experience, since I join in #FollowFriday with international Twitter users, most people are more than willing to retweet (RT) those #FF posts. And if you’re lucky, one of those highly followed accounts might just respond to you and, thus, promoting your account to their thousands of followers. I can attest to this so I hope everyone here in the Philippines will join in.

How about we start a #FollowFridayPH hashtag? It’ll be more effective since we’ll be distinguishing ourselves from the international #FollowFriday participants. if we want a more global following, we can stick with #FollowFriday. If you’re up for it, leave a comment here or send me a tweet – @blankpixels.

Why Should I Participate in #FollowFriday again?

Briefly, here are the fun reasons why you should join #FollowFriday:

• Most people are more than willing to retweet or reply to your #FF posts.
• You only not give your own Twitter account better exposure, but everyone else you mentioned on your #FF posts too.
• It makes tweeting all the more social. 🙂
• It’s your own way of thanking people. Short and sweet. 🙂

What are the #FollowFriday Rules?

There are no set rules to this meme, but if you want your #FF participation to be most effective and if you want more people to join in, you must observe the following etiquette:

• Don’t just list Twitter usernames. Include a reason why people should follow them.
• Categorize the Twitter users by what they usually tweet about. This way, they’re more likely to retweet your #FF post and/or follow everyone else.
• Use #FF if #FollowFriday is too long for that 140-character limit. I usually just break down my #FF tweets to multiple posts so I can include both hash tags for maximum exposure.
• Don’t flood your timeline with #FF tweets. Send one after another in at least 1-minute intervals.

#FollowFriday Tools

If you find the whole #FF thing tiresome, there are actually tools that you can use to make your life easier.

• Use TweetDeck or HootSuite to schedule your #FF tweets.
• Use Follow Friday Helper (as suggested by Sociable Boost) – find the most active tweeps that you can follow and recommend for #FF.

Related Articles on #FollowFriday

If you don’t believe in what I’m saying, how about you read these articles about #FF.

• #FollowFriday: The Anatomy of a Twitter Trend by Mashable
• Why You Should Participate in Follow Friday by Sociable Boost
• Five Good Reasons to Use Follow Friday
• How #FollowFriday is supposed to work by The Oatmeal (very funny!)

My Twitter Accounts

While you’re at it, follow me on Twitter. Converse with me on Twitter and I’ll include you on our #FollowFriday posts. 🙂

• @blankPixels – my personal Twitter account where I share interesting posts on technology, SEO, blogging, fashion and beauty, etc.
• @CertifiedFoodie – where we share our blog posts, foodie finds, tweets or articles that are related to food, etc. This is the Twitter account of our food blog, www.certifiedfoodies.com.

Happy #FollowFriday everyone! 🙂