Given that it’s Friday, I thought It would be appropriate to discuss Twitter’s follow friday phenomenon.  Follow Friday is nothing new. In fact, it started in Mid-January of 09 by the Tweeter Micah Baldwin.  I am often asked about it’s use by Twitter newbies, hence the reason for this blog post.

So what is Follow Friday anyway?

Simply put – a Follow Friday Tweet contains the usernames of other Twitter users that you think your followers should follow. (Say that 10 times fast…). The Tweet usually contains the hashtags: #ff or #followfriday so that users searching those hashtags can monitor the day’s reccomendations.

Why would you want to reccomend people to follow?

Well executed social media campaigns make building relationships a priority. If you recongnize someone you are following as valuable with a Follow Friday Tweet, it can only strengthen your current relationship with them. It will also strenghen relationships with your followers if you provide quality reccomendations (see below).

Here are some guidelines for your Follow Friday Tweets:

• Don’t reciprocate Follow Friday Tweets unless you genuinley want to. Spammy Twitter accounts often send out Follow Friday mentions with the intent of receiving a reciprocation for exposure.
• Don’t arbitrarily choose your Follow Friday mentions. Briefly explain why your followers should follow your canditates in your Tweet.
• Don’t feel pressured to send out a Follow Friday mention every Friday. If you did not engage with any new Twitter user’s this week, wait until you do. Remember, quality over quantity counts in your Tweets.

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A recent study conducted by Penn State University has concluded that one in five (20%) of Tweets are brand related.

According to MarketingVox, the study examined the value of micro-communications and it’s value of a word of mouth medium. Over half a million tweets were analyzed.

 The study specifically searched and analyzed tweets that mentioned brands in an effort to discover why the brand was mentioned in a tweet – whether it be an invitation for a product review, inform others etc.

 “Businesses use micro-communication for brand awareness, brand knowledge and customer relationship,” said Jim Jansen, associate professor of information science and technology in the College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) at Penn State. “Personal use is all over the board. It may be right up there with e-mail in terms of its communication impact.”

 The study also revealed that this fairly high percentage of brand related tweets provides companies with a “rich source” of information regarding their wares.

 “People are using tweets to express their reaction, both positive and negative, as they engage with these products and services,” said Jansen. “Tweets are about as close as one can get to the customer point of purchase for products and services.”

 This is interesting evidence given the fact that half of communicators think that Twitter is just a fad and that most tweets are “pointless” babble. It shows that Twitter, when used right, can help build a respected brand, enforce an existing brand, boost sales and provide insight to customer perspectives. How has your business used Twitter?

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