In Part 2 of this 2-part series,  Lisa Hoover talks about all the reasons she dislikes  Follow Friday. Yesterday her significant other, Joe Zonker Brockmeier told us why he likes it.

Guest post by Lisa Hoover

I’m going to go against the grain here and say that #FollowFriday makes me want to scream. I understand the intent behind it is to introduce your followers to some of your favorite Twitter users that they might otherwise miss. The problem is, should anyone care to look, Twitter already displays a handy list of the people you’re following so beating usernames every Friday is completely redundant.

Too Much Noise

I follow a few hundred people on Twitter and, believe me, when everyone starts dropping their #FollowFriday lists the signal-to-noise ratio becomes nearly unbearable. I can deal with the extra chatter when people are coming together over a hot topic like the Iran elections or even Michael Jackson. I can’t deal with it, though, when users are just barking out usernames with the rapidity of machine gunfire.

Now, you might be thinking, “But, I use #FollowFriday to highlight the people I find extra-special interesting!” In that case, I have to ask why you bother following anyone that you wouldn’t give a shout out to on #FollowFriday? Save for the Twitter accounts that serve a specific purpose like @comcastcares or @tivo, I like to think that virtually everyone my friends follow are worth knowing. Everyone I follow is fantastic and I’d be hard-pressed to single out just a handful.

Why Have a Special Day?

Some argue that #FollowFriday is just a handy way to introduce followers to people you find entertaining or interesting. But shouldn’t I be able to pick up those clues simply by noticing who you banter or chat with in 140-character bursts? Part of Twitter’s charm is catching snippets of conversations that pique your interest and make you want to find out who’s on the other side of the dialouge. I’ve met some of my favorite Tweeps that way.

Conversely, if I want my followers to notice someone I think is the cat’s meow I won’t wait until #FollowFriday to say so. I think a random Tweet telling others about Tina’s beautiful handmade jewelry (@etsytinahdee) or Justin’s hysterical avatars (@justinryan) is far more noticeable when it’s not caught in the crush of 7,000 other similar Tweets.

Online social networking is very similar to getting to know people in person. If I come to your house for a cocktail party, I don’t want you to hand me a list of the people you think are worth talking to. I want to discover them for myself and let relationships form naturally. Let me find people on Twitter the same way.

Nothing More Than Spam

One of my biggest issues is with Follow Friday, however, is that it’s being exploited and sometimes comes perilously close to spam. Lately, I’ve been seeing an uptick in offers to be recommended on #FollowFriday in exchange for a blog comment or Re-Tweet. I’ve also seen users send out 6 or 7 Tweets in rapid succession naming virtually everyone on their follow list. What started out as a chance for people to form new friendships is turning into yet another popularity contest or a way to artificially inflate your number of followers.

The idea behind #FollowFriday was a good one but it’s really been taken to the extreme, and I’m not the only one who thinks so. The meme’s originator, Micah Baldwin (@micah), <a href=”http://twitter.com/micah/status/1125642106″>doesn’t even participate anymore</a>.

Is it #FollowFriday already? Time to log off Twitter for the day.

Lisa Hoover is a freelance technology writer who writes the Evolving Web Blog at Computerworld. You can follower on Twitter under the handle @Lisah.  Just don’t expect her to give you a #followfriday shout out.

In Part 1 of this 2-part series, Joe ‘Zonker’ Brockmeier talks about the virtues of Follow Friday. Tomorrow his significant other, Lisa Hoover tells us why she doesn’t like it.

Guest post by Joe ‘Zonker’ Brockmeier

I’m all about #FollowFriday on Twitter. There, I said it. I know a few folks who object to the meme because it “clutters” Twitter, or because “Twitter shouldn’t be about the number of followers you have,” etc. Unfortunately, they’re missing the point.

Why Do It?

As a tool, I don’t really think Twitter is about anything in  particular — it’s all in how you choose to use it. The overwhelming evidence so far suggests that many Twitter users do, in fact, place some value in increasing the number of followers they have. This makes sense, because the more followers you have, all the better to spark (really short) conversations with new and interesting people.

Show the Love

But I don’t #FollowFriday because I’m trolling for followers. I like the weekly opportunity to give a shoutout to my friends on Twitter, the folks who have interesting and funny things to say all week long. If I can introduce a few Tweeps to interesting people like my friend Rikki (@rikkikite) or Andy (@awafaa), why not?

And it’s also an opportunity to remind the people you follow that you appreciate them and their Tweets. A short and sweet gesture of  appreciation, and a recommendation to others that the recipient is worth checking out.

But even if some people use #FollowFriday to try to ratchet up their follower count, so what? It doesn’t affect my use of Twitter in the slightest if other people have 10, 100, or 1,000,000 followers.

Twitter is Personal

For those who say that the extra chatter generated by #FollowFriday is “ruining” Twitter, I’d say “get over it.” I didn’t care much for the seemingly unending Tweets about Michael Jackson, but that’s life. Any mass communication medium — from stodgy old newspapers to email lists, to whatever comes after microblogs — is going to have a have  more noise than signal in short order. If you get your undergarments in a bind over seeing something “off-topic” you may as well unplug the computer now.

At least on Twitter, you’ve got a fighting chance of filtering out an enormous chunk of the noise by being choosy in who you follow, and by
using TweetDeck or another client that provides additional filtering features.

Thank God it’s almost #FollowFriday.

Joe ‘Zonker’ Brockmeier is Novell  openSUSE Community Manager. You can follow him on Twitter, Friday or not, under the handle @jzb.

Photo courtesy of respres on Flickr.

Social networking has changed the way I get news. When the Michael Jackson story broke recently I first heard about it on Twitter from a friend who linked to a story that Jackson was in cardiac arrest and on his way to the hospital. I went out for the afternoon and heard he had died on Twitter after I got home.

The same is true for the Iran elections. I first heard about that on Facebook just prior to the election. I followed the results online and of course, I was riveted by the reaction on Twitter.

Whom Do You Trust?

My first reaction when I read about Michael Jackson was that it wasn’t true. The news comes fast and furious these days and social networking just seems to fuel that. Wrong news can sneak through all too easily. Last year a rumor started that Steve Jobs had had a heart attack and was on the way to the hospital. Only problem was, it wasn’t true. I heard about it on Twitter and I learned from that experience to be skeptical until I hear confirmation from a reliable source.

You can understand why I was skeptical when I heard about Jackson or even Jobs’ liver transplant (which apparently was true).

Networks Help

That said, in an increasingly busy world, your trusted social network can help filter the news for you whether it’s Facebook, FriendFeed or Twitter. When I gather links for the Friday Five,  I often don’t even have to open Google Reader to find links. I just watch Twitter and get most of the links I need from people I follow. Your network can help you find news you might have missed, links to news and blog posts to help you do your job and in general just help you filter the noise.

The only danger you have in this approach is that you might not get a variety of voices, so make sure you don’t use your social networks for everything, or if you do, that you follow a variety of people. But in many cases, you can get by with a little help from your friends and organize, filter and make sense of the news on your social network.

Photo of Walter Cronkite courtesy of Vin Crosbie on Flickr.