Don't just list names for Follow Friday - tell us why we should follow them!

Previously, I've explained that 8 out of 10 people dislike Follow Friday. The concept is simple: every Friday, recommend other Twitter users who others should follow. Unfortunately, it quickly becomes a mess of names with no explanation as to why we should follow them, or what would help us decide whether to make friends with those people.

As a result, I'd be surprised if many of the people who are recommended actually get any new followers. I've had a few, but almost all of them are spammers. In fact, virtually all of my recent followers are blatant spammers.

Anyway, I digress - back to Follow Friday.

Today, I noticed several people mentioning my name in their Follow Friday lists. But I was merely a name included with several other names, which makes it unlikely that I'll get many new followers as a result. As I said on Twitter:

thanks for the #followfriday mentions - but I think you should pick 1-2 names and give a reason to follow them :)

So, what's the best way to do this? Here are some examples that I posted:

names for #followfriday - @verwon makes me laugh, @rjleaman tells it like it is, @lepoque is fiercely loyal!

And then:

a few more #followfriday mentions: @_Bryony_ likes Dr Who, @Jordan_JAH RTs the best tweets, @Twitter_Tips is a godsend!

That's my list for this week. I can't promise to recommend people every week, but it does make me think that there's some mileage in the Follow Friday concept yet.

What do you think? Is this a better way to recommend people? Who would you like to recommend this week?

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