Sonia,

You are coming to much of the same realization that may of us have. To answer your question about removing the hashtag entirely… The problem is one of search. Unless a common identifier is used with tweets that recommend people to follow, it is very difficult to search and find those tweets. A hashtag is a commonly accepted identifier used that allows the quick and easily discovery of the information sought. The more people you follow, the more useful hashtags become. I would suspect that most recommendations made without the #followfriday hashtag, are not seen. Additionally, all hashtags are subject to hashtag abuse, both deliberate and ignorant. Anyone can apply a hashtag to any tweet regardless of whether appropriate or not. This is done by marketers to spam participants of tweetchats.

So the answer is particular to your own beliefs. I use the #rec hashtag, even though I know that it is not a commonly known practice, so that folks who are aware of this can search for my recommendations. I do not use followfriday because then my recommendations would get lost in the ocean of lists. You may chose not to tag your recommendations, and that too would be fine. The bottom line is that the best way to find interesting folks to follow is to watch those that you follow, who add value to your experience, and see who they are talking too; it is a good bet that these folks would also add value.

Thanks for reading and for your comment.

I myself have adopted a personal style of recommendation and prefer to read personalized recos. I think I’m going to drop #ff completely, but I do add a hashtag for the group I follow – like #smallbizchat or #brandchat. My rationale is that this encourages people with like-minded interests and who may not follow me to see my reco.

Andrew – you say: “whole purpose of recommending someone is to let YOUR network know that YOU recommend someone…”

EXACTLY! So, based on that comment, wouldn’t removing the #ff or #rec hashtag – entirely – achieve that result? If I reco someone in my network or group, it is seen ONLY by those people, who in turn, might not already follow that user. With a personal comment, my followers will then have enough info to make the decision to follow or not.

To me, this seems like a more precise, albeit slower method of gaining followers. However, for those of us interested in quality vs. quantity, I see it as a win.

I must admit, I’ve only been using Twitter for a few months, so I may have missed something here. Your thoughts? Regards, Sonia

I proposed in my article that I would recommend people whenever I interact with an individual regardless of the day. I have done that and found it very rewarding.

I hope you give it a try.

My view is the whole purpose of recommending someone is to let YOUR network know that YOU recommend someone. The idea is to more easily be able to follow those people who will bring value to your twitter experience. It is about creating community and not about collecting as many followers as possible, the latter seems to be current predominant focus of followfriday. I believe that my followers are interested in my recommendations in part because I recommended them, and in part because of the reason why.

You may not realize that RT’ing of #followfriday posts is looked at by many as spam. What good is a second hand recommendation? In the end, followfriday is what it is and we all have our own reasons for using Twitter. If followfriday serves your needs and the needs of your followers, then by all means keep doing what you are doing. I would suggest just one thing, try recommending someone using the method I describe– one person with a reason why– and see how it feels to you, to them, and if you can to your followers. I can tell you it feels really good when I recommend someone like that. Besides it is not either or, #followfriday and #rec are useful at different times for different reasons.