How Our #FollowFriday Recommendations WorkAbout four years ago, I got fed up with the way #FollowFriday was done on Twitter and decided to highlight just one person each Friday.

If you spend time on Twitter, you know what I’m talking about. The endless list of Twitter handles with no real reason to follow them, other than someone said so.

In the early days, I kept a spreadsheet of the people I recommended and would do it by city or passion or job or experience, just to differentiate the way I did it.

In this completely fake tweet, I recommended my team so you can see what I mean. Gross, right?

Origination of #FollowFriday

Over time, Fridays became extremely annoying. Not only was your stream full of recommendations for people you didn’t know, you had to respond to a gazillion tweets that included you.

Our #FollowFriday Recommendations

So our own recommendation engine was born. We began to highlight one person and spent 500 words or more describing why we think they rock and the many reasons we think you should follow them online.

Doing it that way allows us to dive deeper into a person’s experience, his or her hobbies, and what we really love about having them around the blog every day.

It also allows me to get to know someone who visits Spin Sucks regularly a little bit better.

You know, that thing called relationship building? As it turns out, it works.

But, as of late, something interesting has been happening.

People are asking me what it takes to get recommended.

How to Get Recommended

This reminds me of the time I asked my sister-in-law what she wanted for her birthday and she responded with, “I was taught never to ask for gifts.”

Fair enough (though I did ask her), but that’s kind of my feeling when people outright say, “When are you going to recommend me?”

If you don’t participate in the comments here, you won’t be recommended.

The point is to introduce community members to one another, not to recommend you because I like you or have fun with you on Facebook or Twitter.

We have a very active community here. People meet one another here, they become friends, they do business together, and they pimp one another’s content, activities, fundraisers, and more.

I love that.

I pay very close attention. If you’re new, we welcome you with open arms. As you comment more often, you’ll have conversations and debate with people every day. You’ll have people tell you how smart you are, you’ll get fired up, you’ll disagree on certain topics, and you’ll even change your mind about some of your preconceived notions.

This is our way to give back to you…to thank you for spending part of your day with us.

If you don’t do that, it doesn’t make sense to introduce you to the crazies community through our weekly recommendations.

Gini Dietrich

Gini Dietrich is the founder, CEO, and author of Spin Sucks, host of the Spin Sucks podcast, and author of Spin Sucks (the book). She is the creator of the PESO Model and has crafted a certification for it in partnership with Syracuse University. She has run and grown an agency for the past 15 years. She is co-author of Marketing in the Round, co-host of Inside PR, and co-host of The Agency Leadership podcast.

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