Today’s post is inspired by new found friend, Lethia Owens who is a Personal Branding Expert. I found Lethia on Twitter via a @MrTweet recommendation on people I should be following, a recommendation that was definitely worth it.

When I looked at her public timeline, I was immediately impressed at how she performed her #followfriday recommendations. Take a look at a screen shot of her tweets.

A #FollowFriday Recomendation Done Right

Immediately, you notice something that is missing from many a #followfriday tweet >> The reason why she is making the recommendation. Take a look at the example of @careerengineer above who she endorses for timely and relevant career tips or to get your career back on track. Remember, the whole rationale of #folllowfriday is to suggest to your friends/followers people that are worth following. Your #followfriday recommendation should provide your friends/followers some value in regards to how your recommendation would add to their network.

Another thing I noticed from her tweets is that she almost always begins with ” I follow @xyz because of abc” or “do you have this problem, then follow @xyz because of abc”. I would say this would probably be way more meaningful than the typical tweet that sounds something on the lines of “@a @b @c #followfriday”. The tweets either tell you why the recommender follows the recommended or provide you a solution to your problem in the form of the recommended.

That leads me to my last and final point. When making a #followfriday recommendation, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE do not begin your tweet with @username and here’s why. Initially, your friends/followers were able to see all of your @replies. But then Twitter decided that that was too confusing for newbies. If you send @reply to someone, your followers would only be able to see the tweet if they followed both of you.

The whole point of #followfriday is to suggest to your followers people that they weren’t already following. As explained in the previous paragraph, if you begin your #followfriday tweet with @username….your followers that aren’t following this prospect didn’t see the tweet…which totally defeats the whole purpose. The one way to maintain the integrity of #followfriday is 1) give a reason why you’re making the recommendation 2) include the recommended’s @username anywhere BUT in the beginning of your tweet.

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