#FollowFriday
ByToday is Friday, meaning that in the world of the Twitterazzi, this is a BIG day to promote the people who have brought value into your online life this week … and hopefully collect some accolades of your own. 
Don’t know what the heck I’m talking about? Or maybe you’ve heard of #FollowFriday but you think it’s a giant waste of time? Or maybe, you’re on board with the idea that #FollowFriday – and all the rest of this twittery stuff – can be valuable, but you just don’t know how to make it work for your business.
Well sit back and enjoy the next few minutes while I make it all clear to you! Or click here for a video tutorial about #FollowFriday
The whole point with social media is to connect with people and provide value. In other words, build rapport. And when you do that well, you’ll find people start connecting to you, because they want what you have to offer. And when people are coming to you in search of your message … do I really have to explain why that’s valuable?
So it’s a pretty simple process. Connect, provide value, rinse and repeat.
But just like with most simple things in life, the actual doing is where it gets tricky. We have a video course, Fast Track to Social Media Success, that gives you daily step by step instructions for leveraging social media to achieve your business goals.
#FollowFriday is an important part of the process. This is where people recommend their favorite twitterers to everybody else in the Twittersphere. So you can give props to anybody whose message you’ve enjoyed this week – thereby strengthening your relationship with them, and also exposing yourself and your message to their followers. And, other people can do the same for you.
So here’s how you do it:
* Think of 5 people you want to strengthen your relationship with – a potential Joint Venture partner, a potential investor or money lender, or even a big client you’d like to land.
* Look them up using the Find People function of Twitter so you know their Twitter username
* Tweet the following message: “Great person to #Followfriday @Username” Your recommendation will be stronger if you can say something about WHY they’re a great person to follow. So if you wanted to recommend me you’d say “Great person to #FollowFriday @Julia_Kline – great info for entrepreneurs about social media!”
Now this person will see that you recommended them – because almost everyone reads the messages that mention them by name. And of course they’ll appreciate the mention. And if you added a message about why they’re great, you’ll really build some rapport! Who doesn’t like to read nice things that other people have to say about them?
You can use #FollowFriday to build your relationship with lots of different categories of people:
* Your current customers. These are your potential evangelists, so you want to give them LOTS of social media love. Use HootSuite to put them into a group so you don’t have to go to the trouble of looking them up fresh each week.
* Your future customers. Do a keyword search (search.twitter.com or using Hootsuite or TweetDeck) to find people tweeting about your topic – these are your future potential customers!
* Just plain interesting people. Click on 10 or 15 profiles at random and read about them – if they strike your fancy, recommend them!
* Anybody who’s retweeted you or interacted with your message during the last week. Here’s a tip: when someone retweets you on a Tuesday, schedule a #FollowFriday tweet about them using HootSuite.
If you think this all sounds great but you don’t yet have your Twitter profile set up, check out this quick 6-minute video of mine that walks you through all the tricks and pitfalls for doing it successfully.
And lastly – why don’t you send a #FollowFriday recommendation to me today? I’m @Julia_Kline. I promise I’ll return the love. And if you REALLY want to “strengthen your relationship” with me – put a post on my Facebook wall saying that you learned something from me today. facebook.com/juliakline
Hope you enjoyed the info – happy twittering!