Twitter – Follow Friday

Every Friday many people tweet their “Follow Friday” list of people (#FF). I’ve always had an aversion to this. I want to know why I should follow someone.

I follow people for three reasons:

1. My timeline is getting a little slow, so I find a person who I enjoy their tweets and check out who they follow.
2. Every month (or so) I go down the list of of followers, and add people who seem interesting.
3. A person I know personally, specifically recommends that I follow someone (not just #FF)

Before I follow the person/company, I check out their tweets, and ask myself, “is this what I want to read?”  There are a couple reasons I will refuse to follow someone:

1. Tweeting political views regularly:  As an example, I love Jon Stewart, but I don’t follow him because his stream is noise.  I watch the Daily Show, and that’s enough for me.  I don’t want to hear people rant about how the other side is deluded.  Why?  Because there is no “right” answer.  There is one way, another way, and the way we are going to use.  In the end – nobody is going to be happy.  So, stop bashing other people’s opinions and calling them names.  It doesn’t solve anything and I don’t want to read it.  Say something political every once in a long while fine… but no bashing.
2. Tweeting religious views regularly:  We all have our views, and a religion is something you believe in, or not – that’s it.  You might as well tweet about blueberry pancakes.  If your audience is not made up of people who like to read about blueberry pancakes then you’re talking to nobody.
3. Tweeting constantly:  To date, this is the only reason I’ve “un-followed” anyone.  Twitter is awesome because we get to read (and get pointed to) a wide variety of topics.  I don’t want someone dominating the conversation.  Typically people who do are #4(next):
4. Only talking about themselves, or the company they’re sponsoring:  Narcissism is boring.  I tell you what… tweet this: “I’m great.  visit my site”, once a month, or even once a week if you must… but that’s it!  If you’re posting the equivalent of “I’m great” once a day or every three tweets – you’re a narcissist, boring, and clogging my timeline.

This all said… here are my “Follow Friday” recommendations, and why.  I will update this list as I deem appropriate. Currently, this list doesn’t contain anyone with over 1,000 followers. Anyone with over 1,000 followers is doing just fine, and doesn’t need my help. 🙂

• @mrcnwmn's (Twitter) Follow Friday Suggestions:
  • @billwil (Bill Williams) Sporadic tweets. Generally talks about travel and aviation related projects. Participates in several aviation podcasts.
  • @burnsidej (Jeb Burnside) Founding member of the “Uncontrolled Airspace” podcast. Doesn’t tweet too often, and they are mostly replies to people. Low cost follow, and if you follow people he follows then his tweets add to the conversation.
  • @Flyabout (Monika Petrillo) She created a documentary of a flying trip in Australia a couple years ago. Though a little rough, it’s a good movie. You should check it out.
  • @NZAircraftFan (Glen Towler) From New Zealand. Re-tweets allot of news from around the world, mostly having to do with aviation. Having people from other countries in your feed is a good idea. The local news rarely covers anything in any other country but the US.
  • @pilotwill (Will Hawkins) He’s making an aviation documentary and is on a few podcasts, so it’s kind’a cool to hear about the progress. His tweets are a bit random, but there is an aviation related theme.
  • @StdntPilotMark (Mark LaCoste) Random things. He’s a podcaster on “In The Pattern Podcast”, a podcast I listen to regularly. Cool to hear new pilots views and experiences.
  • @WinnebagoFlying (Winnebago Flying Club) Talks about local flying related things around Oshkosh. Note: Winnebago is the name of the lake near Oshkosh.

If your name isn’t on this list and you think it should be – sorry.  I merely started with the people I’ve been following the longest, and went down the list.  I haven’t completed this list at all – it’s just a start.  Also, if you have 1,001 followers… sorry.  I made the (arbitrary) rule to keep the list a little shorter.