#FollowFriday and Tag Tuesday: Free ways to grow your following

By Heather Lopez

If you are on Twitter, you may or my not have heard about Follow Friday. You might have seen the hashtags #FollowFriday and #FF used. This is a weekly event in which Tweeters make recommendations to their followers of OTHER Tweeters they think their followers would like. A typical Follow Friday tweet might look like:

#FollowFriday these awesome tweeple: @wherebrandsgo, @supermompreneur, @HAHMom, @blogginmamas #FF

How can use use Follow Friday to increase your Twitter followers?

• First, make sure you send out at least one #FollowFriday tweet every week.
• As a business, you'd want to mention similar/ complementary businesses with the same target audience. Chances are they will RT (retweet) or thank you for the mention. This tweet will have a link to your Twitter handle and might gain you followers who fall in your target market.
• You can also use this technique to thank customers, people who have RT'd your specials/ tweets, and people who have mentioned you to their followers.
• By participating in this, you are building relationships with your customers and people who you might be able to collaborate with in the future.
• You should also consider following some of the Tweeters that are referred by others, as they might be good resources for you too. Plus, when you follow people, it usually notifies them and they might check out your site and/or follow back.

Now, let's discuss Tag Tuesdays.

Tag Tuesdays is the a new Facebook version of #FollowFriday using Facebook's new ability to tag others using the @ symbol.

How can Tag Tuesday get your more fans?

• You can use some of the methods mentioned above, except RT's would be Shares and hashtags don't apply.
• You can recommend your friends, pages you are a fan of, groups, events, etc. in this manner, so you are not limited to just handles like Twitter. You are also not limited to 140 characters.
• When you use the tag feature, your tag will post on the wall of the profile/ page/ group/ etc. that you tag. Sometimes pages show posts by the page + others as the default setting so your tag might gain you more fans if you tag those with similar audiences.
• There are people who will Tag you back, so even if their page default is only posts by them, you will still get the mention on their wall.

Social media is meant to be social, so by getting out there and interacting with the communities in which your customer base resides, you are showing them that you care about them. Relationships are key and social media can help you build those relationships, many times at no cash cost, so take advantage of it.