Back in the dinosaur days of UGC when LiveJournal ruled the 13-18 set (who are now more like the 20-25 set), there was a weekly meme called the Friday Five. Apparently it still exists. The rules of the game were pretty simple–every Friday, five questions were posted that participating users entered. More than allowing users to talk about themselves in an offbeat yet acceptable stream of narcissism (a precursor to the 25 Things), it provided the basis for a community and social network of users who all gravitated toward the same application every week. You could search other journalers’ Fives, make new friends, keep the old, sell Girl Scout cookies…
Now that Twitter is on the rise (especially after Facebook’s disastrous re-design), a similar trend has cropped up: #followfriday is a tag that Twitterites use on the fifth day of the week in order to promote someone that they’re…you guessed it…following. It’s viral within UGC and social networking,a way to say “I follow this person, y’all should check him/her out as well.” Amazingly, a large percentage of opera companies have already jumped on the Twitter scene (perhaps learning from how long it took to join MySpace and Facebook), and some are even participating in #followfriday. I tweeted my own follows this morning, but am combining the old with the new to start Follow Friday Five here on MCM. These five get my vote of confidence for this week:
- @orlandoopera: Honestly discussing its financial condish in a way that allows real-time updates, perfectly coinciding with their Carry The Voice donation campaign. We need more candidness from companies in general.
- @operatampa: Not as frequently updated, but it would be great to see them team up with Orlando, if not in real life than at least in the Twittersphere. Perhaps the Jewish woman in me is playing matchmaker.
- @operamemphis: Initiates dialogue with its followers, asking for suggestions for various events. Included in this week: children’s books related to opera/classical music, favorite past costumes, and a vote for best poster design for an upcoming production of Faust.
- @cincinnatiopera: Responds to responses they receive–Twitter isn’t just a one-sided conversation. They also support their fellow local arts orgs and don’t push their business in every Tweet (check out their recent bit about Earth Hour). Real people on the other side of the screen–who knew?
- @hashtags: They’ll instantly follow you back; follow them to have your #followfriday tags stored in the Twittersphere.
And for those of you sick of hearing about Twitter….
