So, a little history here to begin: apparently, last year a website called www.followfridays.com was launched to help people manage their #FF’s and see who the most #FF’ed individuals are. Clicking on that URL today brings you to a web hosting site called ‘(mt) Media Temple’. So I guess it’s been shut down. I heard whisperings of Twitter incorporating something to officially recognize #FFs, but I have yet to see anything leaked, tweeted, or scooped on that. Then, this afternoon, I received an email from Alfredo Artiles of www.e24apps.com – the company that also launched LocaFollow which I highlighted in my post on tools for searching Twitter profiles. He said:

I am releasing http://www.followfriday.com, which is a world Twitter ranking of the most recommended tweeps based on the #followfriday recommendations. The app is a Twitter ranking but also a Twitter directory and a recommendations management tool where you can check who recommends you, who you have recommended and automatically thank all of them or create Twitter lists in only a couple of clicks.

I do receive press releases from time to time, most of which are not relevant to the things I write about on my blog. But this sounded kind of cool, plus Alfredo referenced my specific blog post where I mentioned LocaFollow, so I knew his outreach to me was personal. I started looking around to see how long ago this site had launched and didn’t see anyone else talking about it. So I wrote back to Alfredo and asked him if any of the big social media sites had written about it – he responded that he had not received any word from them. I continued sniffing around still unconvered nothing. I wrote back to Alfredo to get some more details, and he said they launched last week, but just to Spanish-speaking audiences.

Oh. My. Gosh. You’re hearing about www.followfriday.com here FIRST Well, at least if you don’t live in Spain.

So, best I can tell is that FollowFriday.com is a way for you to quickly read about and follow other Twitter accounts that are being recommended for #FF. Naturally, having also created LocaFollow, the site creators used a lot of the same bulk action tools to allow you to follow multiple Twitter accounts at the same time. You can also view rankings in hundreds of countries, break them out by languages, even see who amongst the Verified Accounts (read: celebrities and cewebrities) is ranked. You can search for specific Twitter accounts (but not keywords), and from there you can recommend people for #FF, see who has recommended you or another Twitter account, and create new Twitter lists of those who’ve made the recommendation.

So far, I’m not seeing some search and/or sorting functionality that would make this a more valuable sourcing tool – things like location, profession, or interest categories or keyword searches. I like the quick follow functions, and it’s neat to see the names of people who’ve recommended someone. Birds of a feather often flock together so if there is a well-known Twitter account in a specific profession, chances are those who recommend that individual might also work in that profession – the list-builder would be good in this case.

Overall, I’ll give this tool a ‘C’. It has some neat stuff with a lot of potential, but the search capability just isn’t there yet. I like to be able to explore things myself rather than having the information spoon-fed to me. But that’s just me. If you’re using Twitter simply for the numbers, this site the way it is now will be a great resource for you. But I’m anxious to see them build out some more robust search capability. However, check it out and form your own opinions! And make sure to say hello to me while you’re there

Happy #FF to you!

Spotlight:

What David had to say about Dave: “Dave’s star is already on the rise. As a P&G brand manager he’s helped evangelize social media within the organization and become sort of an unofficial spokesperson. His writing on related topics is insightful and he balances personal with corporate brand effectively (no easy task).”

Dave Knox is a Brand Manager, Digital Innovation for P&G Productions, a new role for him in the past few months. Prior to that, he was a brand manager for digital business strategy with P&G Corporate Marketing. Dave attended college at Miami University of Ohio in Oxford, OH where he studied marketing and entrepreneurship. He joined P&G right out of college and has worked his way up in the company ever since. Dave writes a blog called Hard Knox Life where he discusses a brand manager’s point of view at the crossroads of marketing, media and technology. In addition, he has been been named by AdAge as “1 of 25 Media People You Should Follow on Twitter” and a “2010 Social Media Superstar” by Media Industry News.   Dave is also active in the marketing industry, serving on the National Council of Pi Sigma Epsilon, the Advisory Board for Brandweek’s “Cincinnati’s Agenda 360 Consumer Marketing Steering Committee”, and as a speaker at conferences such as the Web 2.0 Summit, SXSW Interactive and IEG Sponsorship.

How Dave got interested in blogging: Dave said that social media gives him the opportunity to to remain connected within the marketing communication world. When he worked with P&G’s WalMart customer team several years ago, he was yearning for connection with the marketing community and feeling part of the discussion with the team. He started blogging to fill this void and found that he was able to connect with great minds in Chicago, Austin, San Francisco, and New York without actually having to go to these places.

Some of Dave’s thoughts on how social media is changing things: Dave looks forward to continuing to establish himself at forefront of how the world of marketing is changing because of social media. He enjoys driving change for the industry and leveraging technology in the right ways that benefit both brands and consumers. He says that what is going on right now is similar to what occurred in the early 90s with internet revolution, and that this revolution is not just beneficial for brands, but for people as well. When asked what the coolest project was that he’s worked on, he said it’s where he’s at right now. Dave says that P&G gives him the opportunity to think about a company that’s been around for a long time and how it can migrate its business strategies to digital environments. However, he says that social media was not meant to be a “career path” – but that digital is an enabler. He believes that the world is going to be digital within the next ten years, and that social media will be a driver for this to occur.

Tomorrow, Blogwell will be in Cincinnati, and as per Dave’s blog post, there will be a tweetup this evening on Wednesday following the conference hosted by Cincinnati Social Media. In addition, Cincinnati Social Media members who wish to attend the conference will receive a special discount for Blogwell.

Connect with Dave on:

• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Blog

12 iPhone Apps for Surviving Conference Season

Next week, I’ll be in San Diego to attend both SourceCon and ERE Spring Expo, and I wanted to share some of the apps that I’ll be using while attending both. Please take a look at the article, and if you have any suggestions for other good conference apps, leave them in a comment either on the Mashable article or right below!