Who should you follow on Twitter? That’s an excellent question.
It used to be that you signed up for a Twitter account, and there you were. No followers and no one in particular to follow. You were on your own and had to figure it out. Recently, Twitter integrated follow recommendations during the account activation process. For the uninitiated, it provides an immediate Twitter experience so you don’t feel so lost and alone in the Twittersphere. Unfortunately, these don’t tend to be relevant to sustainability or green living. It’s mostly mainstream news organizations, big personalities, and the occasional Internet celebrity. Finding Green Tweeps can be a bit more challenging (Tweeps = people who Twitter).
You can check out who Grist and other green folks are following. This assumes they are likely to be following other Green Tweeps. You can also search for blog posts that make green Twitter recommendations, such as Shea Gunther’s 10 Green Twitterers You Should Follow. But the most recent — and some might say reliable — method for locating the top Green Tweeps is #EcoMonday.
This is a follow meme. You can read the backstory at EcoMonday: Origins of a Twitter Follow Meme, but it boils down to the specific and coordinated use of a hashtag. Hashtags are indicated by adding a pound (#) sign to the front of a term, word, or acronym within a Tweet (Tweet = Twitter message). By adding the #EcoMonday tag to your Tweets, you are making it searchable via Twitter Search and Hashtags.org. It’s not case sensitive, so #ecomonday also works. To use it, simply send a Tweet with one or more names of your favorite Green Tweeps (see above) and include the #ecomonday tag (before or after).
The intent of #EcoMonday is to enable Green Tweeps to refer, locate, follow, and network with one another in an organized-yet-decentralized fashion. In other words, a way to find relevant people to follow.
#FollowFriday is the original Twitter follow meme, but it lacks a specific signal. With Twitter’s exponential growth, #FollowFriday has become far too noisy to be of any value, especially for the sustainable set. #EcoMonday is now the #FollowFriday of green, and naturally takes place every Monday. For many, it has breathed new life into the least-favorite day of the week.
The @EcoMonday Twitter account was established in conjunction with the follow meme as a way to organize all of those who’ve been recommended using the hashtag. So all of those who @EcoMonday follows have been referred by a third party. It’s just an easier way to go through and follow any and all of those who’ve been #EcoMonday referred.
Ultimately, we see #EcoMonday helping to strengthen the green Twitter network, enabling each of us to better connect with information, knowledge, and one another.
Finally, you can monitor the #EcoMonday stream in real time on a dedicated page at Max Gladwell.com. This is the #greenstream we’ve always intended.
