Dear Amy: The #SMEtiquette of #FollowFriday

I used to know some people who stayed off Twitter on Fridays because it became virtually nothing but #FollowFriday tweets. While that's been tempered as the years have gone on, one thing that hasn't changed is that many people like to share all the tweets they get of people who suggest they be followed.This week's question addresses that issue. Don't forget to submit your questions!

Dear Amy:I was really excited the other week when a few people named me as someone to follow on the Twitter #FollowFriday hashtag. So I retweeted the tweets.I was excited and I wanted to share with others that these people thought I was worthy of following. My friends said it looked like I was tooting my own horn and was really just bragging.What do you think?Sincerely,Rabid Retweeter

Dear Rabid:This may be a controversial answer, because many, many people do exactly this. Not just with #FollowFriday, but if someone tweets one of their links, compliments them or otherwise says something nice about them on Twitter, there are many, many people who retweet that to share it with the world.Far be it from me to impose my opinion on others, but I’ve always found that to be self-serving. You’re not providing anything of quality or import to your followers, you’re basically just bragging that these people said other people should follow you.Think for a moment: Why are you retweeting? When you see these tweets from other people, do you pay any attention at all?I’ve heard some argue that they will retweet these with a “Thanks” or a :) emoticon to make it easier for the person who originally sent it to know what they’re being thanked for. I don’t really buy that, because if you reply to a tweet, all the tweets in the conversation are threaded and it’s very easy to see the entire conversation.In fact, if you retweet and add commentary, that’s no longer part of that conversation thread – it’s broken from it entirely.Of course, there are exceptions to every rule, and I can tell you for a fact that if Edward James Olmos or Margaret Atwood ever tweeted a #FollowFriday at me or even retweeted me, I’d be blaring that from the rooftops. It’s an understandable reaction, when someone’s favorites reach out through social media, to get excited and share it with friends. I’ve been green with jealousy at, while also very excited for friends who’ve connected with their personal, literary, political or other favorites online. (And I totally tweeted when Olmos followed me on Twitter, because, well, Adama.)It may seem hypocritical, in fact, to make exceptions for “celebrity” – such as it is. But what this is really about is when people retweet every #FollowFriday, compliment, comment or just about anything that people say to them. There’s a difference between sharing things that mean something to you and sharing every time someone says something nice to you.The former is sharing good news with friends. The latter comes across as bragging and oversharing.As you (should) do with everything you share on Twitter – ask yourself why you’re sharing it. If you can’t come up with any good reason, well, maybe there’s a good reason not to.