The average Twitter member has 126 followers out of 50 million (and counting) Twitter users. Want to increase your list size? Using Follow Friday will quickly enhance your following and followers list with relevant and active Twitter accounts.

Follow Friday is a user-based Twitter method for recommending Twitter accounts to follow. It was started by Micah Baldwin because he believes that each blogger, not Google, has the right answer. His method relies on people’s tendency to ask their friends for their opinions, and thus “Who would you recommend that I follow on Twitter?” turned into a simple #FollowFriday, or the even simpler #FF.

To utilize Follow Friday and attract relevant followers on Twitter, simply list a few users that you find interesting and would recommend that a friend follow. Example Tweet:

#followfriday @ConanOBrien @Mashable @WSJ

The shorter hashtag is simply #FF and works in exactly the same way:

#FF @ConanOBrien @Mashable @WSJ

This Follow Friday nomination system works in various ways.

1. If someone in your followers list thinks you’re great enough to nominate, it will create a buzz of interest in your profile. Great Twitter content and personal responses to Tweets are a good start to becoming a great Twitter user.
2. These nominations will give you plenty of ideas for relevant and exemplary Twitter accounts to follow.
3. As more people learn about Follow Friday and become tuned into the process of finding new followers, they are more likely to follow you back. Nominating a great follower on your list often results in them nominating you from their list.

Once you have the hang of using Follow Friday, it’s smart to start grouping the people you recommended. For example, list five comedians together so your followers can add them all if they are interested in comedy. Another method is listing just one Twitter account and writing a few words about why you love their tweets. This will show users why they are useful to each other and result in more connections.

Want to find Follow Friday recommendations? Simply search for the hashtag #followfriday on twitter search. There are also great services such as Tweet Grid or Monitter that can be used to search for #followfriday. Every time the page updates you’ll see hundreds of people recommending good people to follow. Or click here to see all the #followfriday suggestions.

The best tool we’ve found so far is Follow Friday Helper. You log in with your Twitter account and the search options show you retweets received, retweets you’ve sent, mentions about you, your favorites and Follow Friday recommendations received. This makes it easy to reward those who are mentioning you and retweeting your tweets. The site also allows you to click any user you see mentioning or recommending you and it will automatically add them to the tweet field at the top for effortless #FF tweets.

So this Friday, #followfriday your favorite people or hop onto Follow Friday Helper to see what the buzz is about!