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Follow Friday is one of my favorite things about Twitter.  I suppose I’m lucky in that the people whom I follow often suggest tweeple who are ridiculously skilled at squeezing some interesting stuff into the 140-character limit.  And when that fails, I can always spend the end of the work week clicking the #FollowFriday link in the Trending Topics sidebar until I find someone who piques my interest.  Besides, I’m much more likely to find someone I’d like to stalk through a random Follow Friday hash tag than I am to see someone suggested as a friend on Facebook whom I want to add to my social networking posse.

But you don’t have limit your suggestions or searches for new people to follow on Twitter to this popular seven-day cycle.  There are plenty of applications and websites out there that tweak Twitter to make it work better for you, where you want to share a fantastic find you stumbled across or are ready for some new blood in your feed.

TweepleRank is a fantastic tool for learning which Tweeters are at the top of the tower in Tweetdom by ranking the most-recommended people.  The site also allows you to customize your searches so you’re not stuck sifting through Tweeters who don’t float your boat.

TopFollowFriday has a wealth of statistical information that, as the site’s tagline says, lets you see “who endorses you and who endorses whom.” It’s equal parts information managing functionality and vanity tool.  It’s also fun to play around with.  (Want to know who your favorite celebrity recommends?  This is the easiest way to find out.)

Fans of Follow Friday love Twibes, a basic personal recommendation system that lets you select ten or more of your favorite Tweeters to suggest to others.  You can also join or create groups for people of similar interests.

If you have a large, diverse following on Twitter, FollowLists is a website that allows users to create multiple lists to share on Twitter (or anywhere).  If you want to send a list of bands to follow to your headbanging friends and a list of talking heads to follow to your news junkie friends – but also hope that never the twain shall meet -- FollowLists is ideal.

Similarly, Twitroduce serves multiple functions.  This handy site helps you introduce your followers to each other and those Tweeters whom you follow.  The site also lets you know if someone recommends you to be followed as well as helps you find strangers with similar interests.

When your Twitter follow/following starts to get out of control and you feel like you’re in danger of becoming a fail whale yourself, TwiPing can be a useful tool.  This Windows Desktop application has several features, the most helpful of which allows you to perform mass following/unfollowings based on keywords.  But beware, because some of the features TwiPing offers (like the ability to ping users or search and automatically unfollow anyone not following you) can break social netiquette rules if not used judiciously.