Well done. And...

As with every new idea, I thought of the law of unintended consequences. First, the boost. Writers, including me, want to be able to boost great stories. Where does it stop? Everyone will want it and nepotism means some brilliant stories will fly under the radar.

Your idea. I like it. Share to followers would mean genuine praise. The unintended consequences: if I get too many recommends from the same person that I think unworthy of my time I'm going to stop following them. That might stop wholesale recommends, which is a good thing.

I might also get a hundred recommendations for the same article, unless they can somehow limit it to one. Maybe if members were limited to one recommend per week, which might be frustrating if they use it up on Monday and find a dozen better recommends on every other day ending in Y.

I think you should tag Tony and the Mefium team in your article.

PS it doesn't stop doing what you did, adding a link to a recommend in your post.