How to customise the Blogger Followers gadget

In their ceaseless quest to make the world a Googlier place, Google recently integrated the Blogger Followers gadget with Google Friend Connect. Unfortunately this caused some adverse side-effects – the most obvious being that the gadget appeared to grow enormously fat while ignoring any custom styling you may have implemented.

Well after trying in vain to find directions to tame my wayward Followers gadget – I discovered a way myself...