How to Spring Clean your Social Media
The first day of Spring usually brings out a burst of energy in anticipation for the summer ahead and we feel the need for a good spring clean! We're here to give you a heads up that your digital life has become just as cluttered, if not more than, your real life. You've probably given this some thought from time to time, threatening a Facebook friend cull, or to unfollow all your Twitter friends who have sneakily unfollowed you along the way.
As a business, you may have realised that your focus has shifted along the way and your social media accounts no longer reflect your core business or the way in which you've grown.
Here are our top tips to help you get through your social media spring clean as efficiently as possible.
Review your profile picture and cover photo. Freshen it up with something recent. As a business, you should have your most recent logo as your profile picture. As an individual, your profile picture should be of yourself (not your child or your dog) and be recent (your wedding picture from 15 years ago is not recent).
As a business, check your “About” section and ensure that it holds the most up-to-date info. Also check your Page Type – things have changed since you launched your page and there may be functionality available that you’re missing out on.
Check that you have specified your @username so that you’re easily found in search.
Cull the friends list. This can be a mammoth task, depending on what numbers you’re working with, but it is necessary. If you don’t want to remove a friend completely, but their posts annoy you, consider unfollowing them instead. Also consider the ruthless strategy of unfriending Facebook Cull Victims on their birthdays – that way you can remove “friends that aren’t friends” slowly and over time.
Revoke permissions for apps and games that you no longer use.
Review your Likes list and Unlike pages that are no longer relevant to you.
Remove old posts that no longer fit your brand identity. Brands change over time and you want your current look to dominate the account.
Review the list of people you follow. Who you follow tells a lot about you and your brand. Freshen this up to be current.
Remove photos you/your brand has been tagged in that aren’t really relevant or don’t reflect your brand correctly.
Freshen up your bio and profile picture.
Clean out your comments. We know that you sometimes ignore random comments or spam comments, now is the time to delete them.
Freshen up some old posts with new hashtags for a quick revival.
Review and update your profile picture, bio and cover photo.
Have a quick run through your timeline and delete any posts that you feel aren’t appropriate. It’s easy to tweet in the moment, but sometimes when we go back and look at it, we realise that it can be taken out of context, or we were just having a dumb moment.
Find out which of your followers are fake and remove them by blocking them.
Remove any apps from your permissions that are no longer relevant (check for this in your settings).
As an individual, check that your experience and headline is up-to-date as well as your professional headshot. Don’t forget to also update your summary.
As a business, check your About page to ensure that all the information is current.
Review contact information.
Personalise your profile URL with your name or business name.
As an individual, ensure that necessary keywords are in your headline and summary.
Request new recommendations from connections or clients.
Remove connections that no longer serve you.
HAPPY SPRING CLEANING!