Take the time to also spruce up your digital presence on social media platforms and you might be amazed at the difference it makes to your productivity!
In this post, I'll share some top tips to quickly 'tidy up' and streamline your networks.
Review the sites you are using
Make a list of every site you have a profile on. Now go through the list and identify any you simply don't use. Why aren't you active on it? Is it because you aren't sure how to use it or have low levels of engagement from clients and customers? Having an inactive profile that sits dormant attached to your brand can do more harm than simply having no presence on said site at all.
So to see which sites are worth keeping, run a demographics data check for each one to see which closely matches your target audience. For example, Facebook used to be seen as the young person's domain, but teens are now leaving Facebook in droves in favour of sites like – perhaps a reason why Facebook recently bought WhatsApp for an eye-watering price.
So to see which sites are worth keeping, run a demographics data check for each one to see which closely matches your target audience. For example, Facebook used to be seen as the young person's domain, but teens are now leaving Facebook in droves in favour of sites like – perhaps a reason why Facebook recently bought WhatsApp for an eye-watering price.
Refresh your knowledge
Once you've established which social media platforms are worth keeping, scrap the others and focus your attention on the ones that matter. How confident do you feel using them? Could you do with some refresher training? There is a lot of useful information online now about making the most of social media for business. Or you could book some social media training.
Be sure your profiles are secure
A well constructed Facebook page or Twitter stream can become an incredibly valuable asset to your brand's online marketing, so be sure to look after them carefully. If you haven't done so in the past few months, go through each network and update your password. Avoid using the same password for each account, and always be sure to have security questions and back up email addresses in place, just in case the worst ever happens.
Make sure your profiles are current
Taking each network in turn, review your profile page and contact information. Make sure any email addresses, telephone numbers and websites are correct and up to date. Also, make sure they are consistent across your networks – don't list your personal email address on one network and a corporate version on another.
Look at your logos, banners, and profile pictures – again, make sure these are the same on each account. Individuals will often check out your pages on multiple platforms, and it looks much more professional to have consistency throughout.
Don't forget to also monitor your brand on other pages such as Wikipedia and Google Places, the latter especially if your business relies on local customers.
Look at your logos, banners, and profile pictures – again, make sure these are the same on each account. Individuals will often check out your pages on multiple platforms, and it looks much more professional to have consistency throughout.
Don't forget to also monitor your brand on other pages such as Wikipedia and Google Places, the latter especially if your business relies on local customers.
Consider your content
When did you last actually update each profile? If the last thing you posted is now outdated or irrelevant, it's time to update! Engagement is absolutely vital when it comes to social media, and as a general rule, you should be looking to connect with your audience at least once a week through your blog, and almost every day through other social media platforms.
Use your 'spring clean' as an opportunity to plan ahead. Brainstorm several different subjects you could base future posts on, consider any upcoming events or promotions you want to work into your marketing. Yes, social media needs to be current and you need to think on your feet and keep up with trends as they're happening, but you can get ahead too with scheduled updates, conversation starters to encourage interaction and so on.
While you're at it, review what you are actually posting. Are you managing to balance more personal updates with business related ones efficiently? (Yes, you want your customers to feel connected – but do they really need to know what you had for breakfast?!)
Is your content actually engaging your audience, or is it being ignored? Use all the tools at your disposal to pinpoint which of your posts are achieving most success, and do more of them! Unique, relevant, shareable content is the way to go. If your engagement is waning, your content is the first thing to look at.
Use your 'spring clean' as an opportunity to plan ahead. Brainstorm several different subjects you could base future posts on, consider any upcoming events or promotions you want to work into your marketing. Yes, social media needs to be current and you need to think on your feet and keep up with trends as they're happening, but you can get ahead too with scheduled updates, conversation starters to encourage interaction and so on.
While you're at it, review what you are actually posting. Are you managing to balance more personal updates with business related ones efficiently? (Yes, you want your customers to feel connected – but do they really need to know what you had for breakfast?!)
Is your content actually engaging your audience, or is it being ignored? Use all the tools at your disposal to pinpoint which of your posts are achieving most success, and do more of them! Unique, relevant, shareable content is the way to go. If your engagement is waning, your content is the first thing to look at.
Spring Clean your Audience
Have you been guilty of reciprocal follow backs out of politeness? While it's not necessarily a bad thing at the time, it can lead to a massive chunk of 'dead weight' on your social media networks. Many people don't consider the impact of who they're following on their own digital presence, but it really is more important than you might think.
On Twitter for example, if a potential new customer is looking at your profile, clicks on who you follow and sees a stream of inactive or dubious looking accounts, they may think twice about following you.
From your own point of view, if you are following a number of users who are no longer relevant to your business, or just simply aren't of interest, their posts could be cluttering your stream and stopping you from seeing those of people you are interested in, and you could be missing important information due to the clutter.
So again, take each network in turn and delete any users you don't engage with, or at very least, create filters so that you can view at a glance only the most relevant updates, from people who could benefit your business. (There are various tool you can use to speed up this process – Unfollow for Twitter, as an example.)
While you're at it, go through your email contacts and make sure that you are connected with all the relevant ones on your chosen networks. These simple steps can help grow and concentrate the audience you work so hard to reach.
On Twitter for example, if a potential new customer is looking at your profile, clicks on who you follow and sees a stream of inactive or dubious looking accounts, they may think twice about following you.
From your own point of view, if you are following a number of users who are no longer relevant to your business, or just simply aren't of interest, their posts could be cluttering your stream and stopping you from seeing those of people you are interested in, and you could be missing important information due to the clutter.
So again, take each network in turn and delete any users you don't engage with, or at very least, create filters so that you can view at a glance only the most relevant updates, from people who could benefit your business. (There are various tool you can use to speed up this process – Unfollow for Twitter, as an example.)
While you're at it, go through your email contacts and make sure that you are connected with all the relevant ones on your chosen networks. These simple steps can help grow and concentrate the audience you work so hard to reach.
When you're finished overhauling your networks, put a plan in place to make small, consistent efforts part of your routine. That way, you can make sure your digital presence is consistently efficient, and free from any virtual cobwebs!
So if you notice anything different on my Social Media, do not worry, it's only me wearing my merrygolds and got the duster out cleaning to make everything spruced. I won't be deleting people like yourselves, it be mainly my posts which I will deem "junk".