Spring cleaning your social media
By Rachel Peck
Well, it’s that time of year. The days are longer, warmer and all the signs point to spring. If you’re like us, you might be anticipating the dreaded “spring cleaning” of your house, car, garage – whatever it may be. While a bothersome task, spring cleaning can be cathartic and shouldn’t just be relegated to your home life – your business (and personal) social media could probably use some attention as well. Below are a few ways you can spring clean your social media:
Audit your followers (and who you follow)
Ideally, you wouldn’t just do this once a year, but it’s better than never. No matter how many social channels you have a presence on, whether one or five, it’s always a good idea to go through your followers and who you’re following. Are your followers engaged and relevant to your business, or are they bots/fake accounts? Conversely, are you following the right kind of accounts and are they relevant to your business? Are you also engaging with their content, or can you trim some of the excess? This allows you to see where you want to expand your network and can help you stay knowledgeable on who your audience is.
Is it time for a change?
When was the last time you looked (really looked) at your social media account bios? Does it accurately reflect where your business is during this time? Is it current with the products and services you’re offering? This is also a good practice for your personal accounts, such as a LinkedIn bio for example.
In addition to any bio information, make sure your profile photos, logo and basic business information are all up to date. It’s always a good idea to make sure your profile photo is the same across all channels and that your social handles are also similar, if not the same. These help your brand be recognizable no matter what channel you’re on.
Check those inboxes
The dreaded direct messages (DMs) are sometimes a dark place to go, especially if you’re a social media manager for a prominent brand. However, it’s a good practice to clear out the inboxes, respond to any missed comments, or relevant messages.
Are you tagged?
This step might not apply to everyone, but I’m willing to bet that most brand or social media managers have found themselves tagged in a post or comment that wasn’t relevant or could be inappropriate. Conducting a regular review of what you’re being tagged in by users is a good way to ensure all of your tagged content is appropriate, relevant to your brand and fits within your brand guidelines.
Review your content strategy
The final step in spring cleaning your social media is to review your content strategy and analytics to see where there’s room for improvement. This can help you decide whether you need to increase your user-generated content, switch up your posting times or incorporate any other content updates. You should also take a look into your keywords and SEO rankings as well to ensure your content is searchable and easily found.
Auditing your social media might seem like a daunting task but taking small steps regularly can help keep your platforms relevant, searchable and appropriate for your audience. Who knows – it might be more fun than cleaning the garage!