Spring Clean Your Social Media

By Rosemarie Ascherl-Lenhard, PR Foreman

Since the social media scene developed years ago, it’s become cluttered. There are accounts on all social platforms that sit, gathering dust for years. Do any of those accounts belong to you or your company?

Thanks to Marie Kondo’s recent popularity, we’ve become obsessed with decluttering and organizing, so we thought it might be a good time of the year for a little spring cleaning of your social media.

By now, most companies have several social media accounts that have been running for quite some time and even a few accounts that have shut down (Google+) or become less relevant as a social media platform (Flikr). It doesn’t take much time to conduct a quick audit of your social media platforms and get back on track, if you know what to do. Here are a few pointers to get you started.

1. First, check your branding. If anything in your company’s branding has changed, all of your social accounts should reflect that. Get your logos, profile pictures, covers and banners up to date. Make sure that you have a Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook cover for your company. And, of course, make sure you are using your own company and product names correctly.
2. Is your profile complete? Fill out the boxes with information about your company. Make sure there isn’t a blank spot where an “About” section should be and that you have links to your website and contact information on there. If appropriate, include your location and your hours.
3. Take a look at your activity on your news feed or gallery. How long ago was your last status, tweet, post or photo? Do you have messages or invitations that are waiting to be read? When you look at an old account, try to see where and when things went stale and identify what may have been the cause. Did you have an intern running your social accounts that has since left? Did you “run out” of content or ideas? Do you need help?
4. Don’t stand alone. If you only have one person in your company with the Instagram or LinkedIn admin rights or the passwords to your accounts, you’re in for some trouble. What happens if that person leaves your company, takes vacation or falls ill for an extended period of time? You may have one main point person on social media, but always have at least one other person in your organization with social media account access.
5. Approach the rest of the year with a plan. If you’re having trouble with content, consider setting up a schedule monthly, quarterly or annually with the general topics you want to address on your social media and recruit help if you need it. You’ll find that having a plan can alleviate lack of inspiration. Also, having a plan ensures you take advantage of timely opportunities (i.e. industry events, trade shows, association meetings or industry-specific holidays) before they slip away and become outdated content.

You may also be getting overwhelmed on your personal social accounts because your connections are active. Here are just a few tips to save some personal sanity this spring:

• Take advantage of lists to organize and categorize your connections into logical groups. That way you can easily check information from one group at a time (or find information you’re looking for) and target your content to your different audiences.
• Review your notifications and change your email preferences so you don’t end the day with 50 Facebook or Twitter email notifications.
• While you are checking your notifications, it would also be a good time to review your privacy settings. Social media platforms are notorious for adjusting their privacy parameters from time to time and if you haven’t paid close enough attention, your settings may not be what you think they are.