Have You Completed Your Social Media Spring Cleaning Yet?

When I was much younger, I remembered how my mom would get so excited about spring and her chance to do spring cleaning. She would throw up the windows and refresh the stale air with a sense of newness. I am personally looking forward to spring so I can do the same. Being in Wyoming, we still have to wait a couple of weeks. In the meantime, this is a great time to do spring cleaning on your social media sites. Here is are some suggestions for knocking the cob webs from your social media sites.

Facebook

Facebook continuously adds and removes features. Here are some ideas for both your personal profile and fan pages.

• Review your profile settings. Click on Profile in the upper right corner and then on Edit Profile.
  • This is a great time to ensure your settings are how you want them.
  • Is it time for a new profile picture?
  • Are you featuring the people you want to feature? with the right relationship?
  • Have you included your education and work information? While certainly optional, this is a nice way to find old friends.
  • You should also update your philosophy, arts and entertainment, sports, and activities and interests.
  • Finally, you should review and update your contact information.
• Review your profile privacy settings.  Click on Account in the upper right corner and then click on Privacy Settings.
  • I recommend that you click on Customize Settings in the lower middle of the screen to set the settings how you would like.
  • Once you have updated your privacy settings, select Edit your Settings under Apps and Websites to clean out all of the applications you no longer use.
• Review your “friends” and lists. Click on Account in the upper right corner and then click on Edit Friends.
  • This a great time to purge your lists of those names unfamiliar to you.
  • Lists are a great way to manage your Facebook views. From the Friends link, you can create new lists by clicking on the Create a List link. Once you have identified your lists, click on the Friends Not on a List to see who needs to be added to a list or to be purged.
• Review all of your Fan pages. Go to your fan page and select Edit Page in the upper right corner.
  • Starting with the General Settings, determine how you want to post to the page, and when you want to be notified of activity on your site.
  • Review and update the Manage Permissions settings.
  • Is your Basic Information Current? This is a great time to make any updates.
  • Is it time for a new Profile Picture?
  • You can also identify with pages and page owners your would like to be Featured.
  • Have you considered adding additional admins to help manage the load, you can do this through Manage Admins.

If you take time to go through this list for your Facebook pages, your site will be considered spring cleaned.

Twitter

When cleaning up your Twitter accounts, yes, I have multiple accounts, I recommend attending to three basic chores: removing inactive users, create lists to manage the individuals you are following, create Twitter newsletters to keep you informed, and update your profile.

• Removing inactive accounts. Sometimes it is time to cull the herd. There is a very useful program to identify users who are just not active with Twitter, it is called Untweeps. I personally set it for 90 days to give users the benefit of the doubt. Select the accounts you want to remove and submit the results.
• Create a list to manage users. Lists are a great way to manage conversations on Twitter. You can create a list to follow users around a specific them. Check out this post to learn more about creating lists.
• Create Twitter newsletters to keep you informed. I have found Twitter newsletters using paper.li to be a great way to stay informed. Here is more information about Twitter newsletters.
• Update your profile. You should take this opportunity to update your profile.  Log into Twitter, and select Profile then Edit your profile.  At this point, you can update your account information, password, mobile phone settings, notification settings, profile information, design and connections to applications. It is always a good idea to review which applications are accessing your accounts. Naturally, revoke access to accounts you no longer use.

With four simple things to do, you can have a squeaky clean Twitter account.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is an important networking tool, but like most tools it needs to be cleaned and oiled. Here are some things you can do to keep LinkedIn servicing you needs.

• Update your profile. When is the last time you reviewed your profile? Have you changed jobs or responsibilities? Have you updated your profile picture? Have you updated the new skills feature? Have you been published? What about your education? This is also a great time to update your Web sites, Twitter accounts, and interests.
• Examine the groups you are following. Are they serving you well? Are there some you should drop because they are inactive? This may be a good time to join some new groups.
• This is also a good time to reach out to those you worked with and ask for a recommendation.  Speaking of recommendations, you should also review your contacts and take a moment to hand out some much deserved recommendations.
• Update your settings. To locate the Settings link, move your cursor over your name in the top right of your home page. Here you can update your email preferences, group preferences, applications that you use, and your basic account information.
• Update the applications you use. Under the More tab, you have an opportunity to add or delete applications you way want to use. Some applications are extremely beneficial, I personally use seven of them.
• Finally, it is time to review your contacts. You should purge your contact list of names which you are unfamiliar or who simply do not use LinkedIn. Focus on the contacts who will help you succeed and who you help to succeed.

Diigo

Diigo is a great tool for managing favorite links… at least, in my opinion. I only have a couple of suggestions for spring cleaning Diigo: update your profile, update your tags, update your network, and update your groups.

• Update your profile. This is a great opportunity to update you profile. Click on your name that the top of the screen and then select Profile. Review and update your information under the Basic, Interests, Privacy, Me elsewhere, and Picture tabs.
• Update your tags.  I personally have 608 different tags. In some cases, I have a basic name and a plural of that name; it would be useful to consolidate. In other cases, I have only one or two bookmarks under a tag; again, it may be good to consolidate. To edit your tags, go to My Library and then click on Edit next to My Tags.
• Update your network. Click on My Network and see if your network is serving your needs.  This is a good time to search through your contacts and add new ones, or look the individuals you are following and drop them if they are no longer beneficial.
• Finally, update your groups. Look at your groups, again, are they beneficial to you. If not, enter the group and Quit group. Perhaps you have new interests, this is a great time to search out and follow new groups.