Have You Completed Your Social Media Spring Cleaning Yet?

When I was much younger, I remember 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 looking forward to spring so that I can do the same. Being in Wyoming, we still have to wait a couple of weeks until it arrives. In the meantime, this is a great time to do spring cleaning on your social media sites. Here are some suggestions for knocking the cobwebs from your social media sites.

Facebook

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

Refresh Your Profile

• 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, review and update your contact information.

Check Privacy and App Access

• Review your profile privacy settings. Click on Account in the upper right corner and then click on Privacy Settings.
  • I recommend 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 the applications you no longer use.

Organize Friends and Lists

• Review your “friends” and lists. Click on Account in the upper right corner and then click on Edit Friends.
  • This is 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 Your Facebook Pages

• 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 you 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, others will regard your site as spring-cleaned.

Twitter

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

• 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 on Twitter. It is called Untweeps. I 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 on a specific theme. 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. 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 serving your needs.

• Update your profile. When is the last time you reviewed your profile? Did you change jobs or responsibilities? Did you update your profile picture? Have you updated the new skills feature? Have you published any work recently? What about your education? This is also a great time to update your websites, 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 additional 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 may want to use. Some applications are extremely beneficial. I use seven of them.
• Finally, it is time to review your contacts. You should purge your contact list of names which you are unfamiliar with 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. 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 your profile. Click on your name at 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 have 608 different tags. Sometimes, 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 at 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 additional groups.

If you have completed these tasks, you have gone a long way to cleaning up your social media presence. If you think I missed something important, please leave a comment.