How many Twitter accounts do you have under your control, and when was the last time you checked in on each of them?
When was the last time you tracked your Facebook stats?
When was the last time you updated your LinkedIn profile?
Have you been updating your Instagram stories?
(Because, if you don’t, your regular posts are no longer displayed to your followers.)
What about the last time you updated Snapchat or checked in on Tumblr, Reddit, or Quora?
What about YouTube?
And…are your profile images consistent across all your accounts?
What about your website and about profile?
There is SO MUCH out there. Does it make sense to do it all?
Almost certainly not…
Cut Down On Social Media
With the announcement that Google+ is going away, it’s a good time to take stock of all of the social media you have going on.
It’s super easy to get overwhelmed by the social media landscape out there, but there are definitely some strategies to employ that will both simplify your life and keep your communications plan effective.
When was the last time you checked out the social media of a brand to find it’s been months or years since they last posted an update?
If you have a social platform that’s a ghost town, it makes a terrible first impression.
I get it—it’s borderline impossible to keep two or six social media channels up-to-date and lively, while also engaging in an attentive and personable manner.
The lesson here?
Stop trying to be everywhere.
Instead, zero-in on which social media networks will be more successful for you, and spend your time THERE.
On the Spin Sucks podcast (yes, it’s my weekly nudge to subscribe and listen!), we talk about what that looks like in practice.
- Find out where your audience lives, and join them there.
- Look up where your keywords are getting the most buzz. It it as hashtags on Instagram? Is it on Quora or Facebook? Is it on Twitter?
- Go into Google Analytics, and check where you’re getting the most referrals
- Absolutely invest your time and energy into the most effective referral channels.
But the most important lesson?
Cut it down.
Consider Dark Social Media
Focus on one or two, ideally two that don’t have much overlap.
You might choose Reddit over Quora, or Facebook over Instagram, based on your traffic, the strength of your referrals, and what kind of company you are.
Social media takes time and energy to do right.
Having six or seven different social media channels is useless if you can’t devote the amount of time each deserves.
So choose the strongest channels for your brand, and throw yourself into really getting it right.
For Spin Sucks, we’re on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
We were on Google+, RIP, for a while because of the SEO benefits, and we occasionally hang out on LinkedIn.
But for the most part, the three are what we do publicly.
Of course, Slack has become huge for us so we spend the majority of our time there.
We saw a big shift to what is called dark social media—the private places people can hang out—and launched the Spin Sucks community on Slack.
It is going gangbusters so we really only use the public social networks to stay engaged with those who aren’t yet in our community.
The point is, it’s different for everyone—and it may not be the usual suspects.
Once you’ve narrowed down which social media sites you’re going to focus on, you should delete or deactivate the social media channels you won’t use.
Then, it’s time to clean up what you do have.
The Biannual Social Media Cleanup
For example:
- If you keep Facebook (and if paid media is a priority, you probably should), have you activated Business Manager?
- Check your “About” and “Company Info” on each of your profiles—are they up-to-date?
- Look at the contact information and your inbox, and make sure you’ve taken care of anything outstanding and recent.
- What about your review section, if applicable? Are they mostly positive or negative?
- Check into your media, especially old photos and videos. Are there any that don’t fit your current brand and can be safely removed?
Once you’ve sorted out your profiles and made sure everything is up-to-date, it’s time to look at your timeline. You need to find the right rhythm for your brand’s update schedule.
Or, what if you decide to hold onto Twitter?
Keep your channel clean and use ManageFlitter or another similar service to clear up old and inactive accounts you follow.
- Do you have an automated DM autoresponder? TAKE IT DOWN IMMEDIATELY AND GO SIT IN A CORNER!
- Are your cover image and avatar up-to-date, and do they project the right message?
- Is your bio up-to-date? Does the link in your bio still work? Is it pointing to the right place?
- When was the last time you looked at your lists? Do they need to be cleaned-up and updated? They probably do!
This is a habit you should be in at least twice a year.
Make sure you information is current and that you’re highlighting the most important information.
Your audience is going to be able to tell if your social media accounts are totally automated, and they’ll ignore them if they’re totally boring.
Take on what you can do really, really well.
It’s going to take less time as you get better at it, so once you’re on solid ground, you can start thinking about adding more channels.
P.S. You can listen to today’s episode of Spin Sucks below (if you’re not yet a subscriber, cough cough). PLUS…there is a special little treat about two minutes in. Trust me, you’re going to want to at least hear that. I’m biased, but I think it might make your entire day.
Photo by Christian Wiediger on Unsplash