How to spring clean your blog and social media accounts.
Spring is in the air. The days are growing longer, the temperatures are rising and buds are blooming. The changing of the seasons is palpable. This is the time of year that everyone feels inspired to start anew, refresh their homes and spring clean. The ritual of spring cleaning has long been recognized by many, but relegated (mostly) to the home. Now that we are living in a digital-first age, it’s time to apply the tried and true traditions of spring cleaning to your digital life! While thorough spring cleaning your house may take up an entire weekend, spring cleaning your digital and social properties takes far less time but can result in great rewards.
Update your About Me Sections – Your personal blog or brand has likely evolved since you first created your social accounts. However, many bloggers and businesses forget to update their social profiles to reflect their transformations. In this era, social profiles are often the first point of contact between brands and potential customers and audiences. If your profile information is outdated, you may run the risk of appearing outdated altogether. Don’t let expired details and links cost you followers!
Update Your Profile and Cover Images – Cover and profile photos are oft forgotten. We set them once and move on to publishing exciting content. Profile and cover photos may seem insignificant but they play a crucial part in a potential follower’s first impression of you.
Here are just a few examples of sizes recommended by social networks:
851 x 315 pixels (px) for Facebook cover photos,
1,252 x 626 px upload for Twitter header photos,
2,560 x 1,440 px for YouTube Channel art.
Audit Your Social Properties – Perhaps you’ve been hyper-focused on curating your Instagram feed over the past six months, and in doing so, your Twitter activity has lagged behind! That’s ok! It’s not realistic to expect yourself to devote the exact same amount of love and attention to each of your digital properties. But, if any of your temporarily forgotten accounts still have the potential to drive traffic and generate engaging moments for your followers, you may want to reassess your strategy for managing your social feeds. Try to devise a realistic plan that allows you to distribute your attention in a more balanced and effective manner. This might mean spending 20 minutes a day, 4-5 days a week tweeting and responding to followers instead of scrolling your Instagram feed.
Assess Who You Follow – It’s easy to follow an account and quickly forget that it’s in your follow list. Some accounts become inactive over time, and others may evolve the type of content that is posted. If an account is no longer active, or no longer publishes content that is in any way relevant to you or your brand, it may be time to select the Unfollow button. With public profiles, follow lists are also public. Some users may assess who you follow before taking a stance on your authority and/or deciding whether or not your account is worth a follow. Who you associate with on social media plays a big role in your overall social reputation, so it’s a good idea to take time to carefully evaluate the communities you belong to and the accounts you follow.
This brief, but crucial, checklist will help your social digital properties attract, rather than abandon, potential customers and audiences.
Image source: Martha Stewart