Spring cleaning for social media

social media

Photo: Jason Howie (CC)

Second of two parts …

If you manage social media for your brand, it’s time to inspect your channels thoroughly. Spring cleaning gives you the opportunity to ensure your networks are up to date and working as advertised.

Don’t let fans get the wrong impression through carelessness or neglect.

1. Update all information. This includes the About/Bio blurb, link, pinned update, profile photo, header image, colors and branding.

2. Delete any unused channels. Whenever I conduct social media audits for clients, I almost always find abandoned profiles. They make brands look negligent.

You can include channels that don’t perform well or overlap with your target audience. It’s time to dump that old Google+ account, YouTube channel, rogue Facebook page or Twitter profile.

Make sure your remaining social media accounts are displayed on your website, too.

3. Purge administrators. In performing audits, I often discover people no longer with the company (including agencies) who still have administrative access to social accounts. Uh oh …

(What happens if a former employee logs in? Or simply has his phone hacked?)

This is the perfect time to remove them. And don’t forget third-party management apps like Hootsuite and Buffer. It may also be the right time to change the passwords, using stronger versions and different ones for each channel.

4. Test the notification system. Does an admin receive an alert when a fan comments on a social media channel? Or sends a direct message? And does that admin reply within 24 hours?

Maybe the biggest failure of brand social media is the social part, real interaction with real people. This is the time to check that audiences are heard loud and clear, and that a company rep responds quickly. Test the system by having confederates and secret shoppers leave comments, questions, reviews and complaints.

5. Double-check automated systems. This could mean Hootsuite posting to one or more accounts on a schedule. It could mean Facebook posts also tweeted (a pet peeve of mine). It might even mean scheduled or real-time backups of accounts, required for certain industries.

It can also include social updates mirrored on the company website, such as a widget displaying most recent tweets or Instagram pics.

Sometimes, apps lose access to accounts or run into other problems. You might need to examine the pipeline from start to finish to be sure.

6. Dropping followers, friends and updates. Optional, but if you want, you can remove friends who aren’t following back, followers that are spambots and regular bots and old tweets, posts, pics, pins and videos.

Let springtime be a renewal for your social media channels. Taking an hour to spot-check these areas will make them more attractive to future fans and customers.

Part 1: Spring cleaning for site and blogs

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About Wade Kwon

Wade Kwon, chief haiku writer

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