By David Jenkin

People change over time, and so do brands. Our individual likes and interests evolve and brands adapt to changes in an ever-fluid market. We need to refashion our social media pages accordingly. Failing to do this results in a social media profile that misrepresents us, and that really defeats the point.

Removing the junk

The first and most fundamental step in a social media spring clean should be the removal of the unwanted clutter and the contacts that keep depositing it on our timelines.

Carlota Zimmerman writes for The Huffington Post; “If they’re not bringing anything positive, insightful or fun to your door, they’re wasting your time – ie. you’re allowing them to waste your time – and you don’t have time to waste.”

Many of the contacts we made, or pages we liked, were relevant at some point in the past but that relevance has since expired. Whether it’s a person that is no longer a friend, a celebrity or brand that no longer holds any appeal, or a company that is no longer a client, it’s better to be rid of them. If they become relevant again, they can always be re-added.

Clearing your feed, however, can sometimes be done without thinning the contact list. Facebook offers the ‘Organise’ tool, which makes it easier for users to sort friends from acquaintances (by collating those with the least interaction) so that fewer of their posts show up on the news feed but they remain as contacts. Twitter’s equivalent is the mute option, but the platform also offers lists for organising follows in more than one feed.

A brand with a plan

Tanya Moolman, community manager at Newsclip Media Monitoring, believes a strategy is key to avoiding clutter. For brands in particular, she emphasises the importance of planning ahead with carefully selected content that properly reflects the brand and is in line with the organisation’s business goals.

“This way, you have a more structured approach to push relevant content on social media and through that, attract the correct audiences’ interest,” she says. “Failure to plan is planning to fail. Neglecting the planning stage will lead to a daily scurrying for content at the last minute, consequently resulting in non-relevant content being posted, a disengaged audience and a cluttered account that represents anything but your company.”

Rather than closing down an active account and losing current followers – throwing out the baby with the bath water, as the saying goes – Moolman recommends rather applying time and resources to providing the right content. “Make use of the insights provided by each platform in order to get to know your audience better and accordingly plan content that resonates with them,” she advises. “Also define the persona of the ultimate follower you would want to reach and get followed by, plan content that will attract this type of person and your account should be growing with worthy followers soon enough.”

Whether the account is personal or corporate, Zimmerman emphasises the need to be conscious of its purpose. She writes; “If you’re online to promote your legal practice, or alternatively, to get all the latest kickboxing news, each interest should lead you to a different profile. True, you can do both with one profile, but you should be able to articulate your overall concern, and then have a profile that an intelligent stranger would appreciate and understand.”

Tips for extra freshness

Valentina Di Giglio writes for Everypost that when refreshing a social media page it’s important to look at security too, specifically with regards to permissions and passwords. “Review who has access to manage your social media pages, even third-party posting apps, and update these permissions accordingly.” Passwords, she suggests, should be changed every couple of months.

Also on Di Giglio’s clean-up checklist is a suggestion to update banners and backgrounds. This can be done to represent the current season, the latest sales offerings or business trends, as well as giving the page a fresher feel overall.

In addition to that, she suggests that brands check their social sharing buttons on their websites to ensure that the links are working, that every one of the brand’s platforms are included, and that icons are optimised in terms of their positioning.

Have you been losing control of your social media accounts? Tell us in the comments below.