Well it’s the time of year when everyone sees a bit of sunshine and spring on the horizon and feels the need to have a good clean and declutter.

 

Well social media is no different it’s always good whatever time of year to review your social media and make sure it’s in tip top condition.

SECURITY

 

You have all these social media tools to market your business, they are your shop window  – it would be a shame if something happened to them…

 

So while you’re doing your digital spring cleaning, make sure you pay attention to tightening your security.

 

Firstly, Update your password

 

The two cardinal sins of account security are using weak passwords or reusing any password often. Update ALL your passwords and think about using a password manager that means you don’t have to remember them.

 

If for some reason you don’t use a  password manager, don’t go all crazy on the random letter/number/symbol combos and just stack a few words together – it makes for a stronger password.

 

So go through your passwords, update them, and make sure they are all different. You’ll thank me later.

 

Enable two-factor authentication

 

This is becoming a de facto standard for most social platforms and it adds an additional level of security to your accounts. Whenever the system detects a new login (for example, from a new device or a different IP address), you’ll be asked to enter not just the password but an additional time-based code.

 

Two-factor authentication(2FA) is ridiculously easy to use, so just get on with it now and make it harder for hackers to get to your profiles.

 

Check out who has access to company accounts

 

If you’ve updated your brand account passwords, you’ve made sure old employees who had access before won’t have it anymore. This is valid for things like Twitter where you can’t log in any other way than with the account username and password.

 

But on some platforms – like Facebook Ad Manager or your LinkedIn company page – you’re adding other users with their personal accounts. So check out who has access there, what permissions you’ve granted and who needs to be removed from the list.

 

Remove old app permissions

 

You have probably allowed various apps to have access to your social media over the years, often just to test something out. They may well still be authorised to access your social profiles.

 

So go through your social media security settings and revoke access for the tools you don’t use anymore.

 

Review all security settings on personal accounts

 

This is a catch-all point to check out the other security submenus after you’re done with the point above. Some of the things you might want to focus on for your personal accounts:

 

• Limit past posts on your personal timeline on Facebook
• Disable facial recognition and photo tagging
• Stop location sharing on social mobile apps
• Don’t let others see when you view their profiles on LinkedIn

 

There are a ton of privacy settings on personal accounts make sure you only share the information you want to.

REVIEW YOUR PROFILES

 

Contact Details

 

Firstly, you need to check everything is correct.  Check you contact details, phone numbers and website links all work and are correct.

 

Bio

 

Review your bio.  This is an important bit of information, make sure it still reflects your business and brand and that it has enough information for people to want to find out more about you.  If you aren’t using all the available characters think about adding additional information and telling more of your story about why you do what you do.  Share your passion!

 

Photos & Images

 

Photos and headers – if it’s been a while since you changed your headers then think about freshening them up and making your profiles look like they’re regularly maintained.

 

Update any personal profiles – if you’re one of these people that are in their 40s but still have a photo from your college days then it needs updating! If I can’t recognise you when I bump into you at networking event then what is the point of that photo.

 

Make sure that everything that you showcase looks good, that images are well edited and properly cropped to fit the available space.  There’s nothing worse than a photo with your head chopped off!

REVIEW YOUR STRATEGY

 

Having a strategy is really important to making your social media a success. Now, is a great time to evaluate if the strategy still working or did it ever work?

 

You need to look at whether you are using the right social media platforms considering if you have the right type of content for that platform? Is it where your audience are hanging out? Do you have the time and resources for all the social media networks you are trying to manage?

If you need more help finding out if you’re in the right places go check out our blog

WHICH SOCIAL MEDIA NETWORK IS BEST FOR MY BUSINESS IN 2021?

 

Once you’ve assessed what works and what doesn’t then think about creating your new plan and how you intend to implement it.  There’s much more detail available in our following blog.

CREATING A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY FOR SMALL BUSINESS

Take a look at what your competitors are doing! What can you learn from them it might inspire you with ideas.

Bur remember, Pablo Picasso said: “Good artist copy, great artists steal.”

RECYCLE & REVIEW

 

Why create loads of new content when you have old stuff!  It’s time to go through the archives.  Look at old blogs and update them so they can be used again. Some content will be evergreen and can be used indefinitely but other content might just need sprucing up and bring up to date before you’ve got something fresh and new to use.

 

Think about updating any images within this content or putting a different twist on the same content you put out before.

 

This can be incredible from a time-saving perspective and the work that went into the original content creation probably deserves to shine and been seen by more people.

 

Whilst doing this you can choose to bin old content.  If something is no longer relevant and offer that’s expired for example then don’t hesitate to hit the delete button.

SPRING CLEAN YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA

 

Whilst it might seem like a bit of a chore to do all this work. it’s well worth it and will set you up for the forthcoming months with your social plan.

 

Don’t forget that social media can be a hassle and you can always call in an expert to help. Our social packages start from just £150pm.