Spring has almost come! Or at least that’s what my calendar says – looking outside there are snow flurries as I write this. But, I’ll choose to remain the optimist and look forward to the warm weather that’s (supposedly) right around the corner.
The changing of the season from cold and gray to warm and vibrant makes it one of the best times of the year for self evaluation. People spring cleaning by emptying out their closets, tidying up their homes, straightening out their garage, and cleaning out their desks at work. All that is great on a personal level, but why not take this seasonal initiative and apply it at the business level?
With social media platforms and their algorithms constantly changing, you may have been spending more time recently thinking about your social media strategy than your social media profile. While it is obviously important to be researching and experimenting with posting and engagement methods, it’s also important to give your profile some love too. After all, a dated Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn page, whether it’s personal or that of your business, can stick out like a sore thumb.
While you are cleaning up your closets and garage, take some time freshen up your social media presence.
Update your cover image
Sitting up there all by itself on your Facebook and Twitter page, it’s easy to overlook your cover image. On your website, you can take as much space as you want and dedicate it to visually showcasing your brand and personality, through colors, textures, and images. On social media, there isn’t much space outside of your feed to do so. The cover image is one of the few opportunities you have, so take advantage of it.
Create some new graphics to periodically swap in and out of your cover image. They can be fun or seasonal or use your logo and brand colors and textures to create a solid graphic. Another option? Facebook now allows for video to occupy the cover image space. Putting together a quick, 15-second video to place at the very top of your page is another great way to inject personality on to your page.
Evaluate your avatar
Speaking of graphics, when was the last time you updated your social media avatar? Here’s a better question: have you ever updated your social media avatar? If you’ve gone for awhile just using your company logo it is time for a change. The art of a good social media avatar is more intricate than you may think and needs to meet several restrictions that your traditional logo may not.
A good social media avatar needs to frame well within a circle (the shape it shows up as more often than not on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn). It also needs to be legible and identifiable on the small screen of a mobile device, where it will be seen by most people. One of the best ways to meet this demand is by creating a minimized, simplified version of your logo to use strictly on social media. Does yours meet these standards?
Clean up your follows and follow fresh faces
Even for a company account, it’s important to follow people on social media – especially on Twitter. Staying in touch with the community, peers, influencers, experts, and big industry players is the best way to constantly stay in the conversation, engaging with the community, and staying on top of the latest news. Not being active on social media puts you at risk of falling out of touch with customers and industry news alike. That being said: it is possible to follow too many people.
When you follow an excessive amount of people, they all fight for a spot in your timeline. While Twitter’s algorithm does its best to show you the most important posts, some will slip through the cracks. Like cleaning out your closet of clothes you don’t wear anymore, do the same for your social media. Go through your follows. Are there some people that no longer have a spot on your timeline? While you are cleaning up your follows, take a look around at the people you are following and see who they are following. If you find some new, interesting faces, give them a follow and start engaging with them.
Check the odds and ends
Now that you’ve checked some big items off your list, make sure to cross all your T’s and dot your I’s. Go through all of your social media profiles, checking descriptions, bios, maps and everywhere else you can think of to make sure all of your information is accurate and up to date.
Now you can get back to sifting through piles of clothes, drawers, and sweeping your garage knowing your social media profiles are in much better shape!