Social media is both a fun social tool for your downtime and an essential tool for your business growth. With the average person spending an average 2 hours a day on social media, that figure increases dramatically, if you currently provide social media solutions to your clients. It’s therefore a tool that we all need to manage effectively, if we want to make the most of our available time.
It’s sometimes difficult to remember that social media IS a tool that needs controlling. Far too often, we tend to let it control us. If we aren’t monitoring our time on the different platforms, as well as regularly reviewing and organising our accounts, we can find yourself losing that control.
If you’re ready to review, reflect and revisit the different social media platforms you’re on, here’s how you can get started.
Are you on the right platforms?
One essential you need to clarify with the social media platforms you’re on, is whether they’re still serving you. I regularly go through and review the platforms I’m on, checking that my ideal clients are on the ones I’m using. It’s a good habit to get into, if you want to better connect with your clients.
Tidy up your feed
Once you’ve established that you’re on the right platform, you need to make sure you’re not getting inundated with irrelevant notifications and updates. Tidying up your feed is one way to do this – although it initially takes time to sort. Set aside some time to go through and look at who you’re friends with, who you’re following and what pages you’re receiving notifications from, as these all go into your news feeds. It’s also worth noting, you can still friend people, but you don’t have to necessarily follow their posts etc – simply unfollow them.
Cut down on your friend list – the easy way
You’ll be amazed at how many people you can remove from your friends lists, simply by looking at removing:
- Fake and spam accounts
- Those who haven’t interacted in a long time
- Accounts that are now inactive or closed
- MLM and accounts that constantly push their products at you – in every post!
- ‘Follow me and I’ll follow you’ type of accounts
And consider those accounts you’re following that have no part in your overall strategy etc too.
Review your groups on social media
Another thing I’ve been doing is reviewing the groups I’m in. It’s surprising how many groups you find yourself a part of – I know people who are in 100’s of groups! The important thing to remember with groups is, they’re only effective if you’re interacting in them. Start cutting down your groups, until you’re only in those that you either want to be in or need to be in – and get rid of the rest.
Make a list…
Features such as Twitter lists or Facebook friend lists are a great way to segment your list – especially if you’re following a lot of people. They initially take time set up, but they give you an easy way categorise your friends – and you can also make those lists private or public – so you can categorise them however you wish.
Social media is an essential part of your overall marketing and sales strategy, but only if you learn how to control it. If you don’t, not only will it be a huge time suck, it’ll also end up being something you avoid or classify as irrelevant to your business, simply because you let it get too big for its boots!
What are your thoughts around taming social media? Do you tidy up your social media accounts on a regular basis, or do your social media accounts leave you feeling overwhelmed and time consuming? What can you take away from today’s post, to help solve that for you? Share your thoughts and plans in the comments box below!