Social media engagement is the key to increased revenues, but sometimes it makes sense to clean out your social media accounts. Just like you clean out a mailing list to get rid of dead addresses, it’s important to do the same with your social media accounts. There is no point in engaging with and sharing with dead addresses, or people who only use automation and don’t engage at all. Without engagement there are no increased sales; therefore, it’s time to get rid of those who don’t engage.
Some guidelines to removing friends, followers and others from your lists are:
No activity for 60 days – If someone hasn’t shared or done anything for 60 days or more, it’s time to let them go. Some will say that the more “friends”, “followers” etc. that you have the better, even if they’re inactive. However, this is not necessarily a good idea. Let them go. If they’re not monitoring their own account, someone else might get in it and spam everyone who follows. Let inactive users go.
People who are anonymous – If someone is too embarrassed to show their true identity on social media, it’s probably better not to follow them, because how can you trust them? They should at least have information on their profile page about who they really are even if they’re using a clever handle. If not, let them go; you probably cannot trust their information anyway.
Not real names – If you discover people using fake names and using multiple accounts with fake names, they’re spammers and need to be let go.
Pornographic posters – Porn doesn’t belong on a business account. Well, if your business is porn, fine, but otherwise, no.
People who spam you all the time – You know who they are; they post every five minutes. It’s not all ads, sometimes it’s the story about their two-year old using the potty for the 20th time that day. However, if you’re using your account for business, let these people go. They likely do not add value anyway, unless you sell potty-training materials.
People who don’t engage – Some social media users set up their accounts using automation software and then never look at it again. They only share their own products and services and never bother to look at yours, or share yours, or answer questions. Those people need to go. They are not going to buy from you or share anything.
There are some apps to help, at least for Twitter. Tweepi.com allows you to clean up your Twitter account, ridding your account of inactive users, spammers, and people who have not followed you or others back. It also has other services such as reciprocate (follow people who follow you) and other Twitter management features.
Other areas you can clean up are your own profiles, graphics, and share buttons. If it’s been a long time since you’ve updated your software, it may look old and outdated. It’s important to go through each social media account at least yearly to update the look, search terms, and graphics of your account to keep it fresh, new and engaging.