Every year, we go through our garages, attics and other rooms in the home in order to clean out the clutter and get rid for the spring and summer. This is a common occurrence for countless people and helps accomplish many different things: it brings the family together, it provides worthwhile exercise and even presents opportunities to make a little extra cash or give something to someone in need. As it turns out, social media cleaning works in many of the same ways. Every few months, it is important to go through your social media pages and profiles, make necessary changes and prepare for the upcoming season. Below, we’ll talk about three easy ways to get your social media platforms ready for the summer – or any season!

Refine the Details

Every social media page gives its owner the ability to customize – to a degree – what it says and what it sells. Your social media copy must be dynamic and eye-catching in order to continue engaging with the audience, so there is no better time than right now to review all of it. Elements on your social media pages such as tag lines, descriptions and about pages should be changed every few months, as this content is continuously pinging users and not just search engines. While doing this, also take the opportunity to review all of your social media links and basic profile information. Has a phone number changed? What about your email address, website or physical location? It can be quite easy to overlook a change here and there when a big move occurs, so take this time to review that your links and basic information are in order as well.

Inspect Your Data

Social media dashboards – whether the de facto solutions provided by the networks, or more premium solutions you have acquired – are only as good as the ways in which the data is collected and stored. If you haven’t reviewed this information recently or have not considered the need to monitor new and different metrics, then this is the perfect time to sit down, pour over this information, and make any needed changes. One helpful tip in determining how to handle this is to ask, “does this particular data still help me?”. It sounds simple, but many brands’ objectives change over months and years. If the ways in which you analyse social media data do not change along with it, then the data being collected is relatively useless.

Tidy Up Your Connections

Last but not least, it is generally a good idea every few months to evaluate who is connected to you, who you are following, and determine why these connections exist. On some social media networks like Twitter, it is considered standard fare to follow someone who has followed you. Every few months, sit down and be sure that the people you follow or connect with are people who you are proud to be associated with. On many social networks, pinging users with follows and shares can quickly create the impression that the brand is artificially boosting its social media reach or could connect the brand indirectly with controversy.

By evaluating the quality and types of connections your brand has with others, inspecting the specific metrics that are being analysed and updating/refreshing all relevant information that the public sees, your social media pages and profiles will be in tip-top shape for the months ahead.