How to Spring Clean Your Social Media in 5 Easy Steps

Spring is right around the corner. I know for some of you it still feels months away based on the weather. I spent my weekend spring cleaning my desk and work area. It felt good to purge and organize, and good timing since taxes are right around the corner. 

As you say good bye to winter and prepare for brighter, warmer temps ahead, it's time to "spring clean" your social media. Check out these 5 easy social media maintenance tips. 

1. Update your social media profiles. Have you switched jobs? Just launched a new website? Make sure your profile information is correct and up-to-date. For more tips on how to jazz up your LinkedIn profile, check out Victoria Ipri's LinkedIn for the Clueless. 

2. Delete old social media and discussion forum accounts. Get rid of accounts that you never use. You don't have to participate in everything out there. If you are pressed for time, stick to the top three:  LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

3. Evaluate your LinkedIn groups and your participation. If you aren't active in all groups, consider opting out of them and stick with your most active groups. 

4. Add social media time to your daily calendar. If you have slacked off on on your blog and social media updates over the winter months, schedule time in your calendar for your social media marketing. Even if you only have 10 minutes to spare per day, it's better than not doing anything with your social media. Kick off spring on the right foot by making a commitment to your social media marketing. 

5. Evaluate your social media analytics and look at your ROI and traffic. Is Twitter a dud and you havent't a retweet in months? Maybe Twitter isn't the right platform for your company. Do you receive positive feedback on LinkedIn and more people read your business blog as a result? Think about putting more effort into the social media channels that bring you higher traffic and conversion rates.  Check out this handy list of social media monitoring tools. 

Along with cleaning out your desk and packing away the winter sweaters, remember to dust off your social media - and dive into a fresh, clean approach to your social media in the upcoming months. 

How to Syndicate Your Blog with Social Media Tools

 

You just spent hours re-designing your blog. You wrote one of your best posts to date – but that’s it. You didn’t do anything else with your blog. No one on the Internet will know your blog exists unless you actually promote it. What’s the point of having a blog if it floats around in the cyber ethers?

With the many social media plug-ins out there, it is very easy to syndicate your blog – an efficient and cost-effective way to market your blog. I’ve discussed the power of social media automation in my past series, How to Automate Social Media Posts in 5 Easy Steps – and automation also applies to your blog. Why make more work for yourself?

Use these social media tools and your blog will take off in no time:

HootSuite is a web-based social networking application that lets you bring together content from various online sources. Access and manage your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and many other accounts all in one location. You then have the option of manually updating them all, or setting up an auto-update for your social sites.

RSS Graffitiis the easiest way to update your Facebook page. It takes your blog post title, a small sample, and an image from the post and updates your status.

TwitterFeed is one of the most effective way to syndicate your blog. It can update Twitter and Facebook (among a few other social networking sites) and integrates hash tags, keywords and URL shortening services.

Keep in mind that while these are helpful tools for auto-syndication, it is not a good idea to solely rely on them to market your blog. Automated updates, coupled with personalized updates and comments (mention your posts on other blogs, forums, LinkedIn, etc.), are effective channels to create buzz around your blog. Remember to create impactful content that keeps readers coming back for more!  

What other social media tools do you use to market your blog? Please comment/share!