I’m a big fan of spring cleaning – and I’m not talking about the house – I am talking social media here.
This morning I got to work early (which is very unlike me) to get my inbox in order. Exactly 70 minutes later after wading knee deep through posts updates, tweets, feeds and pingbacks and I found myself WWILF’ing – asking yourself What Was I Looking For (*Credit to the person who taught me this term in a workshop recently). Whenever I find myself WWILF”ing I know it time to clean up.
Do you really have time to accurately and productively consume the sometimes limitless amount of information that is streaming through you Facebook news feed, Twitter stream, Pinterest Boards, Blog RSS feeds, LinkedIn updates and [insert your other fun but random social media account here].
If you are getting overwhelmed and you are finding crap *social media content* everywhere it’s time to spring clean (even if it’s winter or summer where you are right now) and get back in control. Time to grab the wheel again and get the social media van back on course. Time to get some real use out of your content and get results from it again.
Some of the things I did this morning:
- Set some ground rules – Sometimes I subscribe to email newsletters or alerts from sites and blogs. Create a folder called ‘LinkedIn’ or ‘Facebook’ and set a rule that everything from these sites go to that folder. Then you can control what you read and when you read in reducing the inbox temptation to WWILF
- Break up with your ex – The sort of ex here I am talking about is the ex-newsletter that you used to read and now delete. Properly unsubscribe next time and say goodbye.
- Be pickey – don’t just blindly follow or LIKE businesses or brands. Spend 60 seconds reading their content, see how often they post and see how they interact with people. If you like them after that quick test they are in – if not – they are out.
- Purge after the binge – Had a like FRENZY lately – you know – adding 50 likes or followers in a session of linking and linking positivity? Retrace your steps and get rid of anyone that your regret following the next day when you come off your high.
- Think Weight Watchers – give yourself 30 mins at the start of the day to consume your dose of social media goodness and then watch your ‘points’ through out the day and the week. If you consume too much you will get fat and slow again
But the old morning WWILF wasn’t that bad – I did come across this Gem of a to do list from Bill Sebald from Greelane SEO which inspired this morning blog (Found through an email newsletter link from SEOMOZ right after reading a twitter link from Mashable and a LinkedIn update from a colleague).
Things I learned by flushing 3,000 followers
http://greenlaneseo.com/blog/2012/07/things-i-learned-by-flushing-3000-followers/
1. If we haven’t had a conversation in 2 years, and your content doesn’t really excite me, I broke up with you.
2. If you don’t respond to me, and you’re not a top provider/curator of content, I dumped you.
3. If your icon was a hot woman, but your name was George, I let you go.
4. If your shirt off was in your icon (and you’re a guy) you were severed.
5. If you have a Z in your name where you should have an S, I dumped you on principal.
6. If your icon was an egg, dumped.
7. If you haven’t tweeted in over 3 months and I didn’t know you personally, I cut you loose.
8. If your icon was an animated .gif, gone.
9. If you were an obvious bot, I asked myself how I ever followed you, then gave you the boot.
10. If you retweet really dumb things, I buried you.
11. If you appear to follow everyone who follows you (like I used to, which is how I got into this mess), you’re toast.
12. Abusive use of the underscore.
Getting the house in order, keeping on top of your life, being in control. It’s an awesome feeling. My goal next week – start using social media more than it uses me.
How did this post start with Spring cleaning and end in pseudo relationship advice combined with Weight loss? I blame social media.
– Todd
