July 18, 2013
With the sunny weather dominating London’s climate for the last couple of weeks, the social media world has somewhat quietened. For many people this is a time of holidays, parks, ice cream, beaches, festivals, BBQs and generally taking a rest from the constant flow of data that surrounds our culture.
Group activity on LinkedIn reflects this summery mood – take the example of two otherwise busy LinkedIn groups – Digital Marketing and Social Media Today: both the activity and the number of new members have significantly dropped since June. In Digital Marketing, the average weekly number of new members has dropped from over 4,000 to just over 2,000. And in Social Media Today, the number of weekly discussions in July has dropped to 70, in comparison to May’s 133. That’s an average 50% drop in activity!
As the social world has quietened, this is the right time to step back, zoom out, take a breath, and … sort out your social media presence!
As I’ve been thinking about revamping my own social media profiles, I complied this short Social Audit Checklist that you may also find useful:
Are your profiles up to date?
The dynamics of busy life often leave our social profiles outdated. Use the quieter days in summer to make sure that your social identity is in line with the developments of real life! Have a look at your current and past job descriptions on LinkedIn, biography on Twitter and Pinterest, Google Plus description… Look out for consistency, brevity and make sure your profiles are up to date.
Is your channel strategy reflective of social media realities?
This is the most time consuming but I would insist the most important part of your Social Audit Checklist. You must ask yourself questions about the purpose of your social profiles, and how they are supposed to link and what call to action you expect your audience to make. If you are a visual person, draw a diagram of all your social profiles and make sure your visitors end up with a clear action – be it emailing you, becoming your follower, visiting the Contact Us page on your website, calling you…
Another part of your channel strategy is your content plan. What do you plan to speak about over the next week, month, quarter? Can you identify in advance topics you would like your audience to hear about from you? Can you schedule some tweets or posts in advance and create a posting plan in line with your content plan? Try using scheduling tools like HootSuite:
Would a redesign freshen up your profiles?
Once in a while it is a good idea to redesign your social media presence. Make sure the design of your profile picture is in line with the design of the rest of your profile. This may include Twitter background, Google+ cover and Pinterest profile picture. Your audience will appreciate the changes!
What communities are you part of?
Reassessing your communities is a long-term task. This includes the LinkedIn groups you are part of, Google Plus communities, pages you are following on Facebook. (For inspiration on what to look for in a group, see 3 LinkedIn Groups worth your attention). Do the groups you are part of deliver on what they promise? What is the activity and quality of content like? Are there any new, emerging groups you should be part of?
Who are you connected to?
Sometimes we forget to connect with people we know because of the busyness of life. This is a good chance to find connections you may know, sort out your Google Plus circles, categorise the people you are following on Twitter (and unfollow the irrelevant ones), make your LinkedIn contact book make sense. You will be surprised by:
- the people you have forgotten about and want to reconnect with (a LinkedIn endorsement or personal tweet will be much appreciated!)
- the people you have not connected to but should
- the people you should consider unfollowing due to spam or inactivity
What is your latest social experiment?
As part of optimising your social media activity, why not make an experiment and try a new social media platform? There are so many new platforms emerging, and obviously our time constraints limit the number of platforms we are on. However, now could be a good time to test a platform or two. Who knows – you may end up being an early adopter of viral success! (See the Conversation Prism for inspiration)
What does Google say about you?
We don’t like to admit it, but in the social realities of today’s world you often are what Google says about you. Are you happy with the results? Are there some sites you wish were more search engine-optimised than others? Take action! Sort it out, to the extent you can. Your name is associated with your business, and the reputation of your business is closely tied up with what Google says about you as an individual.
Do you have any other tips to share? Feel free to comment below!
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