Social Media Clean-Up: Get ready to start deleting

Similar to last week’s post about things to review and refresh in your online shop, today’s post is all about reviewing & refreshing your social media campaigns! A lot changes in a year on social media (remember when Periscope wasn’t even a thing? That was just like six months ago.) and so you should at least take some time out to clean your social media accounts – they are, literally, the face of your business, so keep ’em looking good!

So here’s some things you should start deleting STAT.

Old Instagram Pictures

If you are anything like me, your IG game has seriously improved in the last year. And if you are anything like me, again, you probably find a shop with killer images & start scrolling through their entire lifeline (actually, just the past year or two of Instagram pictures, but you know what I mean). And usually halfway through there’s a wtf!? moment because suddenly the pictures have nothing to do with the products (remember that phase everyone went through where their entire feed was plates of food, cats or coffee?), or they are of a starkly different quality and make what you thought was an incredible product look sketchy. Yeah. That. We don’t want that. So girls (and guys) – get to digging. Scroll through your Instagram account and remove any images that do not show the very very very very very very best of your skills or any images that are totally unrelated to your business that got little to no interaction (sorry, I’m look at you, cat & coffee pictures). While you are digging through your feed, look at it objectively – is it cohesive, appealing? Would you follow you on Instagram? Are all of your photos the same quality/lighting/styling? Remove anything that is irrelevant, doesn’t fit with your vibe or doesn’t beautifully showcase your work.

That person you followed 19 months ago but never interact with

Seriously, when was the last time you went through your IG/Twitter/Facebook/Blog lists and cleaned up? Remove inactive accounts you are following, accounts you don’t interact with or benefit from  (IE, them posting education or useful tools regularly) and all those super famous people you followed in hopes of them noticing you. Not only does this eliminate a huge time suck of getting caught up in the virtual world and scrolling for hours, it also cleans up your feeds and helps you actually interact with your audience, peers & clients in a much lower stress, much more efficient way, which leads to a much higher conversion rate in your online shop. Winning all around.

Irrelevant Content on your Blog

Back in the day I used to post a music video when I didn’t have anything to blog about. A ton of irrelevant content totally killed my old business blog. Delete any and all irrelevant content from your blog – if you use your blog to grow your brand/promote your shop, there is no place for recipes until you have food related products, no need to post outfit of the day posts until you sell clothing or accessories & no need to blog about your two year old potty training, ever, on your business blog unless you sell cloth diapers or something and poo is something that actually relates to your business. That sort of content should be on a personal blog, not on your business or brand blog. If the content has nothing to do with your target audience, your products, your brand or your process, get it off your blog. You don’t want traffic coming in just for one or two posts that isn’t related to your brand – you want to bring in your target audience and keep them hooked with relevant content so that’s all you should be putting out! For instance, on my blog – if it’s not business related, monster related, eco-friendly or parenting related, I don’t post it, because my audience is eco-friendly, entrepreneurial parents. Find a theme, stick with it. Remove anything that doesn’t fit. It’s basically working less for better results. Promise.

Facebook Groups & Paid Communities

This one is going to be controversial. But hey, hear me out! Using Google Analytics, find out what is actually driving sales (not traffic) to your shop. That conversion rate? That’s what you need to focus on. If you have a lot of traffic and not as many sales as you would like, it’s probably because odds are,  Facebook groups and paid communities of crafters/makers/business owners are not where you find clients, and you are investing valuable time there. These communities are great for building connections, but make sure they are actually worth the time you spend in them. If you aren’t obviously, without a doubt benefiting from them either by:

• opportunities that drive sales (features, cross promotions etc, but please, don’t fall prey to the “it increases your numbers” thing – if it is not driving sales that you can 100% without a doubt prove is from the opportunity, it is not benefiting you)
• actually driving sales (can you prove that the Facebook group or community is responsible for X number of sales? Now divide those sales per hours spent in the communities. Is it a good hourly figure? If not, invest your time elsewhere. You’ll thank me later.)
• or things that help you drive your own sales (e-courses, work shops and resources that you can directly tie to increasing sales).

… then you need to remove yourself from these groups/communities. Some communities are incredibly beneficial – but honestly, trust me, after six year in business & being a member of over 300 groups and communities in that time, only four groups/communities actually drove consistent sales & helped me improve my business by providing me with free resources to improve my business.

So end game on the communities discussion: Take a hard look at your numbers. Is Facebook groups sucking up more time you could spend working and not actually benefiting you sales wise?  Remove yourself from them and focus that time and energy on actually making & promoting your wares to your target audience. I did this last year and increased my conversion rate by 15% since then. And no, I’m not lying. Photo from last month’s stats via Google Analytics:

Of course, if there is a community you just LOVE then by all means, stay there. But if you are in 287318726198271092819874287631 groups in hopes of increasing your exposure and sales, seriously narrow down which ones to invest your time in.

 

I hope these tips help you clean up your social media channels & refocus your energy into constructive habits! By keeping my social media feeds free of clutter, my feed free of unrelated images/content & focusing my time where I see the best results, I was able to increase sales, improve my conversion rate & get featured in major publications like Parents Magazine. Where you invest your time truly determines where you thrive!