I didn't really intend to spring clean my social media accounts. It started simply enough. I was clicking around on things on the internet, reading all the things as I do, and a link led to another link, which lead to another link, and the next thing I knew I was looking at my social media accounts with a new perspective.
Am I enjoying the platform? Why or why not? What did I want them to do? Where they doing that? Why or why not? What changes did I need to make?
Pinterest: This all started with a Pinterest tips post about deleting pins. It's something I've been hearing pop up more lately but I hadn't read seen much about why people were doing it. After reading this post I dove in. I deleted pins. I deleted boards. I did all the things. It felt good. Really good.
Facebook personal account: I keep the number of Facebook friends I have small. Abnormally small, even. Facebook didn't really need much clean up, though I did discover a few people deactivated their accounts. It wasn't surprising but still a bit of a bummer.
Facebook Sassymonkey.ca page: It's fairly new so there's not a lot to do there to be honest. I'm sure I could but I'm okay just bobbing down the lazy river for now. But I share awesome links there so if you are not following the Sassymonkey.ca Facebook page, please click over and like it to get the good stuff.
(I am thinking about changing the cover image but I think that means I also want to change my blog header image but if I'm thinking about it I might want to change the blog layout and I'm just not ready yet.)
Twitter: This was a big one. I don't think I've ever gone in and did a true clean up since I first created the account in 2007. I know I've popped in a few times to clear out a few eggheads from closed accounts but a true clean up? Nope. I had 9 years of accounts to go through and I've worn a lot of different hats that resulted in me following different types people. I really didn't need to be following the same accounts I followed 9 years ago, or even 5 years ago.
I did have some lists set up, but as a whole I wasn't enjoying Twitter very much and hadn't for long time. I found it easiest to go in and one huge sweep. It took awhile. I am liking Twitter waaaayyyy more now because I'm actually seeing stuff I want to see. I might go back in and delete some more stuff in a month or two.
LinkedIn: I actually updated my account recently so I mostly just had requests to approve.
Ello: Remember when it launched and we all rushed to get in, spent three days there, and then never returned? I deleted my account.
Goodreads: This was the biggest pain in the rear. You can only remove one person at a time and whyyyyyyyyyyyyy Goodreads? But again, this was pretty easy to choose who got unfriended. (I'm looking at you authors who only use the site when you have a book to promote. I know what you are doing. I get it. But I don't like it.)
Blogger: Waaaaayyyy back in the day, when I first started blogging, I started on Blogger. I thought I had killed those sites years ago but a friend was going through her blog archives, found a link, and discovered they were active (though they really didn't have any content). Not any more. I deleted them.
Wordpress: After Blogger I moved my blogs to Wordpress.com, then self-hosted Wordpress, and now I'm living it up on Squarespace (and loving it). I received a comment notification for Wordpress.com so I went in, cleaned up some stuff, and made those blogs private. Some links are still hanging around to those blogs around the internet and I'd rather they go to a private blog than to delete them so someone else to swoop in and make it content other people don't want to be linking to.
What's the biggest lesson I learned from this? It was something I already knew.
Quality matters way more than quantity. Everywhere. Always. It's not about more or most and social media is a far more enjoyable place when you are honest with yourself about what you want and need from it.