Spring cleaning can be tedious and overwhelming though it’s essential for maintaining organization and consistency. These same guiding principles can be applied to your social media channels. Let’s face it, it’s probably time for a social media deep clean. Each year we come together to dust off our clients’ strategies in order to reset and refresh for the year ahead. Follow these JJPR-approved tips to help your brand’s social media strategy bloom!

Revisit your brand’s identity, voice and topics.

Start by revisiting your brand’s content purpose and target audiences to remain authentic and true to your brand. Content is meant to entertain, inspire and educate. Reflect and ask yourself why you are producing this content, what goals you hope to achieve and who you intend to target. By clarifying what you want to accomplish, you reemphasize your mission and drive impressions, engagement, purchases and followers. When it comes to your brand’s voice, it is normal for it to change over time; in fact, it’s very much encouraged. Consumers crave brands that evolve in order to have a relevant and authentic voice. Try creating a “cheat sheet” that displays your brand’s tones for different platforms and audiences. By tuning up your brand’s key messages and voice, you cut through the social media noise and show followers precisely what you want them to see.

Change your perspective.

Look at your brand’s social media channels through the lens of a potential consumer and dive in – we mean really dive in to thoroughly review the content. Identify the content that’s no longer relevant to your brand’s current position or reflective of your brand identity. We recommend archiving content with outdated prices and information, discontinued products, employees who are no longer with the company or old giveaway tactics. We’re not saying all content has a short lifespan – If older content still works with your overall strategy, keep it!

Additionally, not every post is a lost cause. It is a best practice to update captions to align with your brand’s current voice and delete old hashtags for content still deemed worthy. Remember to review the link in your bio if you have one. While many accounts have a link in their bio that provides several links to relevant content on a separate landing page, a good rule of thumb (consider this your green thumb) is to have no more than 10 links on the landing page.

Clean up your followers and who you are following.

Cleaning up your social media accounts isn’t just about updating your profile and strengthening your voice, it’s about being mindful of the content you consume and engage with. Unfollow the accounts that don’t resonate with you and follow the ones that do. Interact with accounts that best align with your brand to improve your reach and engagement across multiple platforms and within your industry. A simple task to do, you’ll be surprised by how effective it can be in growing your social media channels.

Start strategizing.

Now that you’ve decluttered, take a few moments to plan your strategy. Look back on your analytics and see what times, posting frequencies and content has generated buzz with your target audience. While we suggest posting at a minimum two to three times a week, it is essential to understand your audience and social media algorithms to post at times when engagement and traffic are at their peak.

We know spring cleaning is a lot of work, so don’t feel pressured to tackle cleaning up your social media platforms all in one day. Set aside one to two hours over the course of several days to focus on each task and dig into your brand’s strategy. In doing so, you’ll successfully nurture existing relationships, engage with potential customers and enhance your brand’s overall presence. Happy cleaning!