I know that so many Virtual Assistants are now using Social Media and Social Networking to increase their own online visibility and connect with potential clients. I also know that more and more Virtual Assistants are assisting their clients with Social Media related tasks. As with any medium that you are using to market yourself or for your clients, there is always a need to stop every once and a while to evaluate or re-evaluate what you are doing, its effectiveness and how you might be more innovative with your current social media strategy.

So let's consider some ways you can clean-up or freshen up your social media and social networking accounts.

Twitter

~Your Following and Your Followers
Have you checked lately who are following that is now not following you? Is it time to reciprocate that non-follow by giving that Tweeter the boot? Granted, there are some folks out there worth following who do not also follow back. But it's certainly worth a check of who you are following that's now not following back. Unfortunately, there are spammer people out there who will do mass follows and then do mass unfollows simply because they like to collect followers and increase their following numbers. I use Friend or Follow as an easy way to take a look at who I'm following that's not following back.

~Find some new people to follow
There are several good ways to do this. You can use Twitter Grader, which, as long as you following them, they will work to list recommendations of people you can follow.
You can also use some of the Twitter directories out there to search for key people you want to follow. Among them are WeFollow, Twibs, and Twellow. (Of course, it's also a good idea to list yourself in these directories if you have not already done so.)
Another good way to find a variety of active tweeting folks to follow is to watch your twitter stream...when you see someone who you already follow and who you find to be a quality twitterer, then go to their profile page and see who they are replying to. Check out those folks they are replying to.

Other Spring Clean up twips for your Twitter Account are:
~Upload a new background or avatar
~Freshen up your profile description
~Find new & interesting items to tweet
~Set up some tweets to go out in Tweetlater so your Twitter account remains fresh even when you don't have time to tweet.


Facebook

~Consider How You Use Facebook
Many people struggle with how to use Facebook for their personal use and professional use. If you haven't already thought this through, then now is the time to do so. First, review and understand the privacy settings for your personal profile. This is key if you post both personal and professional items on your profile. I believe this is especially important when it comes to other people's ability to either view or tag your photos or videos. Also, be sure take advantage of segmenting your "friends" into various lists so that you can quickly and easy include or exclude folks from certain updates or information as well as being able to see the updates or links easily of those you consider to family/personal friends or those who professional acquaintances as not everything they post will show up in your newstream and you want to be sure you don't miss out on something important that a professional contact might have posted.

Also, feel free to delete any "friends" from your account if you no longer want that person to have access to your profile. Throw out social norms and conventions- if they annoy you or otherwise offend you, then "buh-bye" is a perfectly reasonable option. They do not receive a notice that you have unfriended them. Perhaps being "friends" with them is no longer relevant for you. You can also choose to "hide" them from your newstream instead of unfriending them. This means you can still be friends with but they are no longer sucking up valuable real estate in your newstream with useless, self-promoting junk that you are not interested in.

Secondly, make sure you are using the status updates to your advantage. Many people will have all of their tweets post as status messages. Consider this option carefully. If you are a prolific tweeter, people may tire of seeing you in their newstream constantly- especially if you are responding to other Twitterers and those tweets won't make any sense to people who see them on Facebook. I use selective Twitter update application. Once you install this, then you gain control over which tweets post to your Facebook profile simply by adding #fb at the end of your tweet. Another benefit of this is that when your status update posts to Facebook, then your Twitter ID is posted as a link, so people can then click through to your Twitter account.

~Set up your business fan page!
I cannot stress enough how beneficial these pages can be for your overall marketing strategy. Set up a page with good content, be sure to include keywords in the title of your page and be inventive! Create special tabs where people can find specific information about you or your business or special offers. Keep the content fresh. Post a status update either daily or once a week. Encourage participation or discussion. Granted, these are all things I've been woefully poor at doing for my own page, but that's probably because I'm busy doing them for my clients! Also, don't forget to publicize the heck out of your page. Ask people to join, ask your friend to ask their friends to join...etc, etc, etc.

~Make comments or click the "like" link on other people posts or status updates.
This increase your visibility to all of that person's friends and is an easy way to stay connected with others.

So there you have it. My tips for freshening up or cleaning up Twitter and Facebook accounts. If you are thinking you need to take a spring break from social media for awhile, then go ahead. Another Social Media VA that I know recently "killed" her whole Twitter account because she felt she was spending too much time with it. A bit extreme perhaps, but admirable if it's what she needed to do.

Tweet ya later!