Spring is in the air, and with it comes the desire to clean, declutter and refresh. But while you’re busy sweeping and dusting, don’t forget about one area that can often get overlooked: your brand’s social media accounts. Just like your physical space, your digital space can benefit from a little spring cleaning — so, here with all the top tips on sprucing up your social media is Account Director Zoe Gaffney.
Dust off your social media strategy
A spring clean can’t be kickstarted without a good look at all the rooms in the house — and the same goes for social media. Before you start delving into the nooks and crannies of your digital space, it’s important to take stock of all your accounts and assess whether your social media strategy is at its optimum ready for the brighter seasons ahead.
Gather your recent reports, collate the learnings, and take a critical look at your social media activity. How are you performing against your KPIs? What content is working and what isn’t? Are the channel focuses right or do they need to be shifted a little? Are your brand messages being conveyed effectively?
Once you’ve considered these sorts of questions, it can allow you to do a little strategy tweaking where needed and stay focused on the big goal. If you need any refreshers on how to build a killer strategy, take a look at our blog.
Do a sweep of your accounts
Next step in the cleaning spree is to whip out the broom and do a sweep of your profile bios and information. It’s key to make sure that everything is up to date, so take a look at your business information, contact details and links to check they’re all correct. Don’t forget to review the Linktree in your Instagram bio — it can be quite easy to leave old links sitting on there!
Take the opportunity to refresh your bio, too. It should be clear, concise and punchy, all while conveying what your brand is all about. The best bio will have an injection of personality, and including a brand hashtag can also help with boosting brand saliency. Don’t forget to tailor your bio to the platform — not only does it need to fit within the character limits, but it also needs to reflect the specific channel audience.
Another hack is to make sure you’re using all the channel features for profiles. For example, LinkedIn allows you to add keywords to your ‘about’ section to add your company’s specialities — which is great for helping users find you.
Revamp the look
Just like a lick of paint in the home, adding some new visuals to your social media can make a world of difference. Start with the basics: is the colour palette on-brand and cohesive? Playing with different colourways and shapes (in line with brand guidelines, of course) can add some visual excitement to your profiles — and you could even consider implementing a grid pattern on Instagram if your brand is targeting a design-conscious audience.
Next, have a think about how you could update your profile pictures and cover photos. Particularly with cover photos, it can be nice to switch up the designs to reflect the latest campaigns or even the seasons. When you’re brainstorming what the new designs will be, have your target customers at the front of your mind: profile pictures and cover photos are often the first thing they’ll see, so how can you draw them in effectively?
Instagram cover photos should be on your spring-cleaning checklist, too. Make sure that each cover photo has a visually appealing icon to help your profile look clean and cohesive. If you haven’t already, make sure your cover photos each represent a part of your brand — for example, our client, Earth Animal, has covers to showcase products, community, values and more.
Do some furnishing
Now, if we were doing a spring clean at home, it would be at this point that we spritz some nice air freshener and proudly place some new home décor items on our shelves. It’s the part of the process that fills us with inspiration — and if we’re relating this back to our digital refresh, it’s the point where we should furnish our feeds with exciting new tactics.
We recommend setting up a brainstorm to get creative and think of some new content ideas to launch alongside your renewed strategy and well-polished profiles. The ‘furnishings’ will look different for every brand, but think of content features that will have longevity and contribute towards your objectives.
For example, a consumer brand focused on community engagement could create some new Instagram story stickers to encourage users to interact with them. Conversely, if a B2B brand is looking to boost thought leadership, then setting up a monthly LinkedIn newsletter for a more engaging way to round up company news could be an effective tactic.
And voila — your social media spring clean is complete! While a seasonal blitz is fun, do remember that optimising your social media should be a continual practice, so always remember to reflect on your learnings and refine strategy where needed. And if you ever need any help with that, the spottydog team would be more than welcome to — so get in touch!
