If you’re frequently active on social media - as the majority of us are - it’s easy for our accounts to get cluttered and neglected. While a spring clean is most associated with tidying your home, why stop there? Start your digital spring clean today!
Why You Need a Digital Clean Up
You may have followed just one too many people, clicked yes to some privacy notification that you couldn’t be bothered to read or your accounts might be filled with pictures that you don’t recall posting.
Regardless of what’s cluttering your social media accounts, it’s good practice to keep everything in order as it's beneficial for your peace of mind, security and privacy.
Social Media
This has to be one of the most frustrating platforms for negative Nancys and moaning Matthews. Life is stressful enough as it is, why add to that? If you want a proper digital spring clean, start by culling that ever growing friends list.
Whether they’re old colleagues from a job you don’t really want to remember or annoying acquaintances from school, unfollow the people who drag you down.
If you think ‘unfriending’ is going too far, you can simply unfollow them. This means you’ll still be friends but their posts won’t come up on your newsfeed anymore.
It’s not just Facebook friends you should consider clearing out. Old pages you liked years ago may have changed; they may now produce content that’s clogging your feed rather than enriching you with knowledge or entertainment.
Instagram was ranked as one of the worst for mental health by the Royal Society of Public Health. In the eyes of some critics, it is renowned for skewing reality and presenting a false ideal which the average person can’t contend with. Of course, constantly comparing ourselves to these ‘perfect’ accounts can have negative results on our wellbeing.
Whether this is the case or you've simply followed 100 people too many and now it’s getting on your nerves, why not consider tidying up your Instagram account?
Take some time out to cull your ‘following’ list. Much like your Facebook profile, if an account causes any feelings of negativity, it’s time to unfollow and cut it out.
Twitter is a huge part of our professional and personal lives and as a result, it can get filled with courtesy follows; industry, national and international news; influencers and thought leaders. Whether you’re bored of unnecessary articles or the impending sense of doom from those dreaded words 'Brexit' and 'Trump', don't worry. You don’t need to suffer scrolling through rubbish to find what you really want anymore.
If you’re following a lot of people, it might take a bit more time to clear the list. If so, try removing 5 people at a time each time you scroll through Twitter. If you find yourself quickly scrolling past the same people, it’s time to unfollow them.
Emails
How many emails do you have sitting in your inbox? Be honest. I have 600+ in my personal account. Terrible, I know. There’s nothing worse than countless spammy emails piling into your inbox. Has it got to the point when clearing it out appears to be more hassle than it’s worth?
It’s time to stop putting it off! Following the GDPR revolution, unsubscribing from spam is easier now than it ever has been. Use the search function at the top to group emails you want to get rid of but make sure you unsubscribe before you delete them! Otherwise, they'll just keep on comin'!
Of course, if you want to enrich your inbox, subscribe to our mailing list for all our fresh marketing insights and the latest KnapChat!
Passwords
With so much news circulating about privacy and the big tech giants, it may come as a shock to discover that 123456 appeared in more than 23 million passwords. Other frequently used passwords include 1111111 and, of course, the word “password”.
Your first, and most important, line of defence against online threats is your password. So, when you go through each online account, consider changing the passwords for each of them. Try to make them unique as reusing passwords can increase your risk of a security threat. If hackers gain access to one account, they will try to use it for others too.
For more tips on creating and keeping secure passwords, read our blog about safeguarding your personal information.
Now that you've had a tidy up of your digital accounts, find more advice on our insights page or get in touch with our friendly team today!
