Social media can easily spiral out of control when it comes to organizing your brand image, keeping things cohesive, and maintaining your online presence. Between Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and more, social media can be a bit of a hodgepodge of links and information, and if you’re anything like me you probably don’t think to organize as you go (I’m looking at you, Pinterest).

Every now and then I like to go through a do a cleanup, whether I’m just taking an audit of my brand across tweets and posts, or fixing up broken links on my Pinterest boards.

Be consistent. Especially if you’re a blogger or maintain a specific online presence. Your profile picture and name should be consistent across your social media. Example time: imagine if I were @mylifeasateacup on Twitter, but @teacupprincess on Instagram – it might get confusing if you wanted to tag me in both places, no? I know some people by their online personalities, and if their “name” isn’t the same, I have a harder time finding them!

Same goes for your profile picture – if you don’t look like you, it’s easier for your readers to pass you by!

 Pretend you’re a reader. You may do all of your posting from HootSuite, but if someone is searching for your social media feed, they’re going to see the front end. If you don’t have a cover photo on Facebook or your Twitter profile completed, it’s going to look unfinished and not very inviting to the outside eye.

Update your profile blurb. I’m sure you’ve heard of an “elevator speech”, where you describe your blog/yourself/what you do in a spiel concise enough to be uttered in the time it takes to take the elevator to your destination. Most social media has a limited-character “about me” section for you to fill out, and it might be time to revisit what you wrote there, especially if your blog has changed focus over the past few years. Entice your visitors to follow you by succinctly and creatively describing what you do. And again, make it consistent.

♥ Organize your Pinterest boards. Create categories that reflect you and your blog’s interests. And don’t forget to create a board for your blog too! I’ve recently reorganized mine so that I can find pinned items more easily. I’ve even gone through and deleted duplicate pins, and am working to update descriptions and properly credit broken sources. This can be tedious, but overall will help followers better find your posts and articles!

♥ Declutter your feeds. At one point in time I followed a looooot of people on various social media sites. I’ve since developed my own way of keeping up with different sites and people, so I don’t necessarily need to follow the same person on 15 different sites anymore. Likewise, a lot of accounts I followed in undergrad that were Pitt-specific are no longer beneficial for me to follow (as I don’t go to Pitt any longer!). Declutter your feed by getting rid of those you no longer need to follow.

♥ Create a cohesive aesthetic. This is a more advanced tactic, but I bet you can think of an Instagram feed right that has a certain “type” of image that they post; maybe it’s the filter they use, or the way they format their photos, but you can already picture what their feed looks like, can’t you? Their cohesive style helps to reinforce their brand, and their consistency helps to make them memorable. You don’t have to go back and delete all of your Instagram photos that have a variety of borders, but you might want to think about your presence going forward (there was this horrendous time when I used 50 different filters and my photos looked like a hot mess!)

How do you manage your social media? Tweet your tips with the tag #digitaldetox!