Purge Purge Purge
Why I Am Getting Rid of You
(The Reason to Stop Being a Social Hoarder)
The whole purpose of being active on social media is to…well, be social.
Your goals are for:
- Engagement with your followers and those you follow
- Being informed with fresh content
- Providing new content for others
- Entertainment
Unfortunately, this does not always happen. Take a long look at this to see if you are satisfied with the results and meeting your goals. Spend time on the social media channels that your target market or patients are likely to frequent.
Clicking on an Instagram account will not only tell you the number of posts that have been made by the account holder, but also the number of followers and the number of people that the account is following.
If you see a large number of followers and the posts are minimal to nonexistent, chances are that the followers have been purchased. Again, if you see a huge imbalance between number of followers and a small amount of those being followed, you should be suspicious. (Unless of course you are a celebrity, news agencies like CNN or a sports figure).
When you are just starting out, you may want to follow a lot of people that you share common interests with in the hope that they will follow you back, better known as the law of reciprocity. However, if they don’t and you are not getting the content that you hoped for, it is time to unfollow them. There are free applications that you can download that will keep track of this for you.
Having a vast disparity between those you follow and the ones that follow you, reflect poorly on you so it is not a good idea. In addition, having images from those you follow on your site which are not in sync with your services or who are dubious in nature, create a negative image of you.
Post images and videos that are of high quality. No one wants to look at really amateur photos and can cost you wanted followers. Save those for your family albums. (They don’t want to see them either).
Despite the more recent ability to download videos and images on Twitter, it is not meant to be a place to drop your Instagram photos, unless there is ample content linked to them. If someone is retweeting everything they see without adding any creativity or news, unfollow that person. Your Twibe deserves better.
When you are using Twitter for business, let go of all those who post personal information or inappropriate information and foul language. Keep away from spreading rumors or depressing news. People want to be uplifted by your site.
Unfollow everyone that pleads to get more followers. This detracts from the professionalism of the entries.
It’s never a good idea to mix your Facebook fans with your business associates and clients. Your friends and family may divulge information about you that you are not willing to share and they may not monitor their language as well as you would like.
Instead, you should have a business or practice page on Facebook, separate from your personal life. Use it as an opportunity to highlight news in your practice, treatment modalities or office procedures. Images and videos can be downloaded which garners a great interest.
Don’t post too frequently as it will turn off your subscribers and keep your promotions to a minimum. Fans don’t go on your page to be sold. However, if someone is abusive or comes to your site to sell to your group, it is a good idea to cut their access from your page.
Needless to say, all those who use your page as a “chain mail” post and plead for everyone to pass it on, has violated their right to stay on your site. (You don’t want the bad luck for not forwarding it)
LinkedIn is viewed as a business-to-business channel and interacting with those who will be part of your referral system is a great idea. Remember though, you can’t be all things to all people.
Narrow your scope to services that you want your referrals to associate with you and restrict your posts to those services to be better known for them. While you may lose some followers while you are focusing on a smaller niche, you will have better quality followers who will be more interested in what you have to say. Followers that you lose reflect a honing down of your site and a strengthening of your brand.
Build a community of people who are interested in these services and who will interact with yourself and others. Even a smaller group will encourage engagement among the followers.
When people ask questions and reach out to you, respond in a timely fashion. To ignore them will cost you a social business relationship.
Who to purge from your connections:
- People who do not share a common interest or are not in sync with your services
- Someone with no network or no following
- Salespeople
- Recruiters and human resource people (unless you are looking for employment)
- Someone with no photo or profile (reeks of a fake account)
- People you don’t recognize
- Those who hide connections (not very helpful to your group)
- Fake accounts
Fake accounts
There are a few ways that are highly suspicious for a fake account:
- There is no last name in the name field
- The photo is absent or a known celebrity
- Profiles are incomplete or stuffed with keywords
- The location does not list a city of origin
- The message is not personal
Fake accounts are set up to get your contacts or email connections as well as run advertisements.
It’s good to know that LinkedIn actually penalizes accounts when people complain about them by restricting the capacity to invite others to connect.
Newsletters
If it’s a newsletter that you subscribe to rather than one that you are creating, a reason to “un follow” would be
- The content is no longer relevant
- The content is not fresh
- You get too many newsletters in your inbox already
If it is a newsletter that you are creating, remember that people could drop the subscription for the same three reasons. It’s not an attack on you personally.
The thing is, having subscribers that never open up your Ezine when you send it, is distinctly unhelpful to you. Thus, you should periodically take a look at who is opening the digital newsletters and get rid of those that don’t. Sure, people can be busy or on vacation but if 3 months go by without them at least scanning your newsletter, it is time to cut them loose.
Why?
Simply, nonreaders or uninterested subscribers ruin your analytical results. Your analytics will inform you of the percent of people that read the articles within your newsletters and which ones garnered the most interest. This is essential so that you know what your market is interested in and the topics you can concentrate your future articles on.
Of course, it could be your fault! When you get someone on your contact list that never opens your newsletters, the first thing to check is whether you have the email address correctly. If not, the onus is on you, not them.
Let’s say that you find that an extremely low percentage of your readers opened a specific newsletter. How could you tell if it was because it was an uninteresting topic, a poor entry on the subject line or that the number of subscribers was padded? These are all things that should be checked as well as the bounce rate.
Three words for nonreaders- Cut Them Loose!
Want an infogram on Value-based marketing? Just ask for it at Barbara@TheMedicalStrategist.com
