Over the weekend I decided that enough was enough. I had too many social media accounts and some had to go. If you’ve ever been in this situation you know that it can be tough to cut accounts. It’s easy to trick yourself into keeping unwanted accounts. Thoughts of future promises can cloud your judgement. Here’s how I cut down on my network list.

You Must Be Ruthless

Certain accounts are easy to get rid of. The first on my cut list was Pinterest. It was an account I created for a trial run. An experiment to see if I could use it to promote the site. After months of inconsistent use I decided that I wasn’t going to lose much sleep if I delete it. I used the same train of thought for my Google+ accounts. If I haven’t used them in months I wasn’t going to begin using them now so they had to go. When you look over your list, mark off the easy kills.

Double Accounts Have To Go

It’s not uncommon to have two accounts on the same social network. For Twitter I have…had a personal account and blog account. At one time I wanted my personal and blog accounts to be separate. But over time my personal account was left by the wayside. I didn’t care for the conversations in that timeline and with my focus on the blog’s account I decided it was time for it to go. Sure, I had plenty of friends on my personal account, but one factor played a major role in the deletion of this account: time.

Time

Social networks require time. If you are going to have any type of success(personal or business) you are going to have to sink time into it. I decided that I would keep accounts that I wanted to put time into. At the top of my list were the Facebook page and the Twitter account. They are the primary tools I use to connect with my community and how I spread my message to the world. And if I’m going to put in time and effort it might as well be with something that I like.

Facebook…

Facebook is an odd creature. It was my first social network, and the only network with all my friends/associates/etc. I thought about starting over…a fresh slate in the Facebook world. But then I thought about all the people I would have to add and decided on a different approach. My social circle is pretty small (1,000-1,200 people) compared to other people. It would be much easier to clean up around my circle then creating a new one. I took the “ruthless” mantra and began deleting pages and groups. Pages that I didn’t care for…gone. Pages or groups that posted nonsense….dropped. If a page or group wasn’t posting enough content…deleted. I stripped my Facebook page to the bare minimum and kept it rolling.

Exceptions to the Rule

I did keep my Instagram accounts…both the personal and the blog. I wanted to cut the blog account because I wasn’t using it as much as I liked, but a text message changed my opinion. I sent my fiance a text asking her what she thought about my Instagram accounts and if I should get rid of my blog account. She quickly suggested that I kept the account and put more time into it. She’s was right. After I looked over the account I realized that it is a low-cost way to keep up with the community. It didn’t hurt the movement and I can always utilize it later.

Wrap Up

Social media networks can pile up on you if you aren’t careful. There’s always a new network on the scene and access is only an email address away. But if you want to be successful with your social networking endeavors it’s important to think about these things.

• Keep accounts that you have fun using
• Make sure the accounts you keep help your movement.

If you don’t want to put time into something, cut it. Sure, you might lose a few followers, but your primary account and followers will thank you for it.