It’s 2014! Now that the new year is in full swing, it’s a great time to take a look at your company’s Web presence to make sure it’s up to date and refreshed. After all, when was the last time you checked your company’s Twitter profile, Facebook description, or list of services on LinkedIn? It’s important to make sure you have your best foot forward across the Web. Not sure where to start? We’ve put together a simple seven-day checklist you can use to makeover your social media presence and start the new year off right.
Day 1: Audit Your Current Social Media Presence
Where does your company have pages and profiles across the Web? Take stock of all your social media accounts and make sure your overall social media presence is polished, professional, and up to date. Here’s a checklist for getting ready and starting your audit:
Create an Audit Doc: If you don’t have one, create a document with a list of every social media account your company has claimed, including the user name, URL, and important information for each site. This will make your next social media audit a much quicker process!
Update Your Passwords! While you’re creating your initial audit document, log in to each account you own and update your passwords. Make sure that each site has a strong, secure, unique password. Since several notable sites have had user passwords compromised recently, it’s important to make sure your passwords are fresh and new. Make sure you have a different password for each account, and if multiple people need to access your passwords, search for a secure password manager. Here are some tips for creating better passwords.
Create a Task List: As you go through each site, note on your audit document each of the following that need to be created, revised, or updated: descriptions, profile photos, cover photos, logos, videos, and product and service descriptions.
Double Check the Facts: It’s important to make sure that your basic business information, like your business phone number, brick-and-mortar address, Web addresses, and email addresses, are all updated and consistently listed across each site. Make sure that the way you spell, punctuate, and abbreviate each word is consistent on each site you use, because this information is important for making sure search engines attribute your business with proper citations.
Align Your Assets: If you will need creative help in updating your logo, profile image, or copy on your sites, make sure to put the right requests in to the right people so you will be armed with all the assets you need for the rest of your makeover!
Day 2: Google+ Local
If you haven’t claimed your Google+ Local page, stop now, download this ebook, and do it today. If you have, it’s time to give it a refresh. Log in to Google+ and navigate to your page from the square profile image in the upper right-hand corner. Once you’ve selected your page, you can go to the individual elements you want to change.
Refresh Your Cover Image: To change this, hover over it and click “Change Cover” on the cover image. You can select from a gallery, upload your own photos, or pick images from your albums on Google+. The image can be up to 2120x1192 pixels, which takes up a significant portion of the screen for anyone who visits your page. So, make yours memorable, interesting, and relevant to your business.
Update the About Section: Select the “About” tab on your profile and navigate to the “Story” module, where you can update your page’s tagline or add an introduction. You can format these with bold, italics, and even hyperlinks to share more about your business, products, and services.
Check Links: What types of links should you add? Consider adding links to relevant sites like your website, blog, and social media profiles. Make sure these are all working links with up-to-date content, since this profile is associated with Google and helps it know what other accounts are affiliated with your company.
Confirm Business Details & Contact Information: If you have a page that’s a local page, you’ll also want to update it to make sure all your details are optimized and current, because this content feeds into other Google properties like Google Maps. So check your phone number, address, email, and hours of operation to make sure they are up to date and consistent across your Web presence.
Day 3: Facebook
Update Your Cover Photo: Your cover image can be 851 x 315 pixels. It should be a unique image that represents your company and its current look, feel, and emphasis. Make sure you have rights to the image you use, and don’t infringe on any copyrights or trademarks. Also, keep in mind that your cover image can be made up of no more than 20% text, so focus on a bold and inviting image.
Update Your Profile Image/Logo: Your profile image is 160x160 pixels and should be recognizable to those who follow you on Facebook. While it’s displayed as an overlay in the corner of your cover image, it must be able to still stand alone in the newsfeed and should be clear and recognizable at 90x90 pixels, the size it will appear in the feed.
Arrange & Update Apps & Icons: You can customize which top “apps” you display on your page by default, so make sure the most relevant apps are showing at the top of your page (photos will always appear as your first app, but you can select the other three). These will appear next to the “About” section of your page. So, if you have outdated, old, or irrelevant apps showing, change it up! Also, you can select new “cover images” for many apps by selecting the down arrow and the edit pencil. The cover images for new apps should be 111x74 pixels.
Update Your Page Content: Under “Edit Page” you can change various pieces of content affiliated with your page, such as your subcategories, address, short description (this shows up under “About” on your public page and is short, so keep it pithy!), awards, products, and more. Make sure the most updated information and relevant business details are reflected under this Edit view.
Update Settings: When was the last time you looked at the settings of your Facebook page? Under “Edit Page” you can select to see exactly how your page is operating and make sure you have it set up ideally for how you are running it today. For example, you can change the posting ability, private messaging settings, tagging ability, restrictions, and other page settings that affect how your page functions. You can also view other settings such as the apps you have installed on your page, who is set as an admin, and more. It’s a good idea to take a look at these every once in a while, so refine your settings when you do your Facebook makeover.
Day 4: Twitter
To update your Twitter account, you need to click the gear icon and select “settings” to edit your profile. Once there, you can update a number of things under the following sections.
Profile
Update Your Logo or Profile Photo – This should ideally be a square photo that uses your photo or logo and is recognizable at a small size, like 90x90 pixels.
Update or Add a Cover Photo – Did you know Twitter also has a cover photo feature? The recommended size for this image is 1252x626 pixels, with a maximum file size of 5 MB.
Update Your Bio Section – You have 160 characters to say something interesting about yourself, so make sure your Twitter about section is up to date with your latest job title, interests, and facts.
Double Check Your Location – Make sure your location is up to date with the most relevant location for you. If you have multiple locations, consider making the location that of your main location or headquarters.
Confirm Your Website: You’ve only got one hyperlink you can share from your Twitter profile, so make it the most impactful location, whether it’s a website, page, article, or another social media page.
Design
Refresh Your Background: You can create a custom background for your Twitter profile, and many companies choose to have a custom background that coordinates with their cover image and profile photo. In order to display well on most monitors, experts recommend using an image that’s 1600x1200 pixels and under 2 MB in size.
Coordinate Background & Link Colors: Make sure if you update your background that you use coordinating colors that display well together.
Apps
Make sure to go through a list of all the apps you have authorized to access your Twitter account and revoke access to any apps that you no longer use or that you don’t remember authorizing in order to keep your account secure.
Day 5: LinkedIn
To update your LinkedIn company page, log in to your LinkedIn account, hover over your profile image in the upper right-hand bar and click “Manage” next to your company page. This will take you to a view with several editable tabs – “Home,” “Careers,” and “Services.” To edit what’s on these tabs, select the tab and then click the blue “Edit” button in the upper right-hand side, then navigate to the section you want to update on each page.
Home Page
Page Details: Has your business grown or changed since you set up your LinkedIn profile? Here’s where you will make these changes. Make sure your company type, size, URL, industry, and locations are all up to date.
Company Description: Make sure you’ve got the latest description of your company, which can be up to 2,000 characters.
Image: This is essentially your LinkedIn cover image that displays prominently on your page. Make sure this cover image is fresh, relevant, and on-trend with your current marketing look and feel. This image needs to be 646x220 pixels and can be up to 2 MB in size.
Standard Logo: Your standard logo needs to fit the ratio of 100x60 pixels for LinkedIn.
Square Logo: This is a version of your logo that appears on some places in LinkedIn, like the feed. It should be 50x50 pixels or square, since it will be resized to fit that size.
Company Specialties: This is a place where you can list different products, services, and specialties your company focuses on. Make sure this is up to date by adding any new services or major product lines and removing those you no longer offer.
Careers Page
Cover Image: This is a separate image at the top of your careers page. It should be a minimum of 970x240 pixels and can be cropped to fit the space. This image should invoke why potential employees would want to work with you and complement the look and feel of your overall branding.
Content – Description, Video, Slides, Images: You can customize what’s on this careers page to include a description, video, slides, images, and even a custom set of links.
Testimonials: You can even include quotes and testimonials from employees who work with you in this section, so make sure these feature current – and real! – employees who are glad to say why they love working for your company.
Services Page
Products & Services: You can customize this page with product logos, images, descriptions, names, and even video modules. Make sure to spend some time configuring and updating this page to best showcase your products and services.
Day 6 – YouTube
Go to “My Channel” under the dropdown menu, and then select the areas you want to edit. You can learn more about how to optimize your channel on this page called “Channel Optimization” from YouTube. The site estimates this process should take about an hour. Here are a few elements you’ll want to update:
Channel Art: You can add photos to your YouTube channel by uploading them or accessing photos already affiliated with your Google+ account. YouTube recommends a photo at 2560x1440 pixels to best display across all devices (desktop, TV, mobile, tablets) with a “safe” area within this image for text and logos of 1546x423 pixels centered within the image.
Channel Icon: You’ll want to make sure your icon is a high-resolution, square image that displays well at smaller sizes. 800x800pixels is what YouTube recommends.
Description: Under the “About,” section, update the description of your company, and optimize this description for search. The first few sentences of this description show up most prominently on the site, so make this an accurate description and include relevant keywords.
Links: You can include links to relevant sites such as your website and social pages.
Videos: Make sure that you have the latest, most relevant videos featured on your page. It’s also important to go through each video and make sure your titles are descriptive enough to get viewers to watch your video and contain important keywords they use to search for your videos. Check your descriptions as well to make sure they include critical keywords and even links to your website or product and service pages so they can learn more information. You can also update your videos by creating playlists and organizing them by type, product, or service, to make watching your content an easier, more enjoyable experience for visitors.
Day 7 – Pinterest
If you aren’t already using Pinterest, now is a great time to consider it. The site is growing exponentially and is the second-highest driver of website traffic of all social media platforms, driving more website traffic than Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Reddit combined. If you’re just setting up your account, check out these tips. If yours is just due for a refresh, log in, locate your profile icon in the upper right hand, hover, and select “Your Profile & Pins,” then, select the pencil under your description and select “Edit Profile.”
Account Type: If you joined Pinterest before it had the option for business pages, you can convert your account type to a business at business.pinterest.com. This gives you more options than a personal account does, such as a business type, contact person, and business name, rather than a first name/last name of a personal account.
Profile Image: This should be your business logo and is a square image format at 211x211 pixels, which displays at various sizes across the site.
About: Make sure your about section is relevant, updated, and optimized for search. You have 200 characters to convey what your business is, what you share with Pinterest users, and why you’re a great brand to follow.
Location: Make sure you’ve got the most relevant location affiliated with your Pinterest account.
Boards, Board Covers & Descriptions: In addition to making sure your Pinterest profile is updated, it’s a great idea to refresh your Pinterest boards. You can update the name of your boards to reflect a new branding or messaging theme. Give new life to your profile by selecting new cover images for each board and arranging them into a new order on your page. You can also update the description or category for each board by clicking “Edit.”
Add Maps: A new Pinterest feature is the ability to add maps to boards, called Place Pins. This is a great way to participate in content about your location and help attract local Pinterest users to content you share on the site.
Whew!
Who knew there were so many different aspects of your social media presence that could use a good update? Using this handy guide, you can refresh your social media presence to start off 2014 with a fresh start. Any other sites you’ll include in your social media refresh? Sound off in a comment.
Related Posts:
Optimizing Your Web Presence for the Zero Moment of Truth
YouTube SEO: Four Easy Tips to Boost Video Views
Google+ Plus Local: Your Guide to Optimizing Local Google+ Pages
Your Small Business Facebook Page Timeline Checklist
About the Author
Tiffany Monhollon shares practical tips and insights about reaching consumers across the web as a blogger for ReachLocal. Follow her on Twitter and Google+
Amy Neeley contributed to this article. Amy Neeley helps small- and medium-size businesses navigate the online marketing world with insights and information featured on the ReachLocal blog. Follow her on Twitter.
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