Cut the clutter in your social media accounts

Being active on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook is kind of like having a basement in the suburbs. 

These accounts can quickly become so cluttered that you might as well shut the door and say goodbye - you’re never finding anything you need again.

But like your basement, social accounts can be kept tidy with some occasional attention. 

 

And what better time for cleansing and renewal than spring? 

 

Here are some tips for cleaning out your feeds and timelines and making social platforms more useful. 

(These steps are to be used with the full Facebook site on a computer, not a mobile device.)

Prioritise Your Friends

On Facebook, as in life, some friends are better than others. 

To fill your news feed with more photographs and status updates from people you truly care about, separate your Facebook friends into two groups: “close friends” and “acquaintances.” 

Facebook will feature your close friends’ posts more prominently in your news feed. 

To add a friend to a specific list, go to the person’s page and hover over the “friends” button. A drop-down menu will appear with options.

Unfollow the Ranters

If you would rather skip the endless dog photos a former roommate posts on Facebook, you don’t need to go as far as removing him from your list of friends. 

 

Instead, when you see your friend’s name appear in your news feed, pull down the arrow on the right side of the post and click “Unfollow.” 

 

Your former roommate won’t be notified that his posts no longer appear in your feed.

Another option is to choose “I don’t want to see this.” 

 

This will hide a particular photo or rant from your feed. Facebook will then try to use that information to show you more appealing posts in the future.

Cut Out Annoying Ads

You can also hide specific advertisements on Facebook. Don’t want to see ads for “office-appropriate yoga pants”? 

 

Pull down the arrow next to the post in your news feed and choose the option to hide all ads from that brand. 

 

The problem with this technique is that hiding a particular advertiser does not change the distribution of ads in your news feed.

Trim Back Groups

If you’re like me, you have joined countless Facebook groups and you can’t remember who or what some of these groups are. 

 

To subtly sneak out the back door, go to the page with your news feed and next to “Groups” in the left column click on “More.” 

 

Next to each one listed, click on the icon on the right that looks like a wheel. You can then decide if you want to leave the group or simply turn off notifications from it.

Control Future and Past Posts

You can also clean up what is posted on your own Facebook page. 

 

If you don’t want to worry about friends tagging you in unflattering photographs that then appear on your page, adjust your settings. 

 

Go to Settings, and then select Timeline and Tagging.
 

For “Who can add things to my timeline?” you can set it so that only you can post to your timeline. You can also require that you review all posts you’re tagged in.

If you’re worried about what strangers might see on your Facebook page, you can make all of your past posts viewable only to your friends and anyone tagged in a post and their friends. 

 

Go to your Facebook privacy settings, and under “Who can see my stuff?” click on “Limit Past Posts.”

Adjust Your Twitter Lists

Many of us now follow so many people on Twitter that our timeline overflows with too many tweets to read. 

 

You could unfollow some accounts, but if you’re following hundreds of people, it’s probably easier and less time-consuming to make lists. 

(This method is also less likely to hurt anyone’s feelings.) You can create lists by subject, like travel or local news. 

You can also create a master list of essential people whose tweets you don’t want to miss.

 

Keeping a list “private” lets you be as discriminating as you’d like. And you don’t need to follow someone to add him or her to a list.

If you already have Twitter lists, now would be a great time to go through them and remove those who no longer belong and add new people.

Check Your Bios

The short bio on your Twitter profile is your one big opportunity to tell people why they should follow you. 

 

If you recently changed jobs or started tweeting about a new topic, update your bio to reflect that.

While you’re at it, make sure that your profiles on the other social platforms you use - especially LinkedIn and Facebook - also reflect your current employer and position, geographic location, etc. 

This is particularly important for LinkedIn, which many people use like an online résumé.

 

Hopefully these tips will make your social accounts a bit more usable. As for your basement? Good luck.