USANA Social Media Tip #22: End-of-Year Maintenance

As we enter the home stretch of 2010, it’s an excellent time to take a look at the past year — what worked and what didn’t, what you accomplished over the past 12 months and what you hope to accomplish in 2011. That way, when the clock strikes midnight on Jan. 1 you will be ready to hit the ground running.

In terms of social media, I plan to set aside some time to do a little end-of-year maintenance — updating profile information, cleaning out clutter, and overall sprucing up of my online presence. For the latest USANA Social Media Tip, here are a few things to think about so your social media persona can help you achieve your goals. 

Tell Us About Yourself
So many of you are doing such a great job providing excellent content in the form of tweets, Facebook status updates, blog posts, and blog comments. But I can’t stress enough the importance of providing your followers — and people who simply stumble upon your sites — with basic information about who you are and what you do. Let your social media work for you. Here are a few ideas:

• Fill out your Twitter bio

  Twitter: If I come across a particularly interesting tweet, the first thing I do is check out that person’s bio — a short bit of information about the tweeter. This is an excellent spot to let people know who you are and what you do and, of course, provide a link to a website for additional information. Plus, when people are searching for, say, health or nutrition or USANA, it couldn’t hurt to have those keywords in your bio. To add or change your Twitter bio, click on Settings and then Profile.

• Facebook: Likewise, on a Facebook profile I’m always clicking on the “Info” tab to read more about that particular person. Fill it in with employers, education, interests, and again, don’t forget that all-important contact information. To do this, click “Edit My Profile” located below your profile picture (or find “Info” on the left column if you have the new Profile layout). This is also an ideal time to snag yourself a custom URL, if you haven’t done so already. Visit http://www.facebook.com/username and follow the instructions to get a nifty, easy-to-remember — and business card ready — address such as: http://www.facebook.com/BobSmith.

  Important Note: If you are adding USANA Health Sciences as an employer in the new Facebook format, please select this page to link to and do not create a new Community Page. Read more about this on Jen Fong’s blog. Be sure to identify yourself as an Independent Associate in the “position” field.

• Leave comments on other blogs

  Blogs: Consider adding an “About” tab to your blog, or include pertinent information in one of the side columns about who you are, what you do, and how people can contact you. And when you’re out and about visiting other blogs, I encourage you to comment on blog posts, where appropriate. It’s not only an excellent way to support the overall blogging community, but it’s also a great way to introduce yourself to potentially an entirely new audience. As a bonus, commenting gives you a chance to include a link to your own website or blog for curious minds who want to know a little more about the person who just left the awesome comment! (Hint: If you leave a comment on What’s Up, USANA? we’ll get to know you better. And we’d love to get to know you better).

Bolster Your Credentials
Once you’ve tended to the basics in terms of adding relevant information to your sites, think about what other information might be valuable for the casual observer or frequent visitor.

Did you receive an honor, award or other recognition? Are you part of a committee or volunteer group? Do you have any interesting hobbies or pastimes?

Consider what might set you apart, while at the same time adding an extra dose of credibility to the valuable content you’re providing day in and day out.

Picture Perfect
Now is an excellent time to evaluate your profile-picture usage and see if changes should be made for the new year. Sure, it’s fun to play the Facebook change-your-profile-photo game and it’s a blast to upload a photo of your dog, child, or latest group gathering.

But if you’re serious about utilizing social media professionally, I recommend choosing an appropriate photo of yourself and using it across all platforms — Facebook, Twitter, etc. Here is a great checklist by DNAinfo for what makes an appropriate profile photo (I often break the no-hat rule).

What Else?
In the comments, please feel free to offer additional steps you’ve taken to tidy up your social media presence.

How are you using social media? If there are topics you’d like discussed in these Social Media Tip posts, feel free to send them our way and we’ll do our best to incorporate them into future posts. Please visit our archive of social media tips.