There are things everyone should be doing for their New Year's resolution or as I call it "End of Year resolutions for 2014." Below are 4 things you need to be doing now.
1. Clean Up Your Facebook Friends List
Facebook always said the friend limit was 5000 on a profile page and somehow my page had 5016. Well, I cleaned up the list to 1900. In 2009, a story about my autistic son ran in Nigerian publications and directed everyone into my account, I kept clicking accept until I noticed how mute people were. People just wanted to be on my page to be in my so called inner circle. The same happened every time a story was run about me in the gossip blogs or newspapers. I trended on twitter 43 times in 2013 alone from wearing a bikini which Nigerian bloggers called NUDE to ripping government officials about homophobia and our country's anti-gay law. I suddenly saw a surge in friend requests. Fortunately Facebook created the FOLLOWERS option that people can no longer make a request based on my privacy settings and they can follow me. From people disguised in magazine profiles to stealing my family pictures. Delete non active friends off your page unlike twitter where you can now MUTE people. My friends list is now exactly 1897 people I know....PLUS 4079 followers who only get to see my public statuses. If you're gonna socialize, do it with active people.
2. Start Using Social Media To Network
We all know how powerful Linkedin could be with respect to career networking but did you know that you could literally talk to anyone on twitter? BBC News found me on Twitter via NTA News Now, Nigeria's TV broadcaster after reading my recycled article on blood donation on NTA's twitter. I am a Special Medical Correspondent for the Network writing online health articles only. I communicate with media networks faster on twitter and some executives on Facebook. Study your field of work and social media. How many people can potentially be following you. On Pinterest, I host a sponsored board for Prestige Capital Properties, a high end real estate and letting company in London, UK. Recently, another high end property company started following that board so I had to tell my client of course. Networking brings many opportunities.
3. Mute People on Twitter and Clean up Robot Accounts
Some accounts following us are bots and spam accounts. Find them, get rid of them. I did that last year and got rid of almost 5,000 followers @HNNAfrica. You must only keep the the real followers so as to maximize interaction with your followers. You need interaction on twitter and not a clogged news feed full of garbage you don't want to see. Mute the accounts you want to follow but never want to see a whole lot of the annoying tweets that go with them. I generally mute trolls and block them also reporting them for SPAM. Give those accounts the triple treatment. Never buy followers on social media. There are no interactions with them mostly robot accounts to just show you have numbers. Means nothing!
4. Monetize Your Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter Accounts
Start making noise! Empty barrels make the most money. In Nigeria, many people cannot sell themselves on social media. They are not designed to make noise just like everyone is not designed to be a people person. If you can sell sand on the beach or ice to an Eskimo, then monetize your accounts like mine @HNNAfrica and sell ads for clients. Let them use your platform to be seen. I tweet music tracks for artists, world news for international outlets, sell pinterest boards to event companies and a real estate firm showcasing houses and more. I have even tweeted for a streetside food vendor and it worked. Make money on your platforms and avoid using your twitter platform to attack and disrespect people. Nobody will want to do business with you. Several young Nigerians attack me on twitter then later ask me how they can monetize. Not on that handle, I tell many. You have to build all new followers from scratch.
Some accounts following us are bots and spam accounts. Find them, get rid of them. I did that last year and got rid of almost 5,000 followers @HNNAfrica. You must only keep the the real followers so as to maximize interaction with your followers. You need interaction on twitter and not a clogged news feed full of garbage you don't want to see. Mute the accounts you want to follow but never want to see a whole lot of the annoying tweets that go with them. I generally mute trolls and block them also reporting them for SPAM. Give those accounts the triple treatment. Never buy followers on social media. There are no interactions with them mostly robot accounts to just show you have numbers. Means nothing!
4. Monetize Your Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter Accounts
Start making noise! Empty barrels make the most money. In Nigeria, many people cannot sell themselves on social media. They are not designed to make noise just like everyone is not designed to be a people person. If you can sell sand on the beach or ice to an Eskimo, then monetize your accounts like mine @HNNAfrica and sell ads for clients. Let them use your platform to be seen. I tweet music tracks for artists, world news for international outlets, sell pinterest boards to event companies and a real estate firm showcasing houses and more. I have even tweeted for a streetside food vendor and it worked. Make money on your platforms and avoid using your twitter platform to attack and disrespect people. Nobody will want to do business with you. Several young Nigerians attack me on twitter then later ask me how they can monetize. Not on that handle, I tell many. You have to build all new followers from scratch.
