Spring Cleaning

Most of us don’t enjoy spring cleaning our homes. We do enjoy being on our phones. Cleaning up your social media accounts and updating your online reputation can be more fun than cleaning out your garage!.

Just like the back of your garage or attic, you may find things in your Facebook history that you forgot about. Instead of getting dirty or procrastinating and turning on the TV, get comfortable and open up your Facebook account on your tablet or laptop and take a stroll down memory lane.

Click and open your current photo, then hit the arrow to the left. You’ll find your very first profile picture, and you will see how much has changed in your life since then. It’s also fun and interesting to read the older comments written by your friends. Look under your name next to the photo’ date, above the comments. There is an icon that tells you who can see that photo. It is probably set to “Public” which is Facebook's default. If that’s okay with you, continue arrowing to the left to see your next photo; If you prefer your photo to be more private, you can click the icon and change the view to “Friends Only”. Reconsider if you find one you want to delete, and maybe choose the view “Only Me”. When choosing that setting, it will still appear in your “Memories on Facebook” which only you can see.

After you’ve enjoyed reminiscing over your profile photos, you can repeat the process with your cover photos. Then you can tackle your uploaded photos and your albums.

These photos are accessible to anyone on the Web.

Erring on the side of caution can protect you, your home and your family by utilizing the “Friends Only” feature. This will ensure that the precious photos of your children, your home, your new diamond ring, etc., will be seen only by those who you know and hopefully trust.

Definitely your photos with your ex. This option could also be used for photos that you wouldn’t want your boss or coworkers to see if they are on your friends list.

You can create a view called “Friends Except”, which gives you a drop down box where you can select specific people to exclude from viewing your photo or post. The “friends except” is stored in the memory, can be used anytime you want and can be edited.

You can create a view called “Specific Friends” which gives you a drop down box where you can select specific people to view your photo or post. Just like “Friends Except”, this option can be used anytime and can be edited.

IIs the person you selected still the person you want in charge of your Facebook account? Go into your General Settings and take a look.

If you haven’t, choose a trusted family member or friend to take care of your account after you pass away.

They won't be able to post as you or see your messages

Your legacy contact will be able to view all posts made to your tributes section after your profile is memorialized.

The groups you belong to and the pages you follow contribute to your online algorithms. This is why you see the ads, suggested pages and suggested friends that you do. Scan through your Facebook Groups and remove yourself from any that you are no longer active in. Unlike or unfollow any pages that are no longer important. Your algorithms will change and you will begin to see new content that is more relevant to you. When you change your online behavior, your algorithms will change as well.

Do you click posts on Facebook that open in a new tab? Or do you take an occasional quiz or use profile photo frames? You could have unknowingly given third-party permission to add an app to your Facebook account which may contain viruses and/or malware. Remove any apps you are not familiar with or are using. Apps have permissions to access your information including your location. Many are even known to act on your behalf without you knowing it. In your Settings, choose “Apps and Websites”. You will be surprised by what you see!

Are you an active Instagram or Twitter user? Check your bio/profile information and the hashtags in it. Make sure that everything is still relevant. Remove anything that is outdated and add new content/hashtags to keep your bio fresh and interesting.

Both Twitter and Instagram allow you to use hashtags in your bio to help people find and follow you. You can also include emojis. If you are an artist, you can add a paintbrush. If you’re an avid animal lover, show it by adding a dog, a cat and more!

If you have a blog or an online presence outside of social media platforms, you can update photos or older content to freshen it up. Add or edit content to expand on new ideas that may be relevant today. You can delete old blog posts that you may not want anymore or perhaps didn’t get much engagement. Be sure to save the content you delete. You may want to use it in the future.

Update your LinkedIn. Check your contact information, your headline, current, and past positions, as well as employers that may have changed. Include recent awards or acknowledgments and revise your education or certifications if needed.

If it’s been a year or more since you last changed your passwords on any site that auto-saves your credit card number, you should change them. This is especially important if you don’t have multi-factor authentication enabled. Consider doing this with your email and social media accounts as well.

Check websites, images, and videos. You may find yourself associated with a prior employer or have a public bio associated with a site you once joined or were connected to. Ask for it to be removed. If you are contacting the site via email, include the URL (the link to the content) and ask them to forward your request to their webmaster. Chances are that the person receiving your email is not the person able to handle this task and it could be ignored.

What used to be simply washing the curtains and getting rid of old clothing, spring cleaning has taken on a new life with all of our modern day digital products.

We hope this article has inspired you to take Spring Cleaning to a new level.