When I started “playing” with social media a few years ago, I set up a profile at every site I could find. I grabbed up my name on platforms that I can’t even recall because it might be the next big thing. (remember Plurk?)
This is going to be one of those “no right or wrong” sorts of discussions.
Lets start with the “how many profiles is too many” part of our discussion today. Personally, my name is my brand, so I did use checkusernames.com and namechk.com to search for availability and grabbed the ones I wanted to hold. That being said, the reality is that I really only use Twitter and Facebook on a daily basis. I found that it is too distracting and difficult to monitor and participate on more than that.
I don’t mind those profiles floating out there, but some people do and want to delete them. But what if you know you made these, but can’t remember all of them and have no clue where to start searching?
Enter services like lullar.com and yoname.com. Plug in your email address and these services will show you your profiles so you can go investigate, tidy house or delete.
These could also be used to find the profiles for friends (or other people you want to stalk).
Deleting said profiles varies in ease from site to site. Many are as simple as a polite goodbye and a few clicks, others offer layers of guilt and legal mumbo jumbo to weed through before you can break up. Facebook, I have been told, will even throw it in your face that your friends will miss you.
Now remember, any data that is stored on these profiles will be deleted when you cancel, so make sure to move photos, blog posts, etc. before hitting the final button.
Now onto the “how many followers” question. I know lots of Twitter friends that went through their list and weeded out followers with a ruthless conviction. They insist that this will help them to get back to more engagement on the medium. While I absolutely agree that engagement is THE key, I only delete people when they really really upset me or turn out to be spammy (which is really the same thing as upsetting me). Personally, I prefer to utilize lists and columns to keep my interactions simple and real. Only you know how many is too many or not enough, follow your instincts on this one.
That being said, if you would like to clean up your Twitter list there are a number of applications that can help you with that job. You can ask Nest Unclutterer to analyze your “nest” or Friend or Follow to see who is and is not following you.
So you tell me: bigger is better or less is more?
