Resolve to Spruce Up, Pare Down, and Manage Your On-line Presence

“Lucy!  You got some ‘splainin’ to do!”
January is nearly over. How are those 2012 New Year’s Resolutions holding out? Have you made it to the gym daily as you promised you would do? Are you still ingesting copious amounts of sugar and alcohol? Are you working toward your newly minted goals on a daily basis?

Pep Talk
If you need a little ‘pick me up’ in the self esteem department because your New Year’s Resolutions haven’t made it through the first month, maybe you need to set and execute some short-term January resolutions. Here are a few suggestions you can do today to get yourself back on the right track.

Spruce Up Your Website
Read your entire website. Give it a fresh perspective. Re-write a page in third person that is currently written in first person. Add a list of your recent shows or comments from fans. Replace old pictures with new ones. Include links to all the social media sites on which you have a presence (e.g., Facebook, Twitter). Modify your copyright notice to include 2012.

Pare Down Your Twitter Feed
I think it is good housekeeping to pare down who I am following periodically. Unfollow those who no longer add value to your feed. I use an application called “ManageFlitter” It will display those whom I am following who are not following me back, which accounts are not actively posting, and provide a recent Tweet from each Twitterer for me to easily determine if I want to continue to follow them.

Manage Your Security
Cyber security is something that most people do a poor job of managing. Facebook and Twitter partner sites and applications are constantly asking you to grant permission to use their services. You may have opted into the latest Facebook game, but never did find the time to play it. Did you revoke the app’s access to your Facebook information? Probably not. We get busy. We forget. Why does it matter?

SECURITY is why it matters. Countless Facebook accounts are hacked on a daily basis. You can avoid participating in that statistic by 1) Changing your password at least monthly to a unique password (Do not use the same password for every username/password combination on the internet!) and 2) Clean up your permissions. I recommend this handy tool.  Click on each social media button, review the list of apps that have access, and delete the apps you no longer use.

Atta Boy / Atta Girl
Good job! In just a short amount of time you have completed several goals to start the New Year off on a positive note or get yourself back on track with your New Year’s resolutions.

…Now put down the Twinkie and get back to work!

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