The sun is shining here in Northeast Indiana, and I'm beginning to see the faintest hint of tulips peeking up among the tangle of dried weeds and brush in the flower bed.
That can only mean one thing - it's time for some spring cleaning.
The concept of sprucing up the house and clearing away the winter wardrobe is part and parcel of the whole spring cleaning process.
It's about a fresh start - a new beginning.
I've decided to take my spring cleaning activities on-line this year, and I'm starting with (gasp!) my social media accounts.
I've taken to Twitter, followed by Facebook, and I've dropped hundreds of "friends" faster than Lindsay Lohan's stint in rehab.
Wait...did you say dropped?
Yep, you bet I did. I realize that is counterintuitive to anything and everything we hear about social media. Everywhere you turn, folks are telling you how to "automate the friending process," or "gain thousands of new followers."
Call me crazy, but to that I simply say, "why?" You already know that I likened buying followers to stuffing your bra, so we won't go there again.
If you're like me, you probably have acquired your fair share of followers on the various social networks. I'd like to invite you to take a quick quiz.
Take a look at the bullet items below, and answer them honestly:
- Of the Facebook friend requests that you've approved in the last six months, how many have you never seen or heard from again, aside from that initial contact?
- Have you bothered to say hello, or introduced yourself on their wall?
- How many of these new friends contact you only with a slew of requests to "like" their pages, or attend their webinars or launches?
- How many have disappeared altogether?
These were just a few of the questions I asked myself when I began to take a critical look at my friends list, and pare them down. When I took an honest look at my answers, I knew I needed to make some changes.
I realize that my approach is not for everyone. In fact, I'm sure that there will be plenty of folks who disagree completely. I can only base my decisions on my own user experience.
Speaking of which, once I cleared away some of the cobwebs from my accounts and dusted them off, something interesting began to happen.
The quality of the engagement with my friends actually improved. I no longer needed to wade through pages of clutter, delete dozens of invites, or block countless game updates. They simply disappeared.
It left me time to actually enjoy the experience, develop new partnerships, and make deeper connections.
Of course, now that I've got that out of the way, I suppose I need to turn my attention to the spring cleaning tasks here at home.
Anyone got the number for Merry Maids?