I read Dead Accounts – The Social Cemetery on Derek Haines’ blog. This got me thinking about all the dead social accounts I have. I can think of a couple but I know there are others I joined and have not thought of in years.
We all have dead (inactive) social media sites, somewhere. You may have started one on Twitter, Facebook or any of the endless less well known social media sites. If you haven’t been back to that account in 3 months, a year or even longer, it’s just adding to the number of users the site claims to have. It lets them seem more popular than they really are.
For each of us it may not matter. Just another account you started and forgot about. It does leave your email address and other information hanging around. You might consider closing those old accounts for that reason. How do you know what they do with that information. Having a spam policy doesn’t really mean anything. Did you read the spam policy when you joined?
You might delete your account just to get rid of the reminder emails they send, or the newsletters which will clutter up your email inbox as long as you remain in their database. It’s also a way to hear first hand about social networks that don’t make it and close up shop.
Hanging on to the account, should something change and you do start using it, is a remote possibility. Social sites seem to make it or not in the first year. Check through your email and go to each site as you find it. See how they have done. Keep those that seem useful. But remove yourself from the rest. Take the time to clear out some clutter and free yourself from dead accounts.