I think you're on the right track. I had some TIM go astray during a GPU block swap and I used alcohol and q-tips to clean it up. It may take several q-tips to get all of it so just be patient. The good news is that as long as you aren't bridging anything it shouldn't hurt if there is a slight film on the pins once you're done cleaning the globs. Just do the best you can and be careful not to bend the pins.