Social Media Audit: How to Conduct a Social Media Audit

When a business conducts a social media audit, it uses analytic tools to determine how the company performs on social media against competitors. By looking at key metrics like follower count, demographics, and engagement rate, you can identify areas of improvement to help you reach social media marketing goals.

A social media audit optimizes your brand’s online presence by highlighting the successes and failures of your existing social media marketing strategy. Using social media channels as marketing tools has become ubiquitous and prominent throughout many different types of industries. Mounting marketing campaigns on social media profiles—with the help of digital marketing tools—can help draw in new users and build engagement with current followers in a personalized way. With countless brands vying for customers’ attention online, social media audits give you the information you need to set your business apart.

Though you can purchase software to streamline the process, chances are you already have everything you need to perform a thorough social media audit. Here are the essential components of a social media audit:

• Social media account information: To access the analytics for each social media profile, log in using the username and password. You will also need to know your brand’s usernames to identify fake accounts, determine if you have active accounts on all popular platforms, and regulate brand integrity across each social media profile.
• Social media platform demographics: Compile the most current data on social media user demographics to understand your audience on each platform. This will help you tailor your social media strategy to create high-performing content.
• Spreadsheet or template: A social media audit aims to gather information, so pull up a spreadsheet or look online for a free social media audit template that can organize your data.

Developing a winning social media strategy requires learning from mistakes and adapting to new trends, social platforms, and technologies. Establish long-term social media marketing objectives for your brand so that you can adapt your social media efforts accordingly and monitor your progress.

Follow these steps to conduct a social media audit:

1. 1. List all social media profiles in a template or spreadsheet. Visit each social media platform and search for your brand name to uncover inactive or test accounts or accounts impersonating your brand. Develop a strategy for dealing with all unwanted accounts so that all traffic goes to your primary account. Check less obvious social media platforms—for example, if you don’t create video content, you should still check video platforms. Also, note whether your brand lacks a social media presence on any platform and determine if you need to create a new account to benefit your content strategy.
   
2. 2. Check for brand integrity. Effective social media management requires that you maintain a consistent brand across platforms. Build brand awareness by maintaining a consistent color scheme, tone, profile photo, and username on all your social media profiles.
3. 3. Check each platform’s built-in analytics. All social media platforms have analytics tools that help you monitor social media activity. On your audit spreadsheet, record important numbers, such as follower count, audience demographics, and engagement metrics.
4. 4. List the top posts for each account. Identify any patterns in your most successful content, such as hashtags, the type of post, the tone, or the type of audience engagement. If the same post performed better on some social platforms than others, make a note of the difference.
5. 5. Evaluate how each account contributes to your marketing goals. Compare your social media performance against any long-term goals. Even if you didn’t meet your desired benchmark, the audit information is a starting point to improve your marketing strategy. For each social profile, determine how the content performed with your target audience, if certain types of posts got better engagement, and if any new platforms could further your marketing goals.
6. 6. Engage in social listening. Visit the social media profiles of your top competitors and take note of any successful strategies. Write down which posts received the most likes and comments, and find patterns in successful content.
7. 7. Update your strategy. Compare your new analytics data against data from previous social media audits to find trends. Also, consult social media user demographics data to shed light on what content performs best on each platform. Then, develop action items to implement before your next social media audit.

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