Social media is a great way to promote your company and reach out to new customers. Reviewing your social media accounts on a regular basis is essential, regardless of the platform. In addition to the general benefits of evaluating performance, this will assist you to analyze what’s working and what chances are available to grow your organization.
You’ll need to do a social media audit to determine this. Even though the phrase “audit” may sound intimidating, it’s simple to carry out if you use a social media audit checklist or tools as a guide. Continue reading to learn everything you need to know about social media auditing and some social media audit tools.<\/p>
A social media audit is a technique used to evaluate the effectiveness of your social media strategy across accounts and networks. An audit highlights your strengths, flaws, and the next steps required to develop.<\/p>
A social media audit enables you to assess how your social media initiatives are aligned with your business objectives.
An audit will show you which content and platforms are working the best, who your audience is and what they care about, and where to focus your efforts next.<\/p>
While there is no set timeframe or set of guidelines for when you should do a social media audit, there are some best practices to follow. In general, it’s recommended to conduct an audit every three months to incorporate new modifications and track success.<\/p>
However, if you’re seeing a lot of success across your channels and rarely need to make changes to your implementation, you could choose to do this audit every six months. Similarly, if you notice a high number of negative customer complaints about your social channels, you may want to run this audit more frequently. This ensures that all of your channels are up-to-date and operational.<\/p>
It’s critical to stay on track as you begin your social media audit. A basic checklist can help you focus on what you need to do. As you begin your social media audit, keep the following in mind.<\/p>
Let’s imagine you’re performing your first social media audit. No problem!
We’ve broken out the process for your initial audit step by step below, much of which can be rinsed and repeated the next time you need to assess your presence.<\/p>
First and foremost, you will need to inventory your social profiles.
This may appear to be a no-brainer, right? Consider your social profiles in addition to “major” networks like Facebook and Twitter. You know, like that YouTube channel with two subscribers or the Pinterest page you haven’t touched in three years.<\/p>
If there are networks you’re no longer active on, you don’t have to track them. Simply ensure that they are claimed and within your company’s control. On the other side, an audit may assist you in identifying opportunities that are a perfect fit for the unique qualities of networks that you have been ignoring.<\/p>
After you’ve identified all of your current social profiles, the following step is to decide which platforms you want to focus on. You’re probably aware of your priorities, but a good social media audit can reveal which profiles are indeed your top performers.<\/p>
To avoid becoming overwhelmed, it’s critical to focus on your social media goals on each platform where you’re active, including:<\/p>
Goal-setting<\/a> will not only help direct your presence but will also advise you of the metrics to track for each platform. Consistent branding on social media is clear, but some aspects are easily overlooked. If you don’t run a lot of social-specific advertising and are just attempting to drive visitors to your website, chances are not much will change from audit to audit. Now that you know which profiles to audit and which metrics to seek, it’s time to delve into the data. Digging down to individual posts can reveal the types of material you should be producing. There are no surprises here: it is critical to assess the relationship between your social media presence and your website. Demographic data is important for everything from how you communicate with your audience to how you prioritize different content or platforms. New social media platforms emerge on a regular basis, albeit not all of them are necessarily long-term. Highlight new platforms you want to investigate in your social media audit spreadsheet. Keep in mind that this is not required. No concerns if you’re already concentrated on a few networks or can’t locate any new platforms that pique your interest right now. Your spreadsheet should be basically complete at this point. What now? You have everything you need to make more educated decisions, whether it’s increasing you following on a certain channel, increasing engagement, or widening your audience. To take it a step further, undertake a full-fledged SWOT analysis after your social media audit to identify your company’s most critical prospects.<\/p> Preferably, you should have a full-scale audit once a year, as well as periodic evaluations. Your yearly evaluation, which should be completed around the same time each year, will thoroughly examine all of your accounts to evaluate whether it is prudent to continue utilizing that platform.<\/p> The focus of your monthly reviews will be more on the content. You’ll examine the analytics of the content you’ve posted that month to determine which types of posts your target audience responds to the best. If you work with influencers, you can take your monthly reviews a step further by examining the performance of the content your influencers distribute.<\/p> That depends! You can run a fast social media audit in as little as 30 minutes, but if you want to get deep into each of your profiles, you may want to set aside a few hours.<\/p> Utilizing the correct tools to complete your audit can make the process go more quickly and smoothly. Social media management tools can not only gather the data required for an audit, but they can also track it over time so that it is always available at a glance. Many will provide deep analytics that goes beyond the capability of each specific platform. Check out the tools below to explore what might work for your company:<\/p> Managing several social media profiles can be time-consuming. A social media audit can assist you in determining how to best allocate your time and money. A quarterly audit of your online presence will assist your company in making the most of social media and all that it has to offer.<\/p>
For example, while your Instagram followers may be rising quicker than those on Facebook, the latter is generating more paying clients. When it comes to your metrics, the context of your goals matters.
For your first social media audit, you don’t have to fill in every single blank!
Again, concentrate on the social media indicators that correspond to your objectives.<\/p>#3. Ensure that your branding, advertising, and terminology are all consistent.<\/h3>
Check that your profiles “match” when it comes to creatives, promotions, and campaigns when you audit your social presence. This includes:<\/p>
On the other hand, brands that run seasonal ads will need to evaluate these facts on a frequent basis. For example, you should double-check that your holiday campaigns aren’t still running in mid-March.<\/p>#4. Access your social media analytics.<\/h3>
This is where you’ll be able to see if you’re on track or if there’s space for improvement.
It’s worth noting that a social media analytics solution like Sprout may significantly speed up the process of gathering your stats, not to mention keep them all up-to-date in one location.<\/p>#5. Determine your best-performing social media postings.<\/h3>
For example, does your target audience enjoy watching videos? Photos? Posts with questions?
Your native analytics for each platform can help you understand what any given piece of content is receiving in terms of:<\/p>#6. Determine how you’re directing social media traffic.<\/h3>
This will not only help you determine which topics generate legitimate interest from your audience, but it will also show you which channels are the most effective at producing leads.<\/p>#7. Examine your demographic information<\/h3>
Messaging targeting Generation Z and millennials, for example, is like comparing apples to oranges. As a result, your social media audience should comprise people of all ages and genders.
Your audience statistics should ideally be consistent across all platforms. If so, you should reassess your messaging and content approach for ancillary networks.<\/p>#8. Evaluate the opportunities presented by new social media channels.<\/h3>
For example, perhaps you’re not completely sold on TikTok but are still looking into potential there. Good! Similarly, becoming an early user of new platforms might help you get ahead of your competitors.<\/p>
Having said that, it’s always a good idea to stay on top of new and developing social media trends.<\/p>#9. Create new objectives and action items.<\/h3>
Remember that the goal of a social media audit is to help you assess your current situation and plan for the future.<\/p>
We incorporated a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis section for each network in the form to assist make your social media assessment more actionable. You can use this section to offer some high-level analysis based on all of the data you acquire during your audit.<\/p>How Often Should a Social Media Audit Be Conducted?<\/h2>
Read Also: SOCIAL MEDIA MONITORING: Best Practices & Tools In 2023<\/a><\/h5>
How Long Does a Social Media Audit Take?<\/h2>
Social Media Audit Tools <\/h2>
Conclusion<\/h2>