In many industries, your company's success is only as good
as its online presence. Discover the significance of conducting a social media
audit to evaluate your brand's online performance.
What Exactly Is a Social Media Audit?
When a company conducts a social media audit, it uses
analytic tools to determine how the company compares to competitors on social
media. You can identify areas for improvement in social media marketing by
looking at key metrics such as follower count, demographics, and engagement
rate.
Why Is a Social Media Audit Necessary?
A social media audit improves your brand's online visibility
by highlighting the successes and failures of your current social media
marketing strategy. Using social media channels as marketing tools has become
widespread and prevalent across a wide range of industries. Mounting marketing
campaigns on social media profiles with the help of digital marketing tools can
help attract new users and build personalized engagement with current
followers. With so many brands competing for customers' attention online,
social media audits provide you with the information you need to set your
company apart.
Social Media Audit Checklist
Though software can be purchased to help with the process,
chances are you already have everything you need to conduct a thorough social
media audit. The following are the key components of a social media audit:
1. Account information on social media: Log in with your
username and password to access the analytics for each social media profile.
You will also need to know your brand's usernames in order to identify fake
accounts, determine whether you have active accounts on all popular platforms,
and maintain brand integrity across all social media profiles.
2. Demographics of social media platforms: Compile the most
recent demographic data on social media users to better understand your
audience on each platform. This will assist you in tailoring your social media
strategy in order to create high-performing content.
3. Spreadsheet or template: Because the goal of a social media
audit is to gather information, open a spreadsheet or search online for a free
social media audit template to organize your data.
4. Learning from mistakes and adapting to new trends, social
platforms, and technologies are required for developing a winning social media
strategy. Set long-term social media marketing goals for your brand so that you
can adjust your social media efforts and track your progress.
How to Perform a Social Media Audit
To conduct a social media audit, follow these steps:
1. Create a template or spreadsheet that contains a list of
all social media profiles. Search for your brand name on each social media
platform to find inactive or test accounts, as well as accounts impersonating
your brand. Create a plan for dealing with all unwanted accounts so that all
traffic is directed to your primary account. Check out less obvious social
media platforms, such as video platforms, even if you don't create video
content. Also, consider whether your brand does not have a social media
presence on any platform and whether you need to create a new account to
benefit your content strategy.
2. Examine the brand's integrity. Maintaining a consistent
brand across platforms is essential for effective social media management.
Maintain a consistent color scheme, tone, profile photo, and username across
all of your social media profiles to increase brand awareness.
3. Examine the analytics built into each platform. Analytics
tools are available on all social media platforms to assist you in monitoring
social media activity. Important numbers, such as follower count, audience
demographics, and engagement metrics, should be recorded on your audit
spreadsheet.
4. List the most popular posts from each account. Identify
any patterns in your most successful content, such as hashtags, post type,
tone, or audience engagement. Make a note of whether the same post performed
better on one social platform than another.
5. Assess how each account contributes to your marketing
objectives. Compare your social media performance to any long-term objectives.
Even if you did not meet your desired benchmark, the audit data can be used to
improve your marketing strategy. Determine how the content performed with your
target audience for each social profile, whether certain types of posts
received more engagement, and whether any new platforms could help you achieve
your marketing goals.
6. Practice social listening. Examine your top competitors'
social media profiles for any successful strategies. Make a list of the posts
that received the most likes and comments, and look for patterns in successful
content.
7. Revisit your strategy. To identify trends, compare your
new analytics data to data from previous social media audits. Also, look at
social media user demographics to see what content works best on each platform.
Then, create action items to put in place before your next social media audit.
