Social media is the game we all want to win, right? We definitely live in an era where having an active presence online is necessary. When it comes to business social media use, this could not be more true! Not only can your business thrive with the right social media use, it can also be a quality (and often inexpensive) marketing tool that you should use to its utmost advantages.
While we recommend dedicating time to branding, planning, and engaging on social media, we also highly recommend executing a social media audit on your business accounts at minimum annually. This will allow for you to recognize patterns, trends, and look for opportunities to make changes that could positively impact your business.
So what exactly is a social media audit? It’s a chance for you to learn, through a series of measurements, data about your social media profiles that will allow you to make adjustments to help you grow and expand based on facts. Don’t worry, it’s not an overly technical process and we will walk you through the steps on how to conduct a social media audit for your business!
Before we dive in, remember that social media is an ever-changing game but it’s also unique to different niches. What works for some may not work for others. While this can be frustrating at times, consider this part of the social media world to give you the maximum opportunity to be creative, be unique, and to stand out from the crowd.
Now, let’s learn how to complete a social media audit!
3-Step Process for Completing a Social Media Audit
1. Organize your platforms & record basic stats
Alright class, we first are going to note all of your different social media platforms and the following information about them:
Platform name
Profile handle
Profile URL
# of followers / likes
This is just the start of compiling data but should not be skipped so that you have one central location to refer to all of your different social profiles. This also allows you to see, at a glance, all of your basic data to help drive decisions in the next few steps.
2. Analyze & identify
Now comes the fun part for really digging into the metrics. Most social media platforms have a stats section that can provide you with the following information:
Engagement percentage
Demographic information (majority male vs. female followers, location, age, etc.)
Reach
Impressions
There are countless tools that can also be connected to your social media accounts to provide even more data worth analyzing. Some of our favorites include Later, Iconosquare, and Hootsuite, which provide more data, such as:
Demographic information (male vs. female followers, location, age, etc.)
Top posts
Number of views
Number of saves
Number of shares
It is important to take some time to really analyze who, with which posts, and how often your followers are engaging with your content to know how to better cater your content to the demand. You will find that as you adjust your strategy to fit more content that is well received and engaged with, your account will grow.
By identifying which posts are the most successful, using any added tools to confirm your demographic of followers, and creating unique, branded content that falls in line with your highest engaged posts, your social media game will feel powerful and exciting!
3. Set goals & make a plan to achieve them
Now is the time to set some realistic goals for growth of your social media pages. Whether you want to achieve more followers, higher reach, more views, or even just improved engagement, your goals should be based on the data you analyzed over at least 6 months.
Look ahead and make predictions on where you think you can realistically move your account by implementing well-researched strategies and tips (we love sharing them on our account too!) When your goals are made, map out a plan to achieve them that even includes post ideas, timing, dedicated hours to engagement, and more.
We always recommend writing down your goals on physical paper and putting them somewhere you can see every single day. This will motivate you to keep at it in this wild world of social media!
BONUS TIP: During a social media audit, you might find that your content can be recycled in more places (i.e. your website, a new platform, into your newsletters, etc.) Take advantage of your analytics to show you where your current content could also fit in a different place. There’s nothing wrong with cross-posting when your follower demographics are the same in both places!
We hope you feel ready to tackle a social media audit! You have the tools, knowledge, and resources to take a stab at it and relish in the information it gives you.
Don’t forget to set a reminder to do a social media audit *at minimum* annually and compare previous year’s trends. You will undoubtedly learn something from your assessment which can help you improve! You got this!
Check out these other helpful tips for building your business: