A social media audit is a series of steps taken to evaluate and optimise a business’ social media profiles and strategies. They’re usually an annual process to help the general business review process. It’s also especially important for e-commerce businesses as their online presence is their only presence.

Why conduct an audit? An audit is like making a budget for the first time. It takes many small parts and tracks where time and money is going and how effective that spending is. It answers some key questions about the relationship between a business and its audience. These questions can be media-specific such as, “is the Facebook page retaining old followers?” as well as general ones like, “are there any profiles that are not in line with our business and marketing plan?”. These answers can lead to specific realignments, reductions, and expansions that will move your business towards its goals, rather than trying to tackle every option.

There are different components of social media audits, but here are a few:

Locate all profiles

Finding all of your profiles can be easy if your social media plan keeps a record of them or you’re a smaller business, but sometimes there are profiles on older networks or on a briefly-trending niche media outlet that you may have forgotten about. Make sure to check Google Plus, LinkedIn, Yelp, Tumblr, Instagram, Snapchat, Vine, Periscope, employment websites, and many more.

Analyse performance

On a spreadsheet, collect social media data such as its URL, accessibility, following, and engagement. You should also note trends such as how your followers responded to a shift in posting quantities or timings, or an overall content shift. These statistics can be very specific with impressions, click-through rates, number of shares, and response rate, to name a few. Use all the statistics available to you as the richer the pool of data, the more complete the analysis will be. This information can be recorded manually or taken from a social media tracking and metrics service.

Check each profile for completion and consistency

Make sure every field in the “about” section and bio is filled. This is different for each social media platform, but they should all be complete. Logos, formatting, names, and information should all match for a consistent brand image. Although some content will be platform-specific, content should have a consistent voice and purpose across all of them. Social media is considered one communication from one brand despite all of the different channels, so it should match.

Consider audience demographics and interests

Since your brand’s tone and content should be consistent, not all social media profiles may be worthwhile. Although your brand is on many platforms at once, the general public tends to choose just a few, in predictable trends. For example, Pinterest is used mostly by women looking for cooking, homeware, and design content. If this is not your company’s main market, then it is probably best to forgo a Pinterest account, rather than spend energy communicating with an uninterested user.

Although all the time-consuming steps may seem intimidating, a social media audit is worth the time. It will save energy in the future and will strengthen campaigns moving forward once you know what works for you and what doesn’t on social media.

Agent Intern Sofia