Is your brand in need of a social media audit? The foundations of modern social media strategy need to be data and objectives. The impact of social media shouldn’t be unclear, and accountability is essential. Building a modern social media strategy starts with anchoring it in data and objectives. Clarity on the impact of social media is key, and accountability is non-negotiable. Yet, numerous businesses operate on social platforms without a defined strategy. Perhaps your approach has been more freestyle, or perhaps you haven’t had the bandwidth to thoroughly assess your social footprint. However, performing a social media audit stands as a wise and proactive step forward.
Audits are an effective technique for making decisions with confidence. They offer specific responses to concerns like content strategy, platform importance, and the necessity of making changes in an environment that is changing quickly. Social media audits help businesses evaluate the influence of social media on their business activities and prevent premature decisions by using performance data to make informed decisions. Frequent audits help identify overlooked achievements and allow efficient social ROI reporting. They also improve operations by highlighting low-priority jobs, saving time, and highlighting potential for growth that may have gone unnoticed.
So here are 10 steps that will help you conduct a social media audit with ease:
Make a list of all of your social media profiles first. Obvious, right? But think about your social media accounts on platforms other than “big” ones like Facebook or Instagram. You don’t have to struggle and spend time on networks you aren’t using. Verify again that you are the owner of those accounts and that your company has authority over them and decide if they reach your preferred target audience.
No surprises here. Concentrate on your social media objectives for every platform you use, such as:
Setting goals definitely indicates your presence. Your goals will also tell you which metrics are essential to monitor on each platform. For instance, you may be gaining Instagram followers more quickly than Facebook ones. However, the latter is bringing in more money from clients. The context of your goals is important when it comes to your measurements.
Maintaining a consistent brand on social media is crucial. However, a few details are simple to miss. As you conduct a review of your social media presence, remember to confirm that your profiles “match.” For consistency, keep the following elements of your brand identity in mind:
Trying to drive traffic to your website but don’t have a lot of social media-specific marketing campaigns? There’s a good chance that not much will change between audits. Nevertheless, companies that execute seasonal marketing efforts must evaluate these specifics on a regular basis. For instance, by mid-March, you should make sure you’re not still using holiday campaign creatives.
Now that you have your profiles at hand, it’s time to explore your data. You will now be able to determine if you are meeting your goals. You can also notice areas that require additional work. Keep in mind that gathering your stats might happen more quickly if you use a social media analytics platform like Google Analytics
or HubSpot. Doing so not only accelerates the process but also centralizes and maintains them in a single, up-to-date location.
By going deeper into each post, you can find the kind of content you should be writing. Does your audience love short-form video? Posts that ask questions? Carousels? You can learn more from your native analytics. Examine the following metrics for each platform where your content is distributed:
Understanding the relationship between your website and social media presence plays an important role in decoding audience engagement. This will reveal the content that truly captivates your audience’s interest. While several strategies exist to channel traffic from social media to your platform, blanket coverage doesn’t assure success. The essence lies in quality over quantity; hence, focusing your efforts on a select few strategies that resonate best with your brand can bring superior results.
Now, let’s dive into actionable strategies tailored to guide traffic from social media platforms to your desired destination:
Implementing these strategies, tailored to your brand and audience, can significantly enhance the flow of traffic from social media platforms to your desired destination, ultimately boosting engagement, conversions, and brand visibility.
The language and content you post primarily depend on the demographics of your audience. For instance, Gen Z and millennial messaging differ a lot from Gen X and baby boomers. As a result, your social media audience should be diverse in terms of age and gender. For instance, certain social media platforms, like Facebook and Twitter, bring attention to this data. Therefore, your audience information has to be consistent across all of your channels. If not, reevaluate your messaging and content strategy.
There are frequently new social media networks emerging. Naturally, not every one of them remains. It can, however, be intriguing to join a social network early on. Consider the explosive growth of TikTok despite its dismissal as a secondary network. Similarly, observe the excitement surrounding Threads. Keeping an open mind is beneficial. Make a note of any new platforms you’d like to investigate in your social media audit spreadsheet. Don’t worry if you’re currently concentrating on a small number of networks or if you can’t find any new platforms that spark your interest. So, having said that, it’s wise to keep up with the latest developments in the social media landscape.
A social media audit’s main purpose is to give you a thorough picture of your current situation and set the stage for your future ambitions. These strategies could be improving engagement, gaining more followers on a particular channel, or coordinating efforts to generate leads. Now that you have the knowledge gathered from your KPIs, you are better equipped to make informed judgments. You could also use SWOT analysis for each network to improve the usefulness of your social media analysis. This provides a framework for in-depth examination using the audit data gathered. By going one step further and performing a thorough SWOT analysis after the audit, you may identify the most important business prospects.
The stakes of having an online presence are arguably higher than ever, thanks to the growth of social commerce and social search. For this reason, it’s critical that you communicate to your staff the audit’s results in order to:
Keeping your numbers close at hand can be quite beneficial to achieving any kind of goal. This emphasizes once more how important it is to report on social media continuously.
Read further: News, analytics, audit, e-commerce growth, social media
