As social media becomes an ever-favourable form of marketing for modern businesses and those that are looking to digitalise, it’s important that you audit your social media channels to ensure they’re performing optimally.
As key marketing platforms work to connect you with your audience on a more personal level, you want your social media channels to be driving engagement while effectively communicating your brand values.
If you’re interested in delving into your business’s social media channels to learn more about their performance, here’s everything you need to know, followed by a quick and easy social media audit checklist for you to follow!
What is a social media audit?
A social media audit refers to the review of your social media channels to get an insight into their level of performance, and if they’re successfully supporting your marketing efforts. A social media audit can then be used to create a roadmap for future social media activity, clearly outlining exactly what you need to do to achieve success.
As part of your social media audit, you can also perform a dedicated Instagram audit. This would be particularly useful if you’re interested in pursuing Instagram as your primary social media marketing platform.
How long does a social media audit take?
There’s no need for a social media audit to be a lengthy and complicated process! In fact, if you follow our checklist below, you could easily do one in around 30 minutes. Often, the lengthy tasks appear when you want to implement some of the changes you found because of the audit.
When you’re faced with a long list if implementations, you might want to seek the help of a social media expert. Or, for a more detailed and thorough audit of your brand’s social media, enlisting the help of a professional brand agency may also be beneficial.
What is the purpose of a social media audit?
As briefly mentioned above, the purpose of a social media audit is to help you understand how your social media channels are performing.
A social media audit can uncover the following insights:
How consistent your profiles are – we mention this a lot, but consistency really is key! It allows your customers to build familiarity with your brand, ensuring they don’t become confused about your brand message.
How good your metrics look – metrics include things such as likes, comments, views, mentions, and shares. Nowadays, the most beneficial metric is shares, so with this in mind, you want to ensure you’re creating content that is shareable.
How to generate more leads through social media – for many businesses, social media acts as a way to generate leads to their website. An audit can reveal if this tactic is currently working well for you, or if some changes need to be made to produce more desirable results.
How your business compares to competitors – every business has competition, and by understanding how your business compares to that competition can ultimately give you the tools you need to succeed beyond both your expectations!
Social media audit template
Now you understand a little more about social media audits and their purpose, here is the checklist you should be following to perform your own succesful social media audit:
1. Locate all profiles - make sure you know exactly which social media platforms your business is using. While some may be obvious, such as Facebook and Instagram, remember to check for LinkedIn, Yelp and Tumblr accounts.
2. Check for consistency and deviations - make sure your logos and names are the same across all platforms and profiles, as well as branding and tone of voice/persona. While different platforms offer different functions which may, in turn, affect your content, you should still be aiming for consistency.
3. Channel performance review - this is where the numbers come in. Here, you should look at metrics such as follower counts, as well as the number of shares, mentions etc. You should also look at your posting frequency, if you’re hitting the posting sweetspot times, and how many messages you receive vs how many you respond to.
4. Look at your content - perhaps one of the most important areas to review, your content has a huge affect on your social audience. Depending on your content, metrics such as bounce rates, views and conversions can be affected.
5. Audience insights - understanding your audiences demographics can do wonders for your social media campaigns. Look into details such as age, gender and location. Sometimes, your actual audience may differ from what you expected them to be.
6. Company goals alignment - ensure your social media campaigns still support the company goals they originally set out to achieve. You should also particularly consider this once the audit has been completed, since new objectives may arise as a result of the audit.
Remember, each major social media platform has its own set of unique analytics, giving you great insights into the performance of your profile and the activity of your users. Use this to your advantage in your social media audit and check it thoroughly for tangible information.
What are the risks of not performing a social media audit?
The great thing about performing a social media audit is that it is entirely risk free! The process purely exists to review your social media channels and comes at no consequence. However, there are risks associated when you neglect to perform a social media audit…
For example, you may be missing out on reaching out to, and communicating with, a fantastic target audience due to a poor understanding of your perceived audience. Along similar lines, you could be investing in paid social media campaigns that are simply failing to convert, wasting valuable business money and resources.
As the digital landscape becomes more advanced and more competitive, it's important that businesses find ways to continue innovating, and this includes their social media channels. If you do not perform social media audits, you risk being left behind as your competitors scale to new, unfathomable heights.
We can help you with your social media audits!
Are you looking to conduct a thorough audit of your social media channels to understand where you can improve? If so, the social media team here at Champions (UK) plc are here to help!
With years of experience and up to date knowledge of all things digital and social media, we can conduct extremely beneficial social media audits. Simply contact us today to find out more.